Full text of "The White Terror and the Red: A Novel of Revolutionary Russia"

See other formats

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http : //books . google . com/

$iibtisct^0(

T^tituj^tjinx llttUttrsdtsr*

Digitized

by Google

Digitized

by Google

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR

AND

THE RED

A Novel of Revolutionary Russia

A. CAHAN

III
Author of «< Yekl " and « The Imported Bridegroom.*'

New York

A. S. BARNES k COMPANY

1905

Digitized

by Google

Digitized

by Google

CONTENTS.

CHAPm VAOI

I. An Affront to His Czair • • • • 1

II. The White Terror 14

III. Pievakin Pleads Guilty 20

IV. The " Demonstration '' 28

V. PaveFs First Step 40

VI. A Meeting on New Terms .... 57

VII. "Terrorism Without Violence'' . . 62

Vni. Makar's Canvass 76

IX. A Day Underground 81

X. The Czar's Escape 93

XI. A Mysterious Arrest 97

XII. A Bewildering Encounter .... 103

XIII. A Gendarme's Sister 112

XIV. Underground Miroslav 121

XV. A Warning 135

XVL Clara at Home 147

XVII. The Countess' Discovery .... 151

XVIII. Pavel at Boyko's Court 160

XIX. Strawberries .169

XX. A "Conspiracy Trip" 178

XXI. Makar's Father . 187

XXII. Prom Cellar to Palace ..... 196

XXIII. An Unforeseen Suggestion ... . . 205

XXIV. Vladimir Finds His Cause .... 211
XXV. Clara Becomes " Illegal " .... 227

^ XXVI. On Sacred Ground 235

^ ^ "A Digitized by LjOOgie

0<\

CONTENTS.

CHAPrn FACE

XXVII. A Postponed Wedding 344

XXVIII. A Second Courtship 253

XXIX. A Hunted Monarch 260

XXX. The Mystery of a Shop 267

XXXI. A Eeassuring Search 277

XXXII. The Eed Terror 287

XXXIII. The Eevelation . . . . . . .299

XXXIV. The Czar Takes Courage .... 310
XXXV. A Hunted People 319

XXXVI. A "Paper from the Czar " . ... 331

XXXVII, The Defence Committee .... 339

XXXVIII. The Nihilist's Guard 357

XXXIX. The Eiot . 371

XL. Light out of Darkness ..... 389

XLI. Pavel Becomes "JU^" .... 401

XLTI. Ominous Footsteps 408

XLUI. A Message Throngh the Wall . .: . 423

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.
CHAPTEB L

AN AFFRONT TO HIS OZAB.

ALEXANDEB II. passed part of the summer of 1874
in a Gterman health-resort taking the mineral wat-
ers. When not in the castle in which he was stay-
ing with his train he affected the life of an ordinary citizen.
He did so as much from necessity as from choice. Czar or
sub ject, the same water must be drunk at the same spot and
hour by all who seek its cure. Nor can any distinction
be made in the matter of the walk which the patient is to
take after draining his two or three gobletsful.

The promenade at a watering place is a great parade-
ground for the display of plumage^ the gayest and costliest
gowns being reserved for the procession that follows the
taking of the remedy; but while the race is under way and
everybody is striving to throw everybody else into the shade,
the fact of their being there pierces each dress as with
'* X '* rays, showing their flesh to be of the same fragile
clay.

So the Czar accepted the levelling effect of the place
good-naturedly and sought diversion in the unsustained
rdle of a common mortal. Unsustained, because he carried
his gigantic, beautiful form with a graceful self-importance
and a martial erectness that betrayed his incognito ev^

Digitized

by Google

2 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

in the open country stretches to which he would stroll off
in search of mild adventure and flirtation.

It was a late afternoon in the valley. The river glittered
crimson. The hills on the other side of the summer town
were capped by a sultry haze. Donkeys used in ascending
these hills were trotting about impishly or standing in
stupid row awaiting custom. The sun blazed down upon
a parade of a hundred countries^ including a jet black
prince from Africa^ a rajah^ a Chinaman in dazzling silks^
a wealthy Galician Jew in atlas, and a pasha with German
features.

