The Red Symbol

by John Ironside

  CHAPTER XLV

  THE CAMPAIGN AT WARSAW

  A few hours later we were on the road once more,--Anne and Natalya in atravelling carriage, the rest of us mounted. The old servant was sobbinghysterically as she followed her mistress down the steps, but Anne'swhite face was tearless, though she turned it for a moment with ayearning farewell glance towards the fresh-made mound in the courtyard,the grave where we had laid the corpse of her mother, in the coffinwhich Mishka and some of the men had made during the day.

  That hurried funeral was as impressive as any I've ever been at, thoughthere was no service, for it would have been impossible to summon apriest in time. Besides, I doubt if they'd have got an orthodox Russianpriest to come, for the Vassilitzis were Roman Catholics, as so many ofthe old Polish nobility are.

  In dead silence the four of us, Loris and Stepan, Mishka and I, carriedthe coffin down, wrapped in an old curtain of rich brocade, and stood bywith bowed heads, while, still in silence, it was lowered down, pall andall.

  As we turned away, I saw a face at one of the windows and knew Anne hadwatched us at our task. Her self-control, her powers of endurance, weremarvellous. I do not believe she had slept all that day, and yet whenthe carriage was ready she came out with a steady step; and I heard herspeak soothingly to the weeping Natalya.

  That was the last I saw or heard of her for several days, for it hadbeen arranged that she should drive to Pruschan, escorted only by Lorisand her cousin and a couple of our men, and travel thence by train toWarsaw, while Mishka and I with the others would ride the whole way. Itmeant a couple of days' delay in reaching Warsaw, but it seemed thesafest plan; and it worked without a hitch. By twos and threes we rodeinto Warsaw in the early morning of the day that saw the beginning ofthe great strike,--and of the revolution which will end only when theRussian Empire becomes a Free Republic; and God only knows when thatwill come to pass!

  I have been through three regular campaigns in different parts of theworld during the last ten years, and had a good many thrillingexperiences, one way and another; but the weeks I spent in Warsaw in thelate fall of the year 1905 were the strangest and most eventful I'veever gone through.

  As I look back now, the whole thing seems like a long and vividnightmare, of which some few incidents stand out with dreadfuldistinctness, and the rest is a mere blur, a confusion of shiftingfigures and scenes; of noise and dust and bloodshed. Strenuous days ofstreet rioting and fighting, in which one and all of us did our share;and when the row was over for the time being, turned our hands toambulance work. Nights that were even more strenuous than the days, forin the night the next day's plan had to be decided on, funds and foodgiven out, the circulars (reporting progress and urging the people tostand fast) to be drawn up, printed, and issued. Such publications wereprohibited, of course; but Warsaw, like most of the other cities, wasstrewn with them. People read them, flaunting them openly before theeyes of the authorities; and though the police and the soldiers triedthe plan of bayoneting or shooting at sight every one whom they saw witha revolutionary print, they soon had to reserve it for any defencelesswoman or even child whom they might encounter. For the great majority ofthe strikers were armed, and they showed themselves even quicker withtheir revolvers and "killers" than the soldiers were with their rifles;while every soldier killed represented one more rifle seized.

  We reported ourselves on arrival, as arranged, at a spacious old housein a narrow street near the University, which thenceforth became ourheadquarters; and, within a few hours, a kind of hospital, also, forthere were soon many wounded to be cared for.

  Anne organized a band of women as amateur nurses, with Natalya atthe head of them, in our house, while others were on duty elsewhere.This quarter, as I found, was a stronghold of the League; and manyhouses were, like ours, turned into temporary hospitals. But I gatheredthat comparatively few of Anne's most influential colleagues were insympathy with her efforts to mitigate the horrors that surrounded us.In that way, we, her own chosen band, worked almost alone. Mostof the revolutionists were as callous, as brutal, as the Cossacksthemselves,--women as well as men. They would march in procession,waving banners and singing patriotic songs, and, when the inevitablecollision with the soldiers came, they would fight like furies, and diewith a laugh of defiance on their lips. But those who came through,unscathed, had neither care nor sympathy to bestow on the fallen.

  "I join your band of nurses?" a handsome vivacious littlewoman--evidently one of her own rank--said to Anne one day, with ascornful laugh. "I am no good at such work. Give me real work to do, abomb to throw, a revolver to fire; I have that at least"--she touchedher fur blouse significantly. "I want to fight--to kill--and if I amkilled instead, well, it is but the fortune of war! But nursing--bah--Ihave not the patience! You are far too tender-hearted, Anna Petrovna;you ought to have been a nun; but what would our handsome Loris havedone then? Oh, it is all right, _ma chere_; I am quite discreet. But doyou suppose I have not recognized him?"

