Rezánov

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

II

As Eezanov, heading the procession with young Argiiello, entered the wide gates of the Presidio, he received an impression memorably different from that which led earlier travellers to describe it inclemently as a large square surrounded by mud houses thatched with reeds. It is true that the walls were of adobe and the roofs of tule ; nor was there a tree on the sand hills encircling the stronghold. But in this early springtime — the summer of the peninsula — the hills showed patches of verdure, and all the low white buildings were covered by a network of soft dull green and archaic pink. The Castilian rose, full and fluted, and of a chaste and penetrating fragrance, hung singly and in clusters on the pillars of the dwellings, on the barracks and chapel, from the very roofs; bloomed upon bushes as high as young trees. The Presidio was as delicately perfumed as a lady's bower, and its cannon faced the ever-changing hues of water and island and hUl.

As the party approached, heads of all ages appeared between the vines and there was a low murmur of irrepressible curiosity and delight.

" We do not see many strangers in this lonely land," said Argiiello apologetically. " And never before have we had so distinguished a guest as your excellency. It was always a gala day when even a Boston skipper came in with a few bales of goods and a complexion like the hides we sold him. Now, alas! they are no longer permitted to enter our ports. Governor Arrillaga will have none of contraband trade and slaying of our otter. And as for Europeans other than Spaniards, save for an English sea-captain now and then, they know naught of our existence."

But Eezanov had not come to California on the impulse of a moment. He replied suavely: " There you are mistaken. Your illustrious father, Don Jose Mario de Argii3llo, is well known to us as the most respected, eminent and influential character in the Californias. It was my intention, after paying a visit of ceremony to his excellency. Governor Arrillaga, to come to San Francisco for the sole purpose of meeting a man whose record has inspired me with the deepest interest. And we have all heard such wonderful tales of your California, of its beauty, its fertility, of the beneficent lives of your missionaries — so different from ours! — and of the hospitality and elegance of the Spaniards, that it has been the objective point of my travels, and I have found it difficult to curb my impatience while attending to imperative duties elsewhere."

" Ay, senor! " exclaimed the young Calif ornian. " What you say fills me with a pride I cannot express, and I can only regret that the reports of our poor habitations should be so sadly exaggerated. Such as our possessions are, however, they are yours while you deign to remain in our midst. This is my father's house. I beg that you will regard it as your own. Burn it if you will! " he cried with more enthusiasm than commonly enlivened the phrases of hospitality. " He will be proud to know that a lifetime of severe attention to duty and of devotion to his King have won him fame abroad as well as at home. He has risen to his present position from the ranks, but he is of pure Spanish blood, not a drop of Indian ; and my mother was a Moraga, of the best blood of Spain," he added artlessly. "As to the beauty and variety of our country, senor, of course you will visit our luxuriant south; but " They had dismounted at the Comandante's house in the southeast comer of the square. Argiiello impulsively led Eezanov back to the gates and pointed to the east. " I have crossed those mountains and the mountains beyond, Excellency, and seen fertile and beautiful valleys of a vast extent, watered by five rivers and bounded far, far away by mountains covered with snow and gigantic trees. The valley beyond the southern edge of the bay, where the Missions of Santa Glara and San Jose are, is also rich, but those between the two ranges are an empire ; and one day whenthe King sends us more colonists, we shall recompense Spain for all she has lost."

' ' I congratulate you ! " Eezanov, indifferent to his host's ancestral lode, had lifted an alert ear. His quick incisive brain was at work, ' ' I should like to stretch my legs over a horse for a week at a time, and even to climb your highest mountains. You may imagine how much exercise a man may get on a vessel of two hundred and six tons, and it is thirty-two days since I left Sitka. To look upon a vast expanse of -green — ^to say nothing of possible sport — after a winter of incessant rain and impenetrable forests — ^what a prospect ! I beg you will take me off into the wilderness as soon as possible."

" I promise you the Governor shall not withhold his consent — and there are bear and deer — quail, wild duck — your excellency will enjoy that beautiful wild country as I have done. ' ' Argiiello was enchanted at the prospect of fresh adventure in the company of this fascinating stranger. ' ' But we are once more at our poor abode, senor. I beg that you will remember it is your own."

They ascended the steps of the piazza, suddenly deserted, and it seemed to Eezanov that every sense in his being quivered responsively to the poignant sweetness of the Castilian roses. He throbbed with a sudden exultant premonition that he stood on the threshold of an historic future, a pagan joy in mere existence, a sudden rush of desire for the keen wild happiness of youth. Such is the elixir of California in thenorth and the spring.

