"Perhaps they need it to reconcile them to this awe inspiring, silent Sitkan land," thought Douglas, as he mentally counted the cost.
Through parted curtains, Etholine's petite child wife entered; like a fairy she approached the stately daughter of the magnate on the Columbia. She spoke in French. Thanks to her father and "Telemachus," Eloise had a fluent command of French. There were other ladies, maids and companions, and, yes, there really was a princess, Madame Racheff, who had renounced the gayeties of the Russian court to accompany her husband to the far Pacific exile.
Long they lingered at the state breakfast in the resounding banquet-hall. What unexpected viands! Wines from France and fruits from Spain, hyperborean pickles and caviare, flanking and interlarding long arrays of sauces and chevreuil. There were toasts and jokes and laughter, not so wild, perhaps, as in the old BaranofY days, but enough to prove that the Russian and English fur companies were no longer at war.
"By the way," exclaimed Etholine, "the Russians came near appropriating the Columbia long before you fellows took it."
"How is that?" inquired Chief Factor Douglas.
"It was in 1802 that the Directory met at St. Petersburg to consider the post at Sitka. Some complaints had reached them against Count Baranoff. It was a ticklish thing to deal with Baranoff he was autocrat here. In general, they left him to his own way. But Prince von D. said, 'We ought to extend the business/
"'We need a better base of supplies,' said Baron X.
"'What we really need is to send a responsible man to look after Baranoff,' added Count T.
