VITHE PERIL OF NORWAY
The readers of my previous revelations will have noticed that I have constantly been engaged in thwarting the schemes of the cunning rulers of Russia. This has been to me a labour of love. My father, as I have said, was a native of Poland, and I have avenged his wrongs on the Government which drove him forth to exile.
I have already related how I exposed and defeated the insidious design concealed under the Peace Rescript of Nicholas II. Hardly had this audacious intrigue miscarried when Europe was startled to hear that the Ministers of the Imperial peacemaker had overthrown the ancient liberties of Finland, in order to swell the Finnish contingent to the armies of the Tsar.
This time I admit that I was deceived, like everybody else. The brutal frankness of the proceeding disarmed suspicion. When Russia openly declares herself a tyrant, it is difficult to believe she is dissembling.
But there was one man in Europe who saw that there was more in the proceedings against Finland than met the eye. This was a monarch whose genius and nobility of character would have placed him at the head of living rulers had he been born to the command of a great Power instead of a small and distracted State. I need scarcely say that I refer to his Majesty, King Oscar of Sweden and Norway.
It was with peculiar satisfaction that I received a confidential summons from this King, whose fine qualities I had long admired, and by whom I felt it a distinction to be trusted. I was far from guessing the real nature of the business on which I was to be employed.
As the message did not come to me through the Scandinavian Minister in Paris, but was a private autograph communication from King Oscar himself, I was disposed to think his Majesty wanted me to adjust some family affair. It is well known that the Bernadottes are not more free from such anxieties than other royal houses.
On my arrival at the beautiful capital of Sweden, I put up at the Hotel Rydberg, entering myself as the Baron de Neuville, on tour. The same evening I was called upon by one of the King’s intimate friends, the Count Söderhielm, who took me across to the Palace, and introduced me into King Oscar’s private cabinet.
I noticed as we crossed the Place Gustavus Adolphus that the flag was not hoisted on the Palace. His Majesty was supposed to be at Drottningholm, from which place he had come secretly in a small launch for the purpose of our interview.
As soon as Count Söderhielm had presented me to his Majesty, he retired to the antechamber, leaving us together.
‘Perhaps you are wondering what I have sent for you to do?’ King Oscar began.
‘At least, I do not doubt that any service on which your Majesty employs me will be an honourable one,’ I answered respectfully.
The King smiled.
‘I have not sent for you to pay me compliments,’ he said rebukingly. ‘Let me first ask if it is true that you are no friend to the Russian Government?’
I looked at the King in some surprise.
‘It is better for me to tell you, sire, that I do not allow my private feelings to enter into my work. The Russian Government has employed me before now, and may do so again; in which case I should serve it as loyally as I hope to do your Majesty.’
The King did not seem ill-pleased by this frankness.
‘I respect you for that answer,’ he said graciously. ‘I ought not to have asked you for your personal confidence.’
‘I am a Pole by my father’s side, sire,’ I threw in.
King Oscar thanked me for this hint by a nod.
‘Let us come to business. You have taken note, I expect, of this determination to Russianise Finland?’
I bowed, restraining my curiosity at this unexpected opening.
‘You know that Finland is an ancient province of the Swedish Crown, and that when it was united to Russia, after the fall of Napoleon, my ancestor, the then Crown Prince Bernadotte, was authorised to take Norway as a compensation?’
‘I do, sire.’
‘Perhaps you know also that the exchange has been a disastrous one for Sweden. The Finns were contented and happy under our rule, while the Norwegians have done nothing but quarrel with the Swedes for a century.’
‘I have heard something of this,’ I responded.
‘Now as long as Finland held the position of a semi-independent State, over which the Tsar ruled as Grand Duke of Finland, it was possible for us to regard her as a buffer between us and Russia. We had every reason to hope that if the Russians wished to attack us, they would have to subdue Finland first.’
‘I was hardly aware of that, sire.’
‘It is the fact. The Finnish civilisation is reallySwedish, our language is spoken there, and the Swedish element in the population looks on Sweden as its real home. Very good. That being so, the Russians have decided to conquer Finland in time of peace, under the cloak of administrative measures.’
‘Your Majesty means that this attack on Finland is really an attack on Sweden and Norway?’