They entered a long sala typical of its day and of many to come; whitewashed walls hung with colored' prints of the Virgin and saints; horsehair furniture, matting, deep window seats ; and a perennial coolness. The Chamberlain (his court title and the one commonly attached to his name) made himself as comfortable as the slippery chair would permit, and Argiiello .^yent for his mother.

Langsdorff, who had lingered on the piazza with the priest, entered in a moment.

" The good padre tells me that this rose of Castile is the only imported flower in California," he cried with enthusiasm, for although not a botanist there was a hump between his eyes as big as a child's fist and he had a nose like the prow of a toy ship. " Many cuttings were brought from Spain "

" What difference does it make where it came from? " interrupted Rezanov, testily. " Is it not enough that it is beautiful, but it must have a pin stuck through it like some poor devil of a butterfly? "

" Your excellency has also the habit to probe into things he deems worthy of his attention," retorted the offended scientist; but he was obliged to closet his wrath. An inner door opened and the host reappeared with his mother and a fair demonstration of her virtues. She was a very large woman dressed loosely in black, but she carried herself with an air of complete, if somewhat sleepy, dignity, and it was evident that her beauty had been great. Her full face had lost its contours, but time had spared the fine Roman nose and the white skin, that birthright of the high-bred Castilian. Argiiello presented his family ceremoniously as the guest of honor rose and bowed with formal deference.

" My mother, Dona Ignacia Argiiello, your excellency, who unites with me in praying that you will regard our home as yours during your sojourn in the north. My sister, Maria de la Concepcion Marcella Argiiello, and my little sisters. Ana Paula and Gertrudes Eudisinda. My brothers: Gervasio — soldado distinguido of the San Francisco Company; Santiago, a cadet in the same company; Francesco and Toribio, whose presence at the table I beg you will overlook, for when we are so fortunate as to be all together, senor, we cannot bear to be separated. My oldest brother, alas ! — Ignacio — is studying for holy orders in Mexico, and my sister Isabel visits at the Presidio of Santa Barbara. I beg that you will be seated, Excellency. ' ' And he continued the introduction to the lesser luminaries, with equal courtesy but fewer periods.

Eezanov exchanged a few pleasant words with his smiling hostess before she returned to her distracted maids preparing the dinner; but his eyes during Argiiello 's declamation had wandered with a singular fidelity to the beautiful face of the eldest daughter of the house. She had responded with a humorous twinkle in her magnificent black eyes and not a hint of difl&dence. As she entered the room his brain had flashed out the thought: " Thank heaven for a pretty girl after these three abominable years." Possibly his pleasure would have been salted with pique had he guessed that her thought was the twin of his own. He was the first man of any world more considerable than the petty court of the viceroy of Mexico that had visited California in her time, and excellent as she found his tall military figure and pale cold face, the novelty of the circumstance fluttered her more.

Dona " Concha " Argiiello was the beauty of California, and although her years were but sixteen her blood was Spanish, and she carried her tall deep figure and fine head with the grace and dignity of an accomplished woman. She had inherited the white skin and delicate Eoman- Spanish profile of the Moragas, but there was an intelligent fire in her eyes, a sharp accentuation of nostril, and a full mobility of mouth, childish, half-developed as that feature still was, that betrayed a strong cross-current forcing the placid maternal flow into rugged and unexplored channels, wMle assimilating its fine qualities of pride and high breeding. Gervasio and Santiago resembled their sister in coloring and profile, but lacked her subtle quality of personality and divine innocence. Luis was more the mother's son than the father's — saving his olive skin; a grandee, modified by the simplicities of a soldier's life, amiable and upright. Dofia Ignacia recognized in Concha the quintessence of the two opposing streams, and had long since ceased to impose upon a girl who had little else but her liberties the ordinary restraints of the Spanish maiden. Concha had already received many offers of marriage and regarded men as mere swingers of incense. Moreover, her cultivated mind was filled with ideals and ideas far beyond anything California wonld yield in her day.

As Eezanov, upon Dona Ignacia 's retreat,^ walked directly over to her, she smilingly seated herself on a sofa and swept aside her white voluminous skirts. She was not sure that she liked him, but in no doubt whatever of her delight at his advent.

Her manners were very simple and artless, as are the manners of most women whom Nature has gifted with complexity and depth.

