"But do you know how the Czar would regard such pleasantry? You remember Dimitri Arsenieff?"
"Arsenieff! I hope you do not compound me with that herd whom a single glance of the Czar made tremble in their shoes. There was a time, it is true, but all is changed now--there was a time when those submissive slaves who filled the courts of the Kremlin, disappeared when they heard the steps of the old Alexis Nicolajewitz. His services were once required. He was not idle during the massacre of the Strelitz; they had need of Tscherkaski then. But all this has passed away. I have but one wish; it is, that in the hour of trial the swords of those Frenchmen, or of other foreigners, may leap as slowly from the scabbard as mine on that day when men of a nobler spirit were assassinated."
"The Czar has not forgotten that you have--"
"O, truly," replied the boyard, with a bitter smile, "the gracious Czar has made me the first chamberlain. He must have been in a good humor at that time; for Poliwoi--you know him--he is skilful in sealing bottles--he was a _valet de chambre_ in his youth--and that English Melton or Milton, who has imported some good dogs--both of them, at the same time with myself, received the key of the chamberlaincy."
"But you cannot deny, Alexis, that in general the choice of our sovereign--"
"Is the best. But what is strange about it is, that he finds so many excellent men, and that he selects from so large a circle, when others who, in times of calamity, are no longer considered unworthy, never obtain their turn for preferment."
"You appear to be not in a very good humor, to-day, boyard.... Would you fall into disfavor with the Czar?"
"Why," exclaimed the boyard, "should I not tell a friend what probably he will learn to-day, if indeed he is ignorant of it now? You know," he continued with an affected calmness, "the domain of the crown adjacent to my lands in Tula?"
"Indeed you do, Alexandre Michailowitz; or at least you ought to. It separates my property from yours."
"The same. It is not very extensive, containing only three villages and a thousand serfs. But its situation suits me and I desire its possession."
"Well, you ought to propose to the Czar to sell it. He will not refuse you."