The Czar, his immense figure encased in a light frock
coat of excellent fit, was sauntering along apparently un-
accompanied except by his terrier and cane. When saluted
he would raise his straw hat and nod his enormous well-
shaped head with a cordiality that bordered on good-
fellowship. He seemed to relish this exchange of cour-
tesies with people who were not his subjects in this little
republic of physical malady. It was as though he felt
apart from his autocratic self without feeling out of that
pampering atmosphere of deference and attention which
was his second nature; and he gave an effect of inhaling
his freedom as one does the first whiffs of spring air.

As to his fellow patients, they either discovered some-
thing majestic in the very dog that followed him, or were
struck by the knuckles of his ungloved hands, for example,
as if it were remarkable that they should be the same sort
of knuckles as their own. He was strikingly well-btiilt
and strikingly handsome. He wore thick close-cropped
side whiskers of the kind that is rarely becoming, but his
face they became very well indeed, adding majesty to ^
cast of large, clear-cut features. It was the most monaTch«
ical face of its time, and yet it was anything but a strong

Digitized

by Google

AN AFFRONT TO HIS CZAR. 8

face. His imposing side whiskers and moustache left bare
a full sensuous mouth and a plump weak chin; his blueiah
eyes gave forth suggestions of melancholy and anguish.
Interest in him was whetted by stories of his passion for
Princess Dolgoruki^ lady in waiting to the Czarina; so the
women at the watering place tried to decipher the tale of
his liaison in those sad amative eyes of his.

Two refined looking, middle-aged women attracted at-
tention by the bizarre simplicity with which one of them
was attired and coifEured. She was extremely pale and
made one think of an insane asylum or a convent. She
was grey, while her companion had auburn hair and was
shorter and flabbier of figure. They were ccmversing in
French, but it was not their native tongue. The one with
the grey hair was Pani Oginska^ a Polish woman; the
other a Eussian countess named Anna Nicolayevna Varova
(VaroflE). They had first met, in this watering place, less
than a fortnight ago, when a chat, in the course of which
they warmed to each other, led to tiie discovery that their
estates lay in neighbouring provinces in Little Eussia.
They were preceded by a slender youth of eighteen in a
broad-brimmed straw hat and a clean-shaven elderly little
man in one of soft grey felt. These were Prince Pavel
Alexeyevich Boulatofif, a son of the countess by a former
marriage, and Alexandre Alexandrovich Pievakin, his pri-
vate tutor, as well as one of his instructors at the gym-
nasium* of his native town. Pavel's straw hat was too
sedate for his childish face and was pushed down so low
that a delicately sculptured chin and mouth and the
turned up tip of a rudely hewn Eussian nose was all one
could see under its vast expanse of yellow brim. The old

*A classical Russian high school modelled after its Gennan name-

Digitized

by Google

4 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

man knew no German and this was his first trip abroad,
so his high-bom pupil, who had an advantage over him
in both these respects, was explaining things to him, with
an air at once patronising and respectful. Presently Pavel
interrupted himself.

" The Czar I '' he whispered, in a flutter. " The Czar ! ''
he repeated over his shoulder, addressing himself to his
mother.

Pievakin raised his glance, paling as he did so, but was
so overawed by the sight that he forthwith dropped his
eyes, a sickly expression on his lips.

When the men came face to face with their monarch
they made way and snatched oflE their hats as if they were
on fire. Countess Varoff, PavePs mother, curtseyed
deeply, her flaccid insignificant little body retreating
toward the side of the promenade and then sinking to the
ground; while the Polish woman proceeded on her way
stiflBy without so much as a nod of her head. The Czar
returned the greeting of the Russian woman gallantly and
disappeared in the rear of them.

The group walked on in nervous silence, the two women
now in the lead. When they reached a deserted spot the
youth suddenly flushed a violent red, and, thrusting out
his finely chiselled chin at his mother, he said, in quick
pugnacious full-toned accents as out of keeping with his
boyish figure as his hat :

"Mother, you are not going to keep up acquaintance
with a person who has offered an insult to our Czar.''

" Paul ! What has come over you ? '' the countess stam-
mered out, colouring abjectly as she paused.

'' I mean just what I say, mother.''