‘It is the first step towards an attack on Sweden,’ King Oscar answered, with significance. ‘The question of Norway is the matter about which I have sent for you.’
I gazed at the King in astonishment.
‘I am the King of Norway as well as of Sweden,’ his Majesty pursued, ‘and you must not think I favour one country more than the other. But I might as well be King at the same time of France and Germany, for any real harmony there is between the two countries. The Norwegians are working for absolute separation; the Swedes will grant them everything except the right to make war on Sweden; and yet they cannot agree.’
‘You fear, sire, that the Norwegians will fight in order to secure their independence.’
‘I fear it is rather the other way about,’ the King answered sorrowfully. ‘They aim at independence in order to be able to fight. You see me in the position of a father whose two children are ready to rush at one another’s throats, and who cannot showkindness to one without incurring the hatred of the other. This situation has poisoned the peace of mind of every sovereign of Scandinavia for a hundred years. It broke my grandfather’s heart.’
I listened to this sad confession with respectful sympathy. King Oscar proceeded—
‘Let me tell you some more. Before the last Russo-Turkish war, the geography of the Balkans had been made for a year the special study of the Military School in Petersburg. Last month the geography of Scandinavia was given a similar precedence. That is not all. A swarm of Russian officers, disguised as woodcutters, have been coming over the northern frontier, and making their way down through Sweden, surveying the country as they go.’
‘Surely they can be arrested as spies!’
‘We dare not,’ was the response. ‘That would be forcing Russia’s hand. We can only watch, and await developments.’
‘The Germans ought to know of this,’ I ventured to remark.
‘The Germans are more afraid of Russia than we are,’ the King answered. ‘Germany is no longer a first-class Power. There are in fact only four Powers of the first magnitude to-day, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, and China. The two English Powers together could dictate to the world, but theyare divided by the childish American jealousy. China is still asleep. Consequently all the other Powers of Europe are little more than vassals of the Tsar. France has openly placed herself under his protection. Austria has become Russia’s junior partner in the Balkans. The independence of Germany is only nominal; the Emperor takes his time from Petersburg. No other country counts.’
It was the first time that I had heard the situation summed up with such pitiless plainness.
‘You consider, then, that Russia is actually about to draw the sword?’ I asked.
‘No, she will leave us to do that. Russia has discovered that her conquests advance better under the cloak of peace. She means to take Norway under cover of a declaration in favour of Norwegian independence.’
‘But the Norwegians—are they mad enough to become parties to that? Do they want to exchange King Log for King Stork?’
‘Go and see,’ was King Oscar’s reply.
I quitted his Majesty’s presence, and returned to my hotel, deeply disturbed by what I had heard. I could not suppose that the most sagacious sovereign in Europe was indulging in idle fears. Yet it was hard to believe that the inhabitants of a free, self-governing country would voluntarily exchange their condition for servitude to the Asiatic despotismwhich had just laid Finland prostrate at their door.
Three days afterwards I arrived in Christiania. I had made careful preparations for the task before me. I assumed the character of a Russian spy, as the least likely to provoke suspicion of the quarter from which I really came. And I had disguised my person as effectively as I knew how, lest I should meet a real agent of the Tsar’s Government, who might detect A—— V—— beneath the outward semblance of Alexander Volkuski.
The pains I had taken were well rewarded. In the hotel in which I put up I found staying a man who passed as a Finnish officer, of Swedish nationality, but whom I immediately recognised as Count Marloff, the confidential right-hand man of M. de Witte himself. It is true the Russian was disguised, and the disguise was a very good one, but by an almost incredible oversight he had ventured to assume that a disguise which had already done duty once might safely be used again.
It was seven years before, in Teheran, that I had seen that reddish wig and noted that peculiar limp, but if Count Marloff had offered me his card I could not have been more sure of his identity. Such mistakes may be pardonable in a mere detective, but they are fatal in our profession.
My tactics were soon decided on. I knew thatthe attention of ‘Colonel Sigersen’ would be quickly attracted to a Russian staying in Christiania, and I have generally found the boldest game to be the most successful.
I seized the first opportunity of the Count’s being seated alone in the smoking-room of the hotel, to go up to him boldly.
