songs and shouts of the rejoicingmultitude. The triumphal arch of
unsavory animals was whirled into the Volga; all signs of the

recent reception vanished like magic; festive fir-boughs adorned
the houses, and the gardens and window-pots were stripped of their

choicest flowers to make wreaths of welcome. The two hundred boys,
not old enough to comprehend this sudden bouleversement of

sentiment, did not immediately desist from sticking out their
tongues: whereupon they were dismissed with a box on the ear. By

the middle of the afternoon all Kinesma was eating, drinking, and
singing; and every song was sung, and every glass emptied in honor

of the dear, good Prince Boris, and the dear, beautiful Princess
Helena. By night all Kinesma was drunk.

XI.
In the castle a superbbanquet was improvised. Music, guests, and

rare dishes were brought together with wonderful speed, and the
choicest wines of the cellar were drawn upon. Prince Boris,

bewildered by this sudden and incredible change in his fortunes,
sat at his father's right hand, while the Princess filled, but with

much more beauty and dignity, the ancient place of the Princess
Martha. The golden dishes were set before her, and the famous

family emeralds--in accordance with the command of Prince Alexis--
gleamed among her dark hair and flashed around her milk-white

throat. Her beauty was of a kind so rare in Russia that it
silenced all question and bore down all rivalry. Every one

acknowledged that so lovely a creature had never before been seen.
"Faith, the boy has eyes!" the old Prince constantlyrepeated, as

he turned away from a new stare of admiration, down the table.
The guests noticed a change in the character of the entertainment.

The idiot, in his tow shirt, had been crammed to repletion in the
kitchen, and was now asleep in the stable. Razboi, the new bear,--

the successor of the slaughtered Mishka,--was chained up out of
hearing. The jugglers, tumblers, and Calmucks still occupied their

old place under the gallery, but their performances were of a
highly decorous character. At the least-sign of a relapse into

certain old tricks, more grotesque than refined, the brows of
Prince Alexis would grow dark, and a sharp glance at Sasha was

sufficient to correct the indiscretion. Every one found this
natural enough; for they were equallyimpressed with the elegance

and purity of the young wife. After the healths had been drunk and
the slumber-flag was raised over the castle, Boris led her into the

splendid apartments of his mother,--now her own,--and knelt at her
feet.

"Have I done my part, my Boris?" she asked.
"You are an angel!" he cried. "It was a miracle! My life was not

worth a copek, and I feared for yours. If it will only last!--if
it will only last!"

"It WILL," said she. " You have taken me from poverty, and
given me rank, wealth, and a proud place in the world: let it be my

work to keep the peace which God has permitted me to establish
between you and your father!"

The change in the old Prince, in fact, was more radical than any
one who knew his former ways of life would have considered

possible. He stormed and swore occasionally, flourished his whip
to some purpose, and rode home from the chase, not outside of a

brandy cask, as once, but with too much of its contents inside of
him: but these mild excesses were comparative virtues. His

accesses of blind rage seemed to be at an end. A powerful,
unaccustomed feeling of content subdued his strong nature, and left

its impress on his voice and features. He joked and sang with his
"children," but not with the wild recklessness of the days of

reisaks and indiscriminate floggings. Both his exactions and his
favors diminished in quantity. Week after week passed by, and

there was no sign of any return to his savage courses.
Nothing annoyed him so much as a reference to his former way of

life, in the presence of the Princess Helena. If her gentle,
questioning eyes happened to rest on him at such times, something

very like a blush rose into his face, and the babbler was silenced
with a terriblysignificant look. It was enough for her to say,

when he threatened an act of cruelty and injustice, "Father, is
that right?" He confusedly retracted his orders, rather than bear

the sorrow of her face.
The promise of another event added to his happiness: Helena would

soon become a mother. As the time drew near he stationed guards at
the distance of a verst around the castle, that no clattering

vehicles should pass, no dogs bark loudly, nor any other
disturbance occur which might agitate the Princess. The choicest

sweetmeats and wines, flowers from Moscow and fruits from
Astrakhan, were procured for her; and it was a wonder that the

midwife performed her duty, for she had the fear of death before
her eyes. When the important day at last arrived the slumber-flag

was instantly hoisted, and no mouse dared to squeak in Kinesma
until the cannon announced the advent of a new soul.

That night Prince Alexis lay down in the corridor, outside of
Helena's door: he glared fiercely at the nurse as she entered with

the birth-posset for the young mother. No one else was allowed to
pass, that night, nor the next. Four days afterwards, Sasha,

having a message to the Princess, and supposing the old man to be
asleep, attempted to step noiselessly over his body. In a twinkle

the Prince's teeth fastened themselves in the serf's leg, and held
him with the tenacity of a bull-dog. Sasha did not dare to cry

out: he stood, writhing with pain, until the strong jaws grew weary
of their hold, and then crawled away to dress the bleeding wound.

After that, no one tried to break the Prince's guard.
The christening was on a magnificent scale. Prince Paul of

Kostroma was godfather, and gave the babe the name of Alexis. As
the Prince had paid his respects to Helena just before the

ceremony, it may be presumed that the name was not of his own
inspiration. The father and mother were not allowed to be present,

but they learned that the grandfather had comported himself
throughout with great dignity and propriety. The Archimandrite

Sergius obtained from the Metropolitan at Moscow a very minute
fragment of the true cross, which was encased in a hollow bead of

crystal, and hung around the infant's neck by a fine gold chain, as
a precious amulet.

Prince Alexis was never tired of gazing at his grandson and
namesake.

"He has more of his mother than of Boris," he would say. "So much
the better! Strong dark eyes, like the Great Peter,--and what a

goodly leg for a babe! Ha! he makes a tight little fist already,--
fit to handle a whip,--or" (seeing the expression of Helena's

face)--"or a sword. He'll be a proper Prince of Kinesma, my
daughter, and we owe it to you."

Helena smiled, and gave him a grateful glance in return. She had
had her secret fears as to the complete conversion of Prince

Alexis; but now she saw in this babe a new spell whereby he might
be bound. Slight as was her knowledge of men, she yet guessed the

tyranny of long-continued habits; and only her faith, powerful in
proportion as it was ignorant, gave her confidence in the result of

the difficult work she had undertaken.
XII.

Alas! the proud predictions of Prince Alexis, and the protection of
the sacred amulet, were alike unavailing. The babe sickened,

wasted away, and died in less than two months after its birth.
There was great and genuine sorrow among the serfs of Kinesma.

Each had received a shining ruble of silver at the christening;
and, moreover, they were now beginning to appreciate the milder

regime of their lord, which this blow might suddenly terminate.
Sorrow, in such natures as his, exasperates instead of chastening:

they knew him well enough to recognize the danger.
At first the old man's grief appeared to be of a stubborn, harmless

nature. As soon as the funeral ceremonies were over he betook
himself to his bed, and there lay for two days and nights, without

eating a morsel of food. The poor Princess Helena, almost
prostrated by the blow, mourned alone, or with Boris, in her own

apartments. Her influence, no longer kept alive by her constant
presence, as formerly, began to decline. When the old Prince

aroused somewhat from his stupor, it was not meat that he demanded,