The elderly little man by his side looked on sheepishly,
the cold sweat standing in beads on his forehead.

Digitized

by Google

AN AFFRONT TO HIS CZAR. 5

^^ Don't mind this wUd boy, I beg of you/' Anna Nico-
layevna said to the Polish woman. ** Don't pay the least
attention to him. He imagines himself a full grown man,
but he is merely a silly boy and he gives me no end of
trouble. Don't take it ill, ma chere.'^ She rattled it off
in a great flurry of embarrassment, straining the boy back
tenderly, while she was condemning him.

^*I don't take it ill at all," Pani Oginska answered
tremulously. ^'He's perfectly right. Your acquaintance
has been a great pleasure to me, countess, but I can see
that my company at this place would be very inconvenient
to you. Adieu ! "

She walked off toward a row of new cottages, and Anna
Nicolayevna, the countess, stood gazing after her like one
petrified.

" You are a savage. Pasha," she whispered, in Eussian.

" Why am I ? I have done what is right, and you feel
it as well as I do,'' he returned hotly, in his sedate, com-
pact, combative voice, looking from her to his teacher.
When he was excited he sputtered out his sentences in
volleys, growling at his listener and seemingly about to
flounce off. This was the way he spoke now. ^^ Why am
I a savage? Can you afford to associate with a woman
who will behave in this impudent, in this rebellious man-
ner toward the Czar? Can you, now? "

"That's neither here nor there," she said, with irrita-
tion, as they resumed their walk. " She is a very unhappy
creature. All that she holds dear has been taken from her.
Her husband was hanged during the Polish rebellion and
now her son, a college student, has been torn from her
and is dying in prison of consumption. If you were not so
heartless you would have some pity on her."

** Her husband was hanged and her son is in prison and

Digitized

by Google

6 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

you wish to associate with her! Do you really? What
do you think of it, Alexandre Alexandrovich?''

^^ A very painful ineident," Pievakin murmured, wretch-
edly.

"As if I were eager for her company/' she returned,
timidly. " As if one could help the chance acquaintances
that fall into one's way while travelling. Besides, she is
no rebel. Indeed, she is one of the most charming women
I ever met, and to hear her story is enough to break a
heart of stone. You have no sympathy. Pasha.''

" She is no rebel ! Why, if she did in Russia what she
did here a minute ago she would be hustled oflE to Siberia
in short order, and it would serve her right, too. And
because I don't want my mother to go with such a person
I have no sympathy."

*^ Pardon me, Anna Nicolayevna," Pievakin interposed,
with embarrassed ardour, " but if I were you I should keep
out of her way. She is an unfortunate woman, but, God
bless her, — Pasha is right, I think."

"I should say I was," the boy said, triumphantly.
" She wouldn't dare do such a thing in Russia, would she?
But then in Russia a woman of that sort would have no
chance to do anything of the kind. Oh, I do hate the
Germans for exposing the Czar to these insults. It is
simply terrible, terrible. Couldn't they arrange it so that
he should not have to rub shoulders with every Tom, Dick
and Harry and be exposed to every sort of affront? And
yet when I say so I am a savage and have no heart." He
gnashed his teeth and burst into tears.

" Hush, dear, I didn't mean it. Don't be excited, now."

''But you did mean it; you know you did."

"Sh, calm down. Pasha," the old man besought him,
and Pavel's features softened.

Digitized

by Google

AN AFFRONT TO ms CZAR. 7

Alexandre Alexandrovich was the only teacher at the
high school of whom Pavel was fond. He was an old«
fashioned little man^ with cravats of a former generaticHi
and with features and movements which conveyed the im-
pression that he was forever making ready to bow. His
cackling good humour when the recitations were correct and
fluent, his distressed air when they were not; his mixed
timidity and quick temper — these things are recalled with
fond smiles in Miroslav. He was attached to both his
subjects and when put on his mettle by the attenti(»i of his
class he really knew how to put life into the dullest lesson.
On such occasions his timid manner would disappear, and
he would draw himself up, and go strutting back and forth
with long, defiant steps and hurling out his sentences like a
domineering rooster. It was only when a lesson of this
sort was suddenly disturbed by some sally from a scape-
grace of a pupil that Pievakin would fly into a passion
and then he would take to jumping about, tearing at his
own hair, and groaning as though with physical pain.