"It is now two years and more that we have been excited over the prospect of this visit," she said. " But if you will tell me what you have been doing all this time I, at least, will forgive you ; for you will never be able to imagine, senor, how I long to hear of the great world. I stare at the map, then at the few pictures we have, I know many books of travel by heart; but I am afraid my imagination is a poor one, for I cannot conjure up great cities filled with people — thousands of people! Dios de mi alma! A world where there is something besides mountains and water, grain fields, orchards, forests, earthquakes and climate! "Will you, senor? "

' ' For quite as many hours as you will listen to me. I propose a compact. You shall improve my Spanish. I will impart all I know of Europe —and of Asia — if your curiosity reaches that far."

" Even of Japan? " There was a wicked sparkle in her eye.

" I see you already have some knowledge of the cause of my delay." His voice was even, but a wound smarted. " It is quite true, senorita, that the first embassy to Japan, from which we hoped so much, was a humiliating failure, and that I was played with for six montlis by a people whom we had regarded as a nation of monkeys. When my health began to suffer from the long confinement on shipboard — we had previously been fourteen months at sea — and I asked to be permitted to live on shore while my claims to an audience were under consideration, I was removed with my suite to a cage on a strip of land nearly surrounded with water, where I had less liberty and exercise than on shipboard. Finally, I had a ridiculous interview with a ' great man,' in which I accomplished nothing but the preservation of what personal dignity a man may while sitting on his heels; the superb presents of the Tsar were returned to me, and I was politely told to leave; Japan wanted neither the friendship of Eussia nor her gimcracks. That, senorita, is the history of the first Eussian Embassy—for the tentative visit of Adam Lanxmann, twelve years before, can be dignified by no such title — to Oriental waters. It is to be hoped that Count Golofkin, who was to undertake a similar mission to China, has met with a better fate."

Underneath the polished armor of a man who was a courtier when he chose and the dominating spirit always, he was- hot and quick of temper. His light cold eyes glowed with resentment at the dancing lights in hers, as he cynically gave her a bald abstract of the unfortunate mission. He reflected that commonly he would have fitted a different mask to the ugly skull of fact, but this young barbarian, as he chose to regard her, excited the elemental truth in him, defying him to appear at his worst. He was astonished to see her eyes suddenly soften and her mouth tremble.

' ' It must have been a hateful experience— hateful! " Her voice, beginning on its usual low soft note, rose to a hoarse pitch of indignation. ' ' I should have killed somebody ! To be a man, and strong, and caressed all one's life by fortune — and to be as helpless as an Indian! Madre de Dios! "

" I shall take my revenge," said Eezanov shortly; but the wound closed, and once more he became aware of the poignant sweetness of Castilian roses. Concha wore one in her soft dusky hair, and another where the little round jacket of white linen, gayly embroidered with pink, met on her bosom. But if sentiment tempted him, he was quickly poised by her next remarks. She uttered them in a low tone, although the animated conversation of the rest of the party— Davidov alone romping on the piazza with the children — would have permitted the two on the sofa to exchange the vows of love unheard.

" But what a practice for your diplomatic talents, Excellency! Poor California! At least let me be the first to hear what you have come for ? ' ' Her voice dropped to a soft cooing note, although her eyes twinkled. ' ' For' the love of God, senor ! I am so bored in this life on the edge of the world ! To see the seams and ravellings of a diplomatic intrigue! I have read and heard of many, but never had I hoped to link my finger in anything subtler than a quarrel between priest and Governor, or the jealousy of Los Angeles for Monterey. I even will help you— if you mean no harm to my father or my country. And I am not a friend to scorn, senor, for my blessed father is as wax in my hands, the dear old governor adores me, and even Padre Abella, who thinks himself a great diplomat, and is watching us out of the corner of his eye, while I make him believe you pay me so many compliments my poor little head turns round — Bueno senor ! " As she raised her voice she plucked the rose from her dress and tossed it to

Eezanov. Then she lifted her chin and pouted her childish lips at the ironical smile of the priest.

Eezanov was close to betraying his surprise; but as he cherished a belief that the souls of all pretty women went to school to the devil before entering upon earthly enterprise, he wondered that he had been open to the illusion of complete ingenuousness in a descendant of one of the oldest and subtlest civilizations of Earth. Within that luminous shell of youth there were, no doubt, whispering memories of men and women steeped in court intrigue to the eyes, of triumphant beauties that had lived for love and their power over the passions of men as ardent as himself. It was quite possible that she might be as useful as she desired. But his impulses were in leash. He merely looked and murmured his admiration.

' ' Better ask, what chance have I, a defenceless man, who has not seen a charming woman for three years, against such practised art? If you can hoodwink a Spanish priest, and manipulate a Governor who has won the confidence of the most suspicious court in Europe, what fortune for a barbarian of the north? Less than with Japan, I should think."