  Anne looked troubled.

  "And others,--do they recognize him?" she asked quietly.

  "Who knows? We are too busy these days to think or care who any one isor is not. Besides, he is supposed to be dead; it was cleverly planned,that bomb affair! Was it your doing, Anna? He is too stupidly honest tohave thought of it himself. There! Do not look so vexed, and have nofear that I shall denounce him. He is far too good-looking! You have a_penchant_ for good-looking men," she added, with an audacious glance inmy direction.

  It happened for once that Anne and I were alone together, until MadameLevinska turned up, in the room that was used as an office, and wherebetween-whiles I did a good bit of secretarial work. That small untidyroom represented the bureau from which the whole of this section of theLeague was controlled, practically by that slender, pale-faced girl inthe black gown, who sat gravely regarding her frivolous acquaintance.

  Her grasp of affairs was as marvellous as her personal courage in timeof need; she was at once the head and the heart of the wholeorganization.

  I felt angry with the Levinska woman for her taunt. She, and such asshe, who were like so many undisciplined children, and whose ideas ofrevolution were practically limited to acts of violence committed indefiance or reprisal, could not even begin to understand the ideals notmerely held, but maintained, by Anne and Loris, and the few others who,with them, knew that permanent good could never be accomplished by evilmeans. Those two were dreamers, dreaming greatly; theirs was the visionsplendid, though they saw it only from far off, and strove courageouslybut unavailingly to draw near to it. That vision will some day become areality; and then,--I wonder if any remembrance of those who saw itfirst and paved the way to its realization, will linger, save in theminds of the few who knew, and loved, and worked beside them, but whowere not permitted to share their fate? I doubt it, for the world atlarge has a short memory!

  Anne made no comment on Madame Levinska's last remark, while I kept onwith my work. I wished the woman would go, for we had much to getthrough this afternoon, and at any moment some serious interruptionmight occur; or the news we were awaiting might come.

  The streets were unusually quiet to-day, hereabouts at any rate, and afew timid folk who had kept within doors of late had again ventured out.On the previous day several big meetings had been held, almost withoutopposition, for, although martial law was proclaimed, and thousands ofsoldiers had entered the city, "to repress disturbances" many of thetroops, including a whole regiment of hussars from Grodno, had refusedto fire on the people. Since then there was a decided abatement ofhostilities; though one dared not hope that it meant more than a merelull in the storm.

  The railway and telegraph strikes were maintained, but plenty of newsgot through,--news that the revolution was general; that Kronstadt andRiga were in flames; Petersburg and Moscow in a state of anarchy; thatmany of the troops had mutinied and were fighting on the side of therevolutionists, while the rest were disheartened and tired out. Duringthe last few hours persistent rumors had reached us t
hat the Tzar was onthe point of issuing a manifesto granting civil and political liberty tothe people; a capitulation on all important points in fact. If the newswere true it was magnificent. Such of us as were optimists believed itwould be the beginning of a new and glorious era. Already we haddisseminated such information as had reached us, by issuing broadcastsmall news-sheets damp from the secret printing-press in the cellar ofthe old house. A week or two ago that press would have had to be shiftedto a fresh hiding-place every night; but in these days the police had notime for making systematic inquisitions; it was all they could do tohold their own openly against the mob.

  And now we were waiting for fresh and more definite tidings, and I knowAnne's heart beat high with hope, though we had not exchanged a dozenwords before Madame Levinska made her unwelcome appearance; and Anne,who had but just returned to the room after going the round of ouramateur hospital, tackled her about the nursing.

  She stayed for a few minutes longer, continuing her irresponsiblechatter and then, to my relief, anyhow, took herself off, announcingairily that she was going to see if there was any fun stirring.

  "Do not be reckless, Marie," Anne called after her. "You do no good bythat, and may do much harm."

  "Have no fear for me, little nun," she retorted gaily, over hershoulder. "I can take care of myself."

  "She sees only,--cares only for the excitement, the poor Marie!" I heardAnne murmur with a sigh, as she crossed to the window and watched herfriend's retreating figure; a jaunty audacious little figure it was!

  There was a clatter and jingle below, and three or four Cossackscantered along. One of them called out something to Madame Levinska, andshe turned and shrilled back an answer, her black eyes flashing.

  He reined up and slashed at her with his _nagaika_.

  Even before the jagged lead caught her face, ripping it from brow tochin, she drew her revolver and fired pointblank at him, missed him, andfell, as he spurred his horse on to her and struck again and again withhis terrible whip.

  In an instant the street was in an uproar.