‘How do you do, Count?’ I said in Russian. ‘Or perhaps you will wish me to say “Colonel”?’
Marloff started, as well he might, and stared hard into my face.
‘My name is Colonel Sigersen,’ he said forbiddingly. ‘Have I had the pleasure of meeting you before?’
This was the opening I wanted. I drew back disdainfully.
‘I must apologise,’ I said, with irony; ‘I have not had the honour of meeting you,Colonel Sigersen. Pray do not think I wish to intrude on you.’
Marloff saw his mistake. In the secret service of Russia nothing is more common than for two different agents to be employed independently of each other, and even as spies upon each other. When that happens, if the two men are wise, they strike up a private alliance, and compare notes at their employers’ expense. When they keep each other at arm’s length, each has it in his power to cause annoyance to the other.
Marloff was now in the position of having refused my overture towards friendship, without knowing who I was. This left me free to watch him, without rendering any explanations. He was consequently furious with himself.
The fact is the man was a mere amateur, as one who drops into a profession from above generally is. De Witte had taken him out of a cavalry regiment, and made a diplomatist of him; but when it came to secret service work he was a child in the hands of a man like myself.
I saw the pretended Colonel get up and limp out of the room, no doubt to send a cipher despatch to the Minister, complaining of my arrival. I went to the manager of the hotel, introduced myself as a Russian police agent on the track of a great rouble forgery, and wormed out of him a mass of particulars with regard to Sigersen’s movements.
I gathered that he had been in Christiania about a month, having toured through Norway first as far north as Trondhjem. He had made numerous friends in the Norwegian capital, including several prominent members of the Storthing, as they call their parliament. But his chosen intimate appeared to be a judge named ——, who was regarded as a guiding spirit of the party most strongly hostile to the Swedish connection.
It was Judge —— who had prompted the erectionof a fortress on the Swedish-Norwegian frontier, guarding the approach to Christiania. The same warlike functionary had decided on the judicial bench that no native of Sweden could exercise the rights of a citizen in Norway until he had taken out letters of naturalisation. In short, this judge had carefully taught his countrymen to treat the Swedes as Englishmen were treated by the Boers in the days of the Transvaal Republic.
All this was nothing more than I had been prepared for by King Oscar. The task now before me was to ascertain if possible what was the nature of the understanding between Judge —— and the agent of the Russian Government.
I asked the hotel manager—
‘How does Colonel Sigersen pay your bill?’
‘By cheque,’ was the ready answer. ‘By cheque on the Bergen and Christiania Bank.’
‘Is it usual for foreign visitors to have a banking account open in Christiania?’ I inquired, keeping up the part of a detective.
The manager admitted it was not. Evidently, now I had drawn his attention to the point, it struck him as suspicious. I left him, feeling that I had secured an ally in my watch on Marloff, and made my way to the offices of the bank.
The director of this institution received me with every courtesy. Bankers are too often victimisedfor them to regard the police with any feeling but gratitude. The tale I brought was received with open ears.
‘I have reason to think that an account has been opened with you for purposes of fraud. If I am right, the swindlers have endeavoured to gain your confidence at the outset by a large credit. This credit has been opened in the name of Colonel Sigersen, a pretended Finlander.’
The manager was visibly alarmed.
‘A gentleman of that name has opened an account with us, certainly,’ he answered cautiously. ‘But he brought the very best introductions. In fact I could not have asked for better.’
‘Have you any objection to tell me the character of those introductions?’
‘I don’t mind telling you that one was from a well-known citizen, a man in a very responsible position.’
‘In short, Judge ——?’
The manager started.
‘How did you know that?’ he demanded.
‘I have been on Colonel Sigersen’s track for a long time,’ I answered evasively. ‘I venture to think that if you make inquiries, you will find that his Honour, Judge —— knows very little about him really, and nothing at all about his financial standing.’
‘I will communicate with his Honour, and let you know the result.’
‘Do so, by all means. In the meanwhile, perhaps, you may be willing to tell me how this man’s credit is supplied?’
The manager hesitated.
‘I hardly know whether I ought to betray his affairs until I have something more to go upon.’
‘Perhaps you will let me ask you if Sigersen has yet made a large payment in rouble notes?’
