The Red Symbol

by John Ironside

  CHAPTER XLVI

  THE BEGINNING OF THE END

  The whole thing happened far more quickly than it can be told. I draggedAnne back from the window, slammed the shutters to,--for one of theCossacks' favorite tricks was to fire at any one seen at a window in thecourse of a street row,--and, curtly bidding Anne stay where she was forthe moment, rushed downstairs and out into the street, revolver in hand.

  Mishka and half a dozen of our men were before me; there were very fewof us in the house just now; most of the others were with Loris andVassilitzi, attending a big procession and meeting in Marchalkowskaia,with their usual object,--to maintain order as far as possible, andendeavor to prevent conflicts between the troops and the people. It wasastonishing how much Loris had achieved in this way, even during theselast terrible days of riot and bloodshed. He was ever on the alert; heseemed to know by instinct how to seize the right moment to turn thetemper of the crowd or the soldiers, and avert disaster; and hissplendid personality never failed in its almost magnetic effect on everyone who came in contact with it. He was a born leader of men!

  And, although he was always to the fore in every affair, as utterlyreckless of his own safety as he was anxious to secure the safety ofothers, he had hitherto come unscathed through everything, though acouple of our men had been killed outright, several others badlywounded, and the rest of us had got a few hard knocks one way or other.I'd had a bullet through my left arm, the arm that was broken in thescrimmage outside Petersburg in June, a flesh wound only, luckily,though it hurt a bit when I had time to think of it,--which wasn'toften.

  By the time we got into the street, the affair was over. The Cossacks,urging their ponies at the usual wild gallop, and firing wantonly up atthe houses, since the people who had been in the street had rushed forcover, were almost out of sight; and on the road and sidewalk near athand were several killed and wounded,--mostly women,--besides MadameLevinska, who had been the cause of it all, and had paid with her life.

  She was a hideous sight, she who five minutes before had been so gay, soaudacious, so full of vivacity. The brutes had riddled her prostratebody with bullets, slashed at it with their whips, trampled it undertheir horses' hoofs; and it lay huddled, shapeless, with scarce asemblance to humanity left in it.

  I head a low, heartfelt cry, and saw Anne beside me, her fair face ashenwhite, her eyes dilated with horror and compassion, as she stared at herfriend's corpse.

  "Go back!" I said roughly. "You can do nothing for her. And we will seeto the rest; go back, I say. There may be more trouble."

  "My duty is here," she said quietly, and passed on to bend over a womanwho was kneeling and screaming beside a small body,--that of a lad abouteight or nine years old,--which lay very still.

  It was, as I well knew, useless to argue with Anne; so I went on withmy ambulance work in grim silence, keeping near her, and letting theothers go to and fro, helping the wounded into shelter and carrying awaythe dead. Natalya had run out also and joined her mistress. Yossof wasnot at hand; it was he whom we expected to bring the news we wereawaiting so eagerly. He had come with us to Warsaw, and though he livedin the Ghetto among his Jewish kindred, was constantly back and forth.He was invaluable as a messenger,--a spy some might call him,--althoughhe knew no language but Yiddish and Polack, and the queer Russian lingothat was a mingling of all three. But of course he learned a great dealfrom his fellow Jews. Hunted, persecuted, wretched as they are, thePolish and Russian Jews always have, or can command, money, and the waythey get hold of news is nothing short of marvellous,--in the WarsawGhetto, anyhow!

  There was quite a crowd around us soon, as the people who had fledbefore the Cossacks came back again,--weeping, gesticulating, shoutingimprecations on the Tzar, the Government, the soldiers,--as they alwaysdid when they were excited; but, as usual, doing very little to help.

  All at once there was a bigger tumult near at hand, and a mob camepouring along the street, a disorderly procession of men and women andlittle children, flaunting banners, waving red handkerchiefs, laughing,crying, shouting, and singing, as if they were more than half deliriouswith joy and excitement. And what was more remarkable, there wereneither police nor soldiers in sight, nor any sign of Loris or his men.Many such processions occurred in Warsaw that day, when the great newscame,--news that was soon to be so horribly discounted and annulled;and that, for me, was rendered insignificant, even in that first hour,by the great tragedy that followed hard upon its coming,--the tragedythat will overshadow all my life. Even after the lapse of years I canscarcely bring myself to write of it, though every incident is stampedindelibly on my brain. Clear before my eyes now rises Anne's face, as,with her arm about the poor mother--who was half fainting--she turnedand looked at the joyous rabble.

