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Tyranny, which for a brief period had slept, was now wide-awake and aggressively active. Throughout the entire Empire despotism stalked unimpeded. The recent attempt upon the Czar's life had increased the vigilance of the police, and the most frightful atrocities were committed in the holy name of Justice. The blood curdles with horror when reading of the indignities and the injustice visited upon the people.
"When the police deem it best," says one writer, [16] in portraying the condition of that period, "they steal noiselessly through the streets and alleys, surround a private dwelling in the dead of the night, and under some false pretence, invade every room in the house, waking the sleeping occupants. Each member of the household is given in charge of a policeman, everything is turned topsy-turvy, books, papers, private letters are carefully inspected—nothing is secret. It is not necessary that the police should have any evidence for these searches. An anonymous charge, a mere suspicion is enough. Houses have sometimes been inspected seven times in a single day. If anything is discovered to excite the suspicions of the police an arrest follows and the supposed culprit is sent to the house of Preventive Detention. There he awaits his trial for weeks and months and sometimes for years. He is brought out occasionally for examination. If he confesses nothing he is sent back to reflect. Sometimes the wrong man is arrested and confined a year or two before the mistake is discovered."
The solitary confinement to which prisoners were doomed in this house of detention was often fatal. The hardships to which they were subjected frequently led to consumption, insanity or suicide. The examination of prisoners and witnesses was dragged out to an interminable length. In one celebrated case it lasted four years and over seven hundred witnesses were kept in jail during that time. The prosecutor admitted that only twenty persons deserved punishment, yet there were seventy-three who died from suicide or the effects of confinement.
Louder and louder grew the clamor of the masses and the threats against the imperial autocrat. Wholesale arrests could not quell the popular voice. A prisoner wrote from his living tomb in the Troubetzkoi Ravelin: "Fight on till the victory is won! The more they torment me in prison, the better it is for the struggle!"
Governor Drentell entered upon his new duties at a trying time. His existence was embittered by political strife and tumult, and by complications with which he found it difficult to cope.
Let us seek him in his palace, by the side of his wife, Louise.
When we first met Louise, she was young and frivolous; now she is old and frivolous. The years have dealt gently with her, however, for she is still quite handsome and as vivacious, as capricious, as kind-hearted and as religious as when we last parted from her, twenty-seven years ago.
"Poor Dimitri," she said, dolefully, after her husband had recounted the events of the day. "Eighteen persons exiled to Siberia and two sentenced to death. How hard you toil! You will kill yourself with overwork!"
The General sighed.
"I should think," continued Louise, "that Loris could be of service to you in these difficult affairs of State. Why don't you recall our boy?"
The General's brow clouded.
"He must remain at his post for the present," he answered. "After he has achieved military glory, it will be time enough to initiate him in civil affairs."
"But you need an adviser, an assistant who can take some of your work off your hands."
"You are right! But who shall it be? There are so many Nihilists about, that I cannot be too careful whom I take into my confidence."
Louise rocked herself awhile in silence. Suddenly she said, impetuously:
"I wish we were back in St. Petersburg, or even at Lubny. Do you know, Dimitri, our days at Lubny were pleasant, after all?"
"Perhaps," answered Drentell, sarcastically, "that accounts for your incessant desire to leave the place."
"I never know when I am happy," said Louise, truthfully.
For some minutes she again rocked herself vigorously. It was her way of stimulating her mental faculties. Suddenly she cried:
"Ah, if you had only brought Mikail along. He might assist you."
"You appear too fond of Mikail's society," answered the Governor, sharply; "and that is just why I left him in St. Petersburg."
"Fool," replied Louise, half in jest, half in earnest. "Why, he is only my father confessor. You surely would not be jealous of a priest?"
"Yes, even of a priest, especially when he is as handsome and fascinating as our Mikail."
Louise broke into a merry laugh.
"Then that is why you were so solicitous about placing him with the Minister of War in St. Petersburg. You were afraid to bring him along on my account?"
"Candidly, yes. In spite of his priestly robes, I fancied he was too fond of your society and you of his, and I deemed it best for my peace of mind to leave him at the capital while we came here."
For a time Louise's mirth appeared uncontrollable.
"Why, you goose!" she said, after her laughter had subsided. "Mikail has never approached me but with the greatest respect. He knows that I have been his benefactress, and I am sure that, while he thinks me awfully ignorant, he respects me as he would an aged relative."
"And what are your feelings towards him?"
"I know what he was in the past; and, while I have unbounded admiration for his wisdom, I can never forget how he first came into our house."
"Then there is no danger of your falling in love with him?"
"None, whatever. I am old enough to be his mother."
"But his beauty—his charms?"
"They do not compare with those of my dear husband," replied Louise, as she twined her arms about Dimitri's neck, with all the coquetry of twenty-seven years ago.
There was no reason to doubt Louise's sincerity, and the General felt a little ashamed of his unfounded suspicions.
"Have you heard from the Minister since our departure from St. Petersburg?" asked Louise.
"Yes; he has written several times. He cannot sufficiently praise the keen intellect of our young priest."
"He is the very man you want. Have him come to Kief at once. You need an assistant and Mikail is bound to you by ties of gratitude and affection."
The General looked sharply at his wife. He still felt doubtful as to her feeling for Mikail. But Louise rocked away, unconscious of her husband's penetrating glance.
"Perhaps it will be best to have him come," he re flected. "Yes, it must be so. After having had him educated, after having given him the opportunity of becoming what he now is, it would be folly not to employ him to my own advantage. I shall write for him to-morrow."
"I shall see," he said, at length.
[16] Foulke.