He loosened his sword from his girdle, sparkling with diamonds, and
humbly laid both at Natalie's feet.
"Princess," said he, "the empress herself girded me with this sword, and
I swore it should never leave my side but with my life. You are dearer
to me than my life or my honor, and I therefore break my sacred oath.
Take my sword, I am now without arms, and you will no longer have
occasion to tremble before me."
She smilingly shook her head. "You still remain a hero, though without
arms--it lies in your eyes!"
"I would close my eyes," said he, "but then I should not see you,
princess, and I have already so long languished for a sight of you!"
"Why, then, came you not sooner?" she asked, now feeling herself
entirely cheerful and unembarrassed. "Oh, did you but know how
impatiently I have awaited you!"
And with childish innocence she began to relate how much she had thought
of him, how often she had dreamed of him, how she had sometimes spoken
aloud to him, and almost thought she heard his answers!
Count Orloff listened to her with surprise and delight. Thus had he not
expected to find her, so childishly cheerful, so charmingly innocent,
and yet at the same time with so much maidenly reserve, so much natural
dignity. Now she laughed like a child, now was her face serious and
proud, now again tender and timid. She was at once a timid child and a
glowing woman; she was innocent as an angel, and yet so full of sweet,
unconscious maiden coquetry. She enchanted, while inspiring devotion,
she excited passions and desires, while, with a natural maiden dignity,
she kept one within the bounds of respect. She was entirely different
from what Orloff had expected; perhaps less beautiful, less dazzling,
but infinitely more lovely. She enchanted him with her smile, and her
innocent childish face touched him.
"Speak on, speak on!" said he, when she became silent. "It is delightful
to listen to you, princess."
"Why do you call me so?" asked she, with a slight contraction of her
brow. "It is such a strange cold word! It does not at all belong to
me, and it is only within the last few months that I have been thus
addressed. With wise and tender forbearance, Paulo long delayed
informing me that I was a princess, and that was beautiful in him. To be
a princess and yet an orphan, a poor, deserted, helpless child, living
upon the charity of a friend, and tremulously clinging to his protecting
hand! See, that is what I am, a poor orphan; why, then, do you call me
princess!"
"Because you are so in reality," responded Orloff, pressing the hem of
her garment to his lips--"because I am come to lead you to your splendid
and powerful future!--because I will glorify you above all women on
earth, and make you mistress of this great empire."