  "What is it?" she cried, and at the same instant Yossof hurried up, andspoke breathlessly to her.

  She listened to his message with parted lips, her eyes starry with thelight of ecstatic joy.

  "What is it?" I asked in my turn, for I couldn't catch what Yossof said.

  "It's true,--it's true; oh, thank God for all His mercies! The end is insight, Maurice; the new era is beginning--has begun. The Tzar hasyielded; he has issued the manifesto, granting all demands--"

  I stood staring at her, stricken dumb, not by the news she told, but byher unearthly beauty. The face that was so worn with all the toil andconflict and anxiety of these strenuous days and weeks was transfigured;and above it her red-gold hair shone like a crown of glory.

  I know what was in her mind at that moment,--the thought that all hadnot been in vain, that the long struggle was almost ended, victory insight; with freedom for the oppressed, cessation of bloodshed, a gradualreturn to law and order, the patient building up of a new civilization.Had I not heard her and Loris speak in that strain many times, the lastonly a few hours back, when the reassuring rumors began to strengthen?

  "They were dreamers, dreaming greatly!"

  For a few seconds only did I stand gazing at her, for the mob was uponus. It jostled us apart, swept us along with it, and, as I fought my wayto rejoin her--she and Natalya still supported the woman whose littleson had just been killed--a quick revulsion of feeling came over me, andwith it a queer premonition of imminent evil.

  The mob was so horrible; made up for the most part of the scum ofWarsaw, reeking with vodka, drunk with liquor and excitement.

  Pah! They were not fit for the freedom they clamored for, and yet it wasfor them and for others like them, that she toiled and plotted in perilof her life!

  Before I could win to her side, a warning cry arose ahead, followedinstantly by the crackle of rifle fire, the _phut_ of revolver shots,yells, shrieks, an infernal din. A squadron of Cossacks was charging thecrowd from the front, and as it surged back, the same hellish soundsbroke from the rear. More soldiers were following, the mob was betweentwo fires,--trapped.

  Gasping, bleeding, I struggled against the rush, striving to make my wayback to where I could see the gleam of Anne's golden hair, close againstthe wall. I guessed that, with her usual resource, she had drawn hercompanions aside when the turmoil began, and they had their backs to thewall of one of the houses.

  The soldiers were right among the mob now, and it was breaking intogroups, each eddying round one or more of the horsemen, who had as muchas they could do to hold their own with whip and sabre. It wasimpossible to reload the rifles, and anyhow they would not have beenmuch use at these close quarters. I saw more than one horse overborne,his rider dragged from the saddle and hideously done to death. Therabble were like mad wolves rather than human beings.

  A fresh volley from the front,--more troops were coming up there,--yellsof triumph from the rear, where the soldiers had been beaten back and away of retreat opened up. The furious eddies merged into a solid massonce more, a terror stricken _sauve qui peut_ before the reinforcements.

  Impossible to make headway against this; and yet every instant I wasbeing swept along, further from Anne. All I could do was to set my teetha
nd edge towards the sidewalk. I got to the wall at last, set my back toit, and let the rout pour by, the Cossacks in full chase now, fellingevery straggler they overtook, even slashing at the dead and wounded asthey rode over them.

  I started to run back, and the wild horsemen did not molest me. I stillwore the uniform in which I had left Zostrov; it was in tatters afterthis frenzied half-hour, but it stood me in good stead once again, andprevented my being shot down.

  There was Anne, still alive, thank God; she was kneeling beside thewoman; and Natalya, also unhurt, stood by her, trying to raise her, andseemingly urging her to seek shelter.

  I tried to shout, but my mouth was too dry, so I ran on, stumbling overthe bodies that strewed the ground.

  Some of the Cossacks had turned and were riding back; a group passed meas I neared Anne, and one of them swung his rifle up and fired. Natalyafell with a scream, and Anne sprang up.

  "Shame, shame, you cowards, to shoot defenceless women!" she criedindignantly.

  He spurred towards her, but I was first. I flung myself before her andfired at him. He reeled, swerved, and galloped on, but his companionswere round us. I fired again, and yet again; something flashed above me;I felt a stunning blow on my forehead, staggered back, and fell.

  The last thing I heard was a woman's shriek.