‘I can answer that—no.’
‘Then I think you may be safe for the present,’ I said. ‘When he does, I advise you to pass them on to your Russian correspondents as quickly as possible.’
This shot told. The manager became very uneasy. By degrees I worked on his fears till he invited me to examine his ledger. I did so, and found that Marloff had brought a heavy credit from a Petersburg bank, and, what was more to my purpose, had drawn several heavy cheques to the order of Judge ——.
‘So far you seem to be on the safe side,’ I commented as I finished my inspection. ‘But I have two pieces of advice to give you. On no account let this man overdraw his ascertained credit, and do not honour any cheques drawn against rouble notes till you hear from me again.’
“‘Let me see your warrant,’ I said.”
“‘Let me see your warrant,’ I said.”
“‘Let me see your warrant,’ I said.”
The manager thanked me, and allowed me to depart.
I had now to consider the best way in which to approach the judge, who was not likely to prove easily gullible, as it was fairly certain that Marloff and he were in each other’s confidence.
But I had underrated the Russian’s resources. On re-entering my hotel I was accosted by a man in the uniform of the Norwegian police, who informed me that he held a warrant for my arrest.
‘On what charge?’ I demanded, as soon as I had recovered from my first surprise.
‘On a charge of conspiracy against the Government of Norway,’ was the answer.
‘I arrived in Norway only yesterday,’ I exclaimed.
‘All that you can tell to the judge,’ retorted the police officer.
‘Let me see your warrant,’ I said.
The man produced the paper, while the hotel manager, who had arrived on the scene, looked on astonished, as he well might.
The warrant bore the signature of Judge ——.
‘Take me to the judge instantly, if you will be so good,’ I said.
‘I am going to,’ the officer returned.
He made no attempt to secure me, probably having had his instructions. We walked together to thejudge’s house; he appeared to combine the functions of a judge and committing magistrate; and I was conducted into a room evidently used for the examination of prisoners.
Judge —— entered immediately, and we exchanged scrutinising glances. The leader of the anti-Swedish party was a young man, still on the right side of forty, with a very determined countenance, and a look about which there was nothing furtive or embarrassed. It was not an intellectual face. I put the man down as a strong-willed, ambitious intriguer, with courage, but not very much disinterested patriotism.
‘What is the meaning of this preposterous arrest?’ I demanded, with warmth.
‘This is an affair of State; I will examine the accused in private,’ the judge announced, not answering me directly.
As soon as the room was cleared, he turned to me.
‘Who are you?’ was his first question.
‘I am a Russian,’ I answered.
‘I know that. What is your business here?’
I breathed again. I now knew that Marloff had failed to guess my identity.
‘I have come here on the track of certain forgers,’ I began, and went on to tell the story I had given to the hotel manager and the banker.
Judge —— listened incredulously.
‘I do not believe a word you have said,’ he declared. ‘Show me your papers.’
I produced the passport and credentials from the Russian police with which I had been careful to provide myself. They were, of course, forged.
‘I will retain these and ascertain if they are genuine,’ the judge observed.
‘Your Honour means that you will submit them to the suspected man,’ I returned boldly.
‘How dare you say that? How dare you call’—he hesitated for a second—‘Colonel Sigersen a suspected man? You know perfectly well who he is.’
‘I know him to be the most skilful forger in Russia,’ I answered, not quite untruthfully.
Judge —— glared at me as if he would like to have struck me.
‘What nonsense! You know his real name.’
‘What difference does that make, your Honour?’
‘You know he is a man in high position, in the confidence of his Government.’
‘I know he was, till recently. I have no doubt he is capable of pretending he is still.’
The judge was plainly disconcerted by the line I was taking. He had hoped, no doubt, that I should meet him half way.
‘On your arrival here you recognised the Count, and greeted him. He rebuffed you, as he had a perfectright to do, and denounced you to me as a spy. It is too late for you to turn round and pretend that he is a criminal. It is you who are on your defence, not he.’
‘Your Honour has been imposed upon. But it is of no consequence. Tell me what I am charged with, and I will defend myself.’
‘You are a spy.’
‘In a sense that is true. I am a detective.’
‘By whom are you employed?’