Pavel was perhaps the most ardent friend Alexandre
Alexandrovich had in all Miroslav. The young prince
was in a singular position at the gymnasium. Somehow
things were always done in a way to make one remember
that he was Prince Boulatoff and a nephew of the governor
of the province of which Miroslav was the capital. He
was the only boy who usually came to school in a carriage
and it seemed as though the imposing vehicle had the effect
of isolating him from the other boys. As to his teachers,
they took a peculiar tone with him — one of ill-concealed
reverence which would betray itself with all the more em-
phasis when they tried to take him to task. The upshot
was that most of the other pupils, including the only other
prince in the class /^who was also the wildest boy in it)

Digitized

by Google

8 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

kept out of PavePs way, while those who did not treated
him with a servility that was even more offensive to him
than the aloofness of the rest. He had made several at-
tempts to get on terms of good fellowship with two or three
of the boys he liked, but his own effort to laugh and frolic
with them had jarred on him like a false note. He had
finally settled down to a manner of haughty reticence, keep-
ing an observant eye on his classmates and finding a
peculiar pleasure in these silent observations.

The only two teachers who did not indulge him were
Pievakin and the teacher of mathematics, a cheerful hunch-
back with a pale distended face lit by a pair of comical
blue eyes, whom the boys had dubbed *^ truncated cone.'*
The teacher of mathematics made Pavel feel his excep-
tional position by treating him with special harshness. As
to Pievakin, who had begun by addressing the aristocratic
youth with an embarrassed air, he had gradually adopted
toward him a manner of fatherly superiority that devel-
oped in the boy's heart a filial attachment for the old
pedagogue. In order to increase his income Pavel had
made him his private tutor, although he stood high in his
class and needed no such assistance, and this summer, when
the old man complained of rheumatism, he had caused his

mother to invite him to the German resort.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

When they reached their hotel the countess unburdened
herself to her son's tutor of certain memories which inter-
ested her now far more than did her unexpected rupture
with the Polish woman. She described a court ball at St.
Petersburg at which the present Czar, then still Czaro-
witch, conversed for five minutes with her. She treated
the gymnasium teacher partly as she would her priest,
partly as if he were her butler, and now, in her burst of

Digitized

by Google

AN AFFRONT TO HIS CZAR- 9

reminiscence^ she overhauled her past to him with the
whole-hearted^ childlike abandon which is characteristic of
her race and which put the humble old teacher ill at ease.
"He told me to take good care of my 'pretty eyes and
golden eyebrows/ '* she said. " And yet it was for these
very eyebrows that PaveFs father disliked me."

She had been the pet daughter of a wealthy nobleman^
high in the service of the ministry for foreign affairs, but
Pavel's father, and her living husband, from whom she
was now practically separated, had almost convinced her
that to be disliked was her just share in life. Her parents
and sisters were dead. She had a little boy by her seccmd
marriage, but she was still in love with the shadow of her
first husband, and the son he had left her was the one
passion of her life. Having spent her youth in the two
foreign countries to which her father's diplomatic career
took the family, she deprecated, in a dim unformulated
way, many of the things that surrounded her in her native
land. She was unable to reconcile her luminous image of
the Emperor with the mediaeval cruelties that were being
perpetrated by his order. She was at a loss to understand
how such a gentle-hearted man could send to the gallows
or to the living graves of Siberia people like the Polish
patriots. The compulsory religion of the Orthodox Rus-
sian Church, too, with its iron-clad organisation and
grotesque uniforms, impressed her as a kind of spiritual
gendarmerie. Yet she accepted it all as part of that pan-
orama of things which whispered the magic word,
*' Russia.'* And now the sight of the Czar had rekindled
memories of her better days and stirred in her a submissive
sense of her cheerless fate.

Pavel was meanwhile putting the case of the Polish
woman to Onuf ri, one of the two servants who accompanied

Digitized

by Google

10 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

them in their present travels — a retired hussar with a
formidable moustache in front of a pinched hollow-cheeked
face.

