Boris

Boris is Prince Michael Obolovitch’s loyal servant, whose devotion to the Obolovitch dynasty outlasts his master’s murder. In the struggle with Mademoiselle Brun, he survives her attempt to shoot him, and she dies when the pistol goes off; afterward, he attaches himself to Anthony Cade, not knowing that Cade is the dynasty’s concealed heir, Prince Nicholas.

Identity and Loyalty

Boris serves Prince Michael, one of the claimants involved in Herzoslovakia’s contested royal succession. Michael’s position is consequential beyond the household: the proposed restoration of the monarchy is tied to support from the British government and a prospective loan from Herman Isaacstein’s company. After Michael’s death, the succession question turns toward his first cousin, Prince Nicholas, who is believed to be abroad and raising money on his prospects.

The political arrangements around the throne provide the setting for Boris’s personal allegiance. The monarchy had been overthrown after King Nicholas IV and Queen Varaga were killed in an uprising, and republicans had ruled since. The later effort to restore the dynasty, with Prince Michael as its proposed king, makes the survival of the royal line a live political issue. Boris’s attachment is described as loyalty to the Obolovitch dynasty, not merely service to Michael as an individual.

The Struggle with Mademoiselle Brun

Boris appears at the decisive moment in the council chamber, where Mademoiselle Brun has been searching through books with a torch. As the people watching try to identify the shadowy figure, someone rushes into the room. The torch falls and goes out; during the struggle that follows, a pistol discharges, and the smaller combatant falls. When the lights come on, Boris is standing over the end of the encounter.

He explains that Mademoiselle Brun killed his master and then tried to shoot him. He says that he would have taken the pistol from her, but that it went off in the struggle. The account identifies her as the woman lying on the floor with the pistol still in her hand. Boris attributes the outcome to Saint Michael’s intervention, revealing how he interprets his survival and his master’s death through a religious and dynastic loyalty.

The scene turns an attempted recovery of the diamond into a fatal confrontation. Mademoiselle Brun’s search in the chamber ends not with the object she seeks but with her death, while Boris emerges as the person who can explain the struggle and its connection to Michael’s murder. His intervention also helps expose the danger still present inside Chimneys after the earlier killing.

Loyalty After Michael’s Death

Boris’s allegiance does not end with Michael. Anthony later notices that Boris is waiting outside a window and calls him a remarkable man, explaining that he attached himself to Anthony as soon as Michael was dead. The choice surprises Anthony because Boris could not have known his true identity. Anthony fears that this instinctive loyalty might reveal the secret, but Superintendent Battle calls it instinct, comparing it to a dog’s fidelity.

The eventual revelation gives that transfer of allegiance a dynastic significance. Anthony discloses that he is Nicholas Sergius Alexander Ferdinand Obolovitch, the prince presumed dead after he spread the report of his own death. He had adopted the name Anthony Cade after leaving the Congo. Boris’s loyalty therefore moves, without his knowledge, from one Obolovitch prince to another: what first appears to be an unexplained attachment to a stranger is consistent with his enduring devotion to the family.

The Closing Scene and Narrative Role

After Anthony recognizes Boris outside, he goes out through the window to see what the servant wants. Boris addresses him as “Master” and leads the way along the terrace. Anthony follows, unsure what lies ahead; Boris then points toward a stone seat where two figures are sitting. The scene places Boris once more in the role of attendant and guide, now directing the newly revealed prince toward the people waiting for him.

Boris has little independent political speech or a separately narrated history in the available scenes. His significance lies instead in the clarity of his actions: he stands between Mademoiselle Brun and her next shot, remains loyal after Michael’s death, and recognizes a master in Anthony before the prince’s identity is disclosed. That instinct links the suspense plot to the succession plot, making personal fidelity the quiet means by which the hidden heir returns to the dynasty’s surviving circle.