‘Your Honour has my papers.’
The judge bit his lip. He clearly did not know how to proceed. I, of course, could see that it was not his game to bring me to a public trial.
‘It seems to me, sir, that it is a mistake for us to quarrel,’ I said after giving him a minute for reflection. ‘If I have annoyed Count Marloff by recognising him, that is not an offence against the law of Norway, I presume. On the other hand, if I am right in my conjectures, or rather myinstructions, the Count himself should be the last man to provoke a public inquiry into his business here. Your Honour knows the law better than I, but I should have thought there might be something in the business transacted between you and the Count which would not look well——’
He interrupted me.
‘I want to know why you are here. If you are afriend, of course there is no need to quarrel. If not’—he shrugged his shoulders.
‘I came as a friend,’ I replied. ‘I came prepared to co-operate with you, to assist you, in fact. But I must first know how you stand with regard to Marloff. Is he your personal friend, or are the relations between you exclusively political?’
‘I have no personal feeling for him,’ was the guarded answer.
‘Very good. In that case your Honour shall see my real credentials. I must tell you frankly that Count Marloff has ceased to enjoy the implicit confidence of his and my Government.’
I put my hand into an inner pocket, and produced a slip of paper in the forged handwriting of the Russian Foreign Minister.
‘Does your Honour recognise that writing?’ I asked, with a confident air.
Judge —— was completely deceived. He glanced at the few lines, which were in French, with an air of the greatest respect. Then he looked at me.
‘I must apologise, Prince ——’ he began, when I raised a warning finger.
‘Hush! Not my real name, please.’
I took back the paper with an air as if my life depended on its preservation, and restored it to my pocket.
‘I am exceedingly sorry to have had to show youthis,’ I said gravely. ‘I have, in fact, exceeded my instructions, which were simply to watch Count Marloff and report on the progress he was making. His own violent action has forced me to go further than I wished. I am sorry to say it confirms the suspicion entertained in the Foreign Office that he is playing a double game. He is aprotégéof M. de Witte’s, but M. de Witte is not infallible.
‘Now I am afraid I must ask your Honour to take me into your confidence. I trust you have not put yourself into Marloff’s power? I know that he has paid you considerable sums.’
Judge —— looked decidedly nervous.
‘I have given him nothing in writing, I believe,’ he answered, glancing at the same time at an iron safe let into the wall of the room.
‘So far, so good. It is writing that counts in these affairs. Have you any objection to my seeing the memoranda you have made of your conversations with him?’
The judge stared at me as if I had been a wizard.
‘I don’t know what makes you think I have taken any memoranda,’ he protested.
‘Just as you please, sir,’ I said drily. ‘I should have been gratified if you had so far confided in me as to let me glance inside that safe. But you are right to be cautious.’
“He bent forward to listen, and as he did so I launched my clenched fist at his right temple with my full force.”
“He bent forward to listen, and as he did so I launched my clenched fist at his right temple with my full force.”
“He bent forward to listen, and as he did so I launched my clenched fist at his right temple with my full force.”
His eyes turned once more in the direction of thesafe, in spite of himself. I saw a struggle going on in his mind.
‘There is no necessity for you to decide hastily,’ I said in my blandest tones. ‘I am as anxious as you are that you should have every possible security. If you are so far satisfied as to release me from arrest, we can sit down and talk over things quietly.’
This hint had the desired effect. The judge called in the policeman, and informed him that his services were no longer required.
As soon as I heard the outer door of the building clang to on the departing officer, I drew nearer the judge, lowering my voice to a confidential whisper, as I said—
‘Now you shall have the truth.’
He bent forward to listen, and as he did so I launched my clenched fist at his right temple with my full force, and he dropped senseless without so much as a sigh.
The moment I was satisfied that he was unconscious I stepped to the door and locked it. Then I rifled his pocket of his bunch of keys, picked out the right one, and opened the safe, all without drawing breath.
The contents of the safe were chiefly official law papers, which I did not waste time over. But in a narrow tray at the top I found something that interested me more.
It was nothing less than a draft treaty—a treaty to be made between the Norwegian Ministry, acting without the knowledge of their King, and the Imperial Government of Russia!
