Love, Honor and Obey

The princess paused and bent her head until it almost touched me. I
waited, wondering how it could be that the czar still lived. When death
was so near, within a few inches of his face, what could have saved
him?

"Hush!" she continued. "The end is not yet--not quite yet. You pulled
the trigger, but the charge in the pistol did not explode. That is what
you thought, when you leaped backward and raised the hammer for another
trial. But it was even worse than that, for there was no charge to
explode; the pistol was not loaded. Your poor mind, so overburdened,
had forgotten the most necessary thing of all, and you had not prepared
your weapon for the work it had to do. You discovered your error too
late; but the czar had discovered it also."

"He was bigger and stronger than you. With a bound he was upon you. He
seized the pistol and tore it from your grasp, and then, while he held
you--for you were still weak and he always was a giant--he struck you
with it, bringing it down again and again upon your unprotected head,
until your brains were battered out, and were spattered upon the floor,
the walls, and even the ceiling of the room. And then, when you were
quite dead, killed by the hand of the czar himself, when he for once in
his life was spattered with real blood, with blood that he had shed in
person and not by deputy, His Imperial Majesty staggered to the door,
called for assistance, and fainted."