*^ Her highness, your mother, is good as an angel, sir,**
was Onufri^s verdict.

*^And you are stupid as a cork,** Pavel snarled. His
sense of the desecration to which the person of his Czaar
was being subjected by mingling with people like the widow
of a hanged rebel rankled in his heart. He worked him-
self up to a state of mind in which the very similarity in
physical appearance between the xmtitled people with
whom the Czar and bom aristocrats like himself and his
mother were compelled to mingle at a place like this resort
struck him as an impertinence on the part of the xmtitled
people.

Later when he lay between two German f eatherbeds and
Onuf ri brought him his book and a candle he asked him
to take a seat by his bedside.

"Why are you such a deuced fool, Onufri? **

*' If I am it is God*s business, not mine, nor your high-
ness*.*'

"Look here, Onufri. How would you like to have all
common people black like those darkies?**

The servant spat out in horror and made the sign of the
cross.

" For shame, sir. What harm have the common people
done you tiiat you should wish them a horrid thing like
that? And where does your highness get these cruel
thoughts? Surely not from your mother. For shame,
sir.*'

"Idiot that you are, it*s mere fancy, just for fun.
There ought to be some difference between noble people
and common. There is in some countries, you know."

Digitized

by Google

AN AFFRONT TO HIS CZAR. 11

He told him about castes^ the slave trade in America and
passed to the days of ehivalry, his f ayoarite topie^ until the
retired hussar's head sank and a mighty snore rang out of
his bushy moustache. Fayel flew into a passion.

^^ Ass I '' he shouted, getting half out of bed and shaking
him fiercely. " Why don't I fall asleep when you tell me
stories?''

Onufri started and fell to rubbing one eye, while with
his other eye he looked about him, as though he had slept
a week. The stories he often told young BoulatoS mostly
related to the days of serfdom, which had been abolished
when Fayd was a boy of five. Onuf ri's mother had been
flogged to death in the presence of her master, Favel's
grandfather, and the former hussar would tell the story
with a solemnity that reflected his veneration for the
*^good old times'' rather than grief over the fate of his
mother.

That night Pavel dreamed of a pond full of calves that
were splashing about and laughing in the water. He car-
ried them all home and on his way there they were trans-
formed into one pair, and the two calves walked about and
talked just like Onufri and the transformation was no
transformation at all, the calves being real calves and
negroes at the same time. When he awoke, in the morn-
ing, and it came over him that the dream had had some*
thing to do with Onufri, he was seized with a feeling of
self-disgust. He thought of the Polish woman and his
treatment of her, and this, too, appeared in a new light to
him.

Two or three hours later, when the coxmtess returned
from her morning walk Pavel, dressed to go out, grave
and mysterious, solemnly handed her a sealed note from
himself.

Digitized

by Google

12 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

" Don't open it until I have left/' he said. ^^ I am going
out for a stroll/'

*^ What you said yesterday about my being hard-hearted
and incapable of sympathy/' the letter read, " left a deep
impression on me. I thought of it almost the first thing
this morning as I opened my eyes, and it kept me think-
ing all the morning. I looked deep into my soul, I over-
hauled my whole ego. I turned it inside out, and — well,
I must say I have come to the conclusion that what you
said was not devoid of foundation. Not that I am pre-
pared to imagine ourselves as having anything to do with a
woman whose family is a family of rebels and who has the
audacity to pass our emperor without bowing; but she
is a human being, too, and her sufferings should have
aroused some commiseration in me. I envy you, mother.
Compared to you I really am a hard-hearted, unfeeling
brute, and it makes me very, very unhappy to think of it.
My heart is so full at this moment that I am at a loss to
give expression to what I feel, but you will understand me,
darling little mother mine. I do not want to be hard aHd
cruel, and I want you lo help me.

'^ Your struggling son.

When Anna Nicolayevna laid down the letter her large
meek grey eyes first grew red and then filled with tears.
She sat with her long slim arms loosely folded on a daven-
port, weeping and smiling at once. There was much
charm in her smile, but, barring it and her mass of fine
auburn hair, she was certainly not good looking. She was
small, ungainly, fiat-chested, with a large thin-lipped
mouth and, in spite of her beautiful gowns, with a general
effect of rustiness.