He divested the rose of its thorns and many tight little buds, and thrust the stem underneath the star of St. Ann. She lifted her chin again and tossed her head.

" You do not trust me, but you will. I fancy it will be before long — for it is quite true that the Californians are not so easily outwitted. And — even did I not help you, I would not — I vow, senor! — ^betray you. Is it true that Eussia is at war with Spain? "

" What? "

" Have you not heard? It was for that we were all so excited this morning. We thought your ship might be the first of a fleet. ' '

" I have heard no such rumor, and you may dismiss it. Eussia is too much occupied with Napoleon Bonaparte, who has had himself crowned Emperor and by this time is probably at war with half Europe "

She interrupted him with flashing eyes. The pink in her cheeks had turned red. The thin nostrils of her pretty Eoman nose fluttered like paper. " Ah! " she exclaimed, again with that note of hoarseness in her voice. " There is a great man, not a mere king on a throne his ancestors made for him. Papa hates him because he has seized a throne. Ay yi ! Dios ! you should hear the words fly when we go to war together. But I do not care that ' '—she snapped her firm white fingers — " for all the Bourbons that are in Europe. Bonaparte! Do you know him? Have you seen him? "

" I have seen him insult poor Markov, our ambassador to France, when I can assure you that he looked like neither a demi-god nor a gentleman. When you have improved my Spanish I will tell you many anecdotes of him. Meanwhile, am I to assume that you reserve your admiration for the man that carves his career in defiance of the rusty old machinery? "

" I do ! I do ! My father was of the people, a poor boy. He has risen to be the most powerful of all Californians, although the King he adores never makes him Gobernador Proprietario. I tell him he should be the first to recognize the genius and the ambitions of a Bonaparte. The mere thought horrifies him. But in me that same strong plebeian blood makes another cry, and if my father had but enough: men at his back, and the will to make himself King of the Oalifornias — Madre de Dios! how I should help him! "

" At least I know her better than she knows me," thouglit Rezanov, as tlie inner door was thrown open and another bare room with a long table laden with savory food on a superb silver service was revealed. " And if I know anything of women I can trust her — for as long as she may be necessary, at aU events."

ni

" Santiago! " whispered Concha, " Do not go down to the ship. Take me for a walk. I have much to say."

Santiago, who had not been asked to form one of the escort upon the return of the Eussians to the Juno for the night, felt injured and sulky, and deigned no reply.

" If you do not, I'll not braid your hair to-morrow," said his sister, giving his arm a little shake; and he succumbed. The luxuriant tresses of the male Argiiellos were combed and braided and tied with a ribbon every morning by the women of the family, and Concha's fingers were the gentlest and deftest. And Concha and Santiago were more intimate than even the rest of that united family. They had studied and read together, were equally dissatisfied with their narrow existence, ambitiou:s for a wider experience. Santiago consoled himself with cards and training roosters for battle, and otherwise as a man may. He was but fifteen, this haughty severelooking young hidalgo, but while in some respects many years older than his sister, in others he was younger, for he possessed none of her illuminating instinct.

She led him through a postern gate, round the first of the dunes, and they were alone in a waste of sand. Then she demanded abruptly:

" What do you think of our illustrious visitor? "

" I like him. He would wring your neck if you got in his way, but has a kind heart for those that call him master. I like that sort of a man. I wish he would take me away with him. ' '

" He shall — one of these days. Santiago mio,

let me whisper " She pulled his ear down to

her lips. " He will marry me. I feel it. I know it. He has talked to me the whole day. He has told me grave secrets. Not even to you would I reveal them. So many have loved me — why should not he? I shall live in St. Petersburg, and see all Europe! — thousands of people — Dios mio! Dios mio! "

" Indeed! " Santiago, still unamiable, responded to this confidence with a sneer. " You aspire very high for a little girl of the wilderness, without fortune, and only half a coat-of-arms, so to speak. Do you know that this Eezanov — ^Dr.