I did not stay to read the document through. After a hasty look to make sure I was leaving nothing else of importance behind, I locked the safe, drew off its key from the bunch, and dropped the other keys on the floor beside the stunned man, slipped quietly out of the room and out of the house.
Instead of returning to my hotel, I made my way down to the harbour—I did not dare to risk trying to get a train. In the harbour I hired a small fishing-boat with a sail, and put straight out to sea. It was on the tossing waters of the Cattegat by moonlight that I took in the provisions of the extraordinary compact between the Norwegian conspirators and their Imperial ally.
The document had been carefully drawn up, evidently with an eye to the public opinion of Europe, which would naturally be scandalised by an alliance between the great Slave despotism and a Teutonic commonwealth.
The treaty began by reciting that the Union between Sweden and Norway had been forced on the Norwegians against their will, by the Swedes aided by Russia’s authority. It went on to state that the Union had failed to benefit either country, and thatRussia had consented to undo her past injury to Norway by helping her to annul the bond.
Then followed the particulars of the aid to be rendered. Norway pledged herself not to make any open move till the signal was given from Petersburg, which was to be as soon as Finland had settled down into the condition of a Russian province. In the meantime the Norwegians were to strengthen themselves in every possible way, and to keep up a steady pressure of agitation against Sweden.
As soon as all was ready, the Norwegian Storthing was to meet in secret session and proclaim Norway a free and independent Republic, under the protection of the Tsar, and mass her troops on the frontier. Two Russian Army Corps were to be ready in Finland, on the pretext of manœuvres, and these were to be hurled across the frontier to the north of the Gulf of Bothnia. At the same time the Russian fleet was to cross the Baltic, occupy the island of Gothland, and blockade Stockholm and the Swedish ports.
All these measures were to be taken merely as precautions. If the Swedes accepted the inevitable, the Russians were to retire again. If the Swedes took up arms, war was to be declared, and Russia was to annex Gothland to her Empire, the Norwegians receiving territory in the north.
And what was the price which the Tsar was toreceive for this mighty demonstration? It was not a nominal one. The Norwegian Republic bound itself to grant to his Imperial Majesty a lease for twenty-five years—that is to say, for ever—of a warm-water port on the Atlantic Ocean, to be used as a depôt and coaling station for the Russian Fleet.
It was the dream of six generations of Muscovite statesmen realised at last. Russia, with one foot on the Atlantic and another on the Pacific, would dominate the Old World.
All that night the fishing-boat carried me along in the track of the Baltic steamers. At dawn I boarded an English packet going into Gothenburg, and thirty-six hours later I stood again in King Oscar’s cabinet, and placed the treaty in his hands.
I watched the brave monarch read it through from beginning to end without one manifestation of dismay or even of indignation.
‘My poor subjects!’ was his sole remark as he raised his eyes at the end. ‘They little know the fate they are preparing for their children.’
I asked if his Majesty had any further instructions for me. To my surprise he answered, ‘Yes.’
“I watched the brave monarch read it through from beginning to end without one manifestation of dismay.”
“I watched the brave monarch read it through from beginning to end without one manifestation of dismay.”
“I watched the brave monarch read it through from beginning to end without one manifestation of dismay.”
‘There is only one quarter to which I can look for aid,’ he said, ‘and that is England. Germany is a broken reed. Go to England, take this document with you, show it to the principal members of the Government, telling them how it came into yourhands, and ask them if they wish to see a Russian Cherbourg within twelve hours of the Scottish coast. If they remain indifferent, I can do nothing more.’
‘The English Press?’ I suggested doubtfully.
‘The Norwegians have captured it, I fear,’ objected his Majesty. ‘Norway is the playground of the British tourist; and, besides, the English consider themselves half Norwegian by race. No, popular sentiment in Great Britain is on the side of Norway.’
‘Nevertheless, sire, if thoughtful Englishmen could be made to realise that, for the sake of pique—for a mere whim—the Norwegians were about to place the keys of the Atlantic in the hands of Britain’s most formidable foe, they might make their influence felt.’
‘Do what you think best, M. V——,’ the King said wearily. ‘I am getting an old man, and I wish for peace.’
I have ventured to take his Majesty at his word.