gu!_" (Glory
be to God!) came fervently from the bearded lips of those hard, rough,
obedient children. They tumbled headlong over each other, in their
efforts to drink first from the ladle, to clasp the knees or kiss the
hands of the restored Prince. And the dawn was glimmering against the
eastern stars, as they took the way to the castle, making the ghostly
fir-woods ring with shout and choric song, Nevertheless, Prince Alexis
was no longer the same man: his giant strength and furious appetite were
broken. He was ever ready, as formerly, for the chase and the
drinking-bout; but his jovial mood no longer grew into a crisis which
only utter physical exhaustion or the stupidity of drunkenness could
overcome. Frequently, while astride the cask, his shouts of laughter
would suddenly cease, the ladle would drop from his hand, and he would
sit motionless, staring into vacancy for five minutes at a time. Then
the serfs, too, became silent, and stood still, awaiting a change. The
gloomy mood passed away as suddenly. He would start, look about him, and
say, in a melancholy voice,--

"Have I frightened you, my children? It seems to me that I am getting
old. Ah, yes, we must all die, one day. But we need not think about it,
until the time comes. The Devil take me for putting it into my head!
Why, how now? can't you sing, children?" Then he would strike up some
ditty which they all knew: a hundred voices joined in the strain, and
the hills once more rang with revelry.

Since the day when Princess Martha was buried, the Prince had not again
spoken of marriage. No one, of course, dared to mention the name of
Boris in his presence.

IX.

The young Prince had, in reality, become the happy husband of Helena.
His love for her had grown to be a shaping and organizing influence,
without which his nature would have fallen into its former confusion. If
a thought of a less honorable relation had ever entered his mind, it was
presently banished by the respect which a nearer intimacy inspired; and
thus Helena, magnetically drawing to the surface only his best
qualities, loved, unconsciously to herself, her own work in him. Erelong
she saw that she might balance the advantages he had conferred upon her
in their marriage by the support and encouragement which she was able to
impart to him; and this knowledge, removing all painful sense of
obligation, made her both happy and secure in her new position.

The Princess Martha, under some pres