Langsdorff has told us all about him— is a great noble, one of the ten barons of Eussia, and a Chamberlain not merely by the accident of birth as in Austria or Germany, but in accordance with a decree of Peter the Great that court titles should be bestowed as a reward for distiagnished services alone? He got a fortune ia his youth by marriage with a daughter of Shelikov^ — that Siberian who founded the Eussian colonies in America. The wife died almost immediately, but the Baron's influence remained with Shelikov — ^for his influence at court was even greater — and after the older man's death, with his mother-in-law, who is imcommonly clever. Shelikov 's schemes were but sketches beside Eezanov's, who from merely a courtier and a gay blood about town developed into a great man of business, with an ambition to correspond. It was he who got the Imperial ukase that gave the Eussian-American Company its power to squeeze all the other fur huifters and traders out of the northeast, and make Eezanov and everybody belonging to it so rich your head would swim if I told you the number of doubloons they spend in a year. Nobody has ever been so clever at managing those old beasts of autocrats as he. They think him merely the accomplished courtier, a brilliant dilettante, a condescending patron of art and letters, a devotee of pleasure, and all the time lie is pulling their befuddled old intellects about to suit himself. The Tsar Paul was a lunatic and they murdered him, but meanwhile he signed the ukase. The Tsar Alexander, who is not so bad nor so silly as the others, thinks there is no man so clever as Rezanov, who addresses him personally when sending home his reports. Do you know what all that means? Your plenipotentiary is not only a chamberlain at court, a privy counsellor, and the Tsar himself on this side of the world, but when his inspections and reforms are concluded, and he is one of the wealthiest men in Eussia, he will return to St. Petersburg and become so high and mighty that a princess would snap at him. And you aspire ! I never heard such nonsense. ' ' " His excellency told me much of this," replied Concha imperturbably. " And I am sure that he cares nothing for princesses and will marry whom he most admires. He would not say, but I know he cared nothing for that poor little wife, dead so long ago. It was a mariage de convenance, such as all the great world is accustomed to. He will love me more than all the fine ladies he has ever seen. I feel it ! I know it ! And I am quite happy."

" Do you love him? " asked Santiago, looking curiously at his sister's flushed and glowing face. It seemed to him that she had never looked so young. ' ' Many have loved you. I had begun to think you had no heart for men, no wish for anything but admiration. And now you give your heart in a day to this Russian — who must be nearly forty — unasked. ' '

" I have not thought of my heart at all. But I could love him, of course. He is so handsome, so kind, so grand, so gay! But love is for men and wives — has not my mother said so? Now I think only of St. Petersburg! of Paris! of London! of the beautiful gowns and jewels I shall wear at court — a red velvet train as long as a queen's, and all embroidered with gold, a white veil spangled with gold, a head-dress a foot high studded with jewels, ropes of diamonds and pearls — I made him tell me how the great ladies dressed. Ah! there is the pleasure of being a girl — to think and dream of all those beautiful thiags, not of when the wife must live always for the husband and children. That comes soon enough. And why should I not have all! all! — there is so little in life for the girl. It seems to me now that I have had nothing. When he asks me to marry him he will tell me of the fine things I shall have and the great sights I shall witness — the ceremonies at court, the winter streets — with snow — snow, Santiago! — where the great nobles drive four horses through the drifts like little hills and are wrapped in furs like bears ! The grand military parades — ^how I shall laugh when I think of our poor little Presidios with their dozen officers strutting

about " She stopped abruptly and bursting

wildly into tears flung herself into her brother's arms. " But I never could leave you! And my father! my mother! all! all! Ay, Dios de mi alma! what an ingrate I am! I should die of homesickness! My Santiago! My Santiago! "

Santiago patted her philosophically. ' ' You are not going to-morrow," he reminded her. " Don't cross your bridges until you come to them. That is a good proverb for maids and men. You might take us all with you, or spend every third year or so in California. No doubt you would need the rest. And meanwhile remember that the high and mighty Chamberlain has not yet asked for the honor of an alliance with the house of Ar-

40 EEZANQV

gtiello, and that your brother will match his best fighting cock against your new white lace mantilla from Mexico, that he is not meditating any project so detrimental to his fortunes. Console yourself with the reflection that if he were, our father and the priests, and the Governor himself, would die of apoplexy. He is a heretic — a member of the Greek Church! Hast thou lost thy reason, Conchita? Dry your eyes and come home to sleep, and let us hear no more of marriage with a man who is not only a barbarian of the north and a heretic, but so proud he does not think a Californian good enough to wash his decks."

IV

It was long before Eezanov slept that night. The usual chill had come in from the Pacific as the sun went down and the distinguished visitor had intimated to his hosts that he should like to exercise on shore ujitil ready for his detested quarters; but Argiiello dared not in the absence of his father invite the foreigner even to sleep in the house so lavishly offered in the morning; although he had sent such an abundance of provisions to the ship that the poor sailors were deep in sleep, gorged like boa-constrictors; and he could safely promise that while the Juno remained in port her larder should never be empty. He shared the evening bowl of punch in the cabin, then went his way lamenting that he could not take his new friends with him.