Digitized

by Google

AN AFFRONT TO HIS CZAR. 18

When Pavel and his mother met at dinner he felt so
embarrassed he could not bring himsell to look her in the
face.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER II.

THE WHITE TERROR.

MIBOSLAV was trisected longitudinally by a clear,
cheerful river and by Kasimir Street, its principal
thoroughfare, which contained most of its public
buildings and best shops. The middle one of the three
sections thus formed was the home of the higher nobility
and the ofl&cial class; the district across the bridge from
here was inhabited by Christian burghers and workmen,
with here and there a clay hovel, the home of a peasant
family, gleaming white in the distant outskirts ; while the
hilly quarter beyond Kasimir Street was the seat of Jewish
industry and Jewish poverty, part of this neighbourhood
being occupied by the market places and "the Paradise,*^
as the slums of the town were called ironically. The gov-
ernor's house, which faced Governor's Prospect — a small
square with a fountain in the centre — and Anna Nicol-
ayevna's were the two most imposing buildings in Miroslav.
The countess' residence was the only structure in town
that had a colonnaded front. The common people called
it the Palace and the section of Kasimir Street it faced
the Pillars. The sidewalk opposite was the favourite prom-
enade of the younger generation, and every afternoon, in
auspicious weather, it glittered with the uniforms of army
officers and gymnasiimi boys. The Palace was built by
her grandfather in the closing days of the previous cen-

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR. 15

tury. It abutted on a long narrow lane formed on one
side by Anna Nicolayevna's garden and leading to Theatre
Square, where stood the playhouse and the Nobles' Club.
When the white rigidity of these buildings was relieved
by the grass of its lawns and the foliage of its trees the
spot was the joy of the town,

During the winter of the year following the countess'
sojourn at the German watering place, Miroslav was stirred
by a sensation, the central figure of which was PaveFs
tutor, the instructor of geography and history in the local
gymnasium, Alexandre Alexandrovich Pievakin. Pavel
was then in the graduating class.

Besides being connected with the male gymnasium Piev-
akin taught at the female high school of Miroslav. The
town was fond of him and he was fond of the town and
upon the whole he was contented. One of the things that
galled him was the fact that his superior, the newly ap-
pointed director of the school, was his inferior both in
years and in civil rank. Pievakin was a "councillor of
state,'' while Novikoff, the head of the male gymnasium,
was only a "collegiate assessor." Novikoff was a pains-
taking, narrow-minded fimctionary, superciliously proud
of his oflBce and slavishly loyal to the letter of the law.
He was a slender, dark-complexioned man of forty, but
he tried to look much older and heavier. He copied the
Czar's side-whiskers, walked like a corpulent grandee, per-
petually pulling at his waistcoast as though he were bur-
dened by a voluminous paunch, and interlarded his speech
with aphorisms from the Latin Grammar.

One day as the director strutted ponderously along one
of the two corridors, the word " parliament '* fell on his
ear. It was Pievakin's voice. The old man was explain-
ing something to his class with great ardour. Novikoff

Digitized

by Google

16 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

paused, his lordly walk congealing into the picture of dig-
nified attention. The next minute, however, his grandeur
melted away. His face expressed imfeigned horror.
Pievakin was drawing an effusive parallel between absolute
monarchies and limited. This was distinctly in violation
of the Circular of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment
enjoining teachers of geography, in cases of this kind, to
adhere strictly to the bare terminology of the approved
text-book without venturing into anything like an elucidar-
tion. Not that Pievakin was betraying any partiality for
limited monarchies. Indeed, to him the distinction be-
tween the two forms of government was neither of more
nor of less interest than the difference between a steppe
and a prairie or a simoon and a hurricane. It appealed
to him because it was geography, and in his ecstacy over
the lesson all thought of the Ministry and its Circulars
had escaped his mind.

That afternoon he was summoned to the director's office
on the floor below.

Novikoff was at his large, flat-topped desk, studiously
absorbed in some papers. He silently motioned the teacher
of geography to a seat, and went on with his feigned work.
After a lapse of some minutes he straightened up, played
a few scales upon the brass buttons of his uniform, and
said:

"It pains me to have to say it, Alexandre Alexandro-
vich, but these are queer times and the passions of youth
should be moderated, held in check, suppressed, not
aroused. The imagination of one's pupils is not to be
trifled with, Alexandre Alexandrovich.''

He paused mournfully. The little old man, who had
not the least idea what he was driving at, waited in con-
sternation. The room was overheated, and the pause had

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR. 17

an overpowering effect on him. He felt on the verge of
fainting.

** The point is/* Novikoff resumed, with a sudden spurt
in his voice, '^ that in your class work you sometimes suffer
yourself to say things that cannot but be regarded as dan-
gerous. Dangerous particularly in view of the evil in-
fluences at work among the yoimg of our generation; in
view of the very sad fact that college students will disguise
themselves as peasants '*

" What do you mean, sir ? '* Pievakin burst out, redden-
ing violently. " How dare you liken me to those fellows?
I was serving the Czar while you were still a whipper-
snapper. Tm a councillor of state, sir. How dare you
make these insinuations? ''

"I expected as much,** Novikoff answered, nervously
polishing his buttons. "Defying one's superior is of a
piece with the views you*re trying to instill into the minds
of your scholars.**

" What is in keeping with what? Speak out, sir,** Piev-
akin shrieked.

" Bridle your temper, sir. I can*t allow that.**

" Then tell me what it*s all about,** the teacher of his-
tory and geography said in a queer, half-beseeching, half-
threatening voice.

"Well, this morning you were expatiating upon the
blessings of a constitutional government. Yes, sir. There
are no spies to eavesdrop on one in this building, but it
seems you never speak so loud nor with so much gusto as
when you get to the subject of constitutions and parlia-
ments and things of that kind.**

"It isn*t true. I merely said a word or two on the
various forms of government. If s practically all in Smir-
noffs Geography.**

Digitized

by Google

18 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" ^ Practically ^ ! If s against the law. I am very sorry,
but it becomes my duty to report it to the curator/'

Here Pievakin, losing control of himself, shouted
" Spy ! '* and " Scoundrel ! '^ and darted out of the room.

This happened at a time when the " peasantist '^ move-
ment, the peaceful, unresisting stage in the history of what
is commonly known as Nihilism, was at its height. The
educated young generation was in an ecstasy of altruism.
It was the period of " going to the people,^' when hundreds
of well-bred men and women, children of the nobility,
would don peasant garb and go to share the life of the
tillers of the soil, teaching them to read, talking to them
of universal love, liberty and equality. The government
punished this " going to the people " with Asiatic severity.
Russia has no capital punishment for the slaying of com-
mon mortals, the average penalty for murder being about
ten years of penal servitude in Siberia; and this penalty
the courts were often ordered to impose on absolutely
peaceable missionaries, on university students who prac-
tically did the same kind of work as that pursued by the
'* university settlements'' in English-speaking countries.
There were about one thousand of these propagandists in
the political prisons of the empire, and their number was
growing. They were kept in solitary confinement in cold,
damp cells. Scores of them went insane or died of con-
sumption, scurvy or suicide before their cases came up for

trial.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Pievakin's house was searched by gendarmes, but no
" imderground " literature was discovered there. He was
mot arrested, but spies shadowed his movements and about
a month after the domiciliary visit he was oflScially notified
by the curator's office that he was to be transferred to the

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR. 19

four-year ** progynmasium '^ of a small town a considerable
distance off. This implied that his work was to be re-
stricted to boys of fourteen and less in a town out of the way
of ^^ dangerous tendencies/' He grew thin and haggard
and a certain look of fright never left his eye. The other
instructors at the gymnasium, all except one, and many of
his private acquaintance plainly shunned him. He had be-
come one of those people with whom one could not come
in contact without attracting the undesirable attenticm of
the police. One of those who were not afraid to be seen
in his company was the '^ truncated cone.'' " My crooked
back is the only one that does not bend/' the deformed man
would joke. The tacit philosophy of his attitude toward
the world seemed to be something like this : ** You people
won't consider me one of you. I am only a hunchback,
something like an elf, and you will take many an unwel-
come truth from me which you would resent in one like
yourselves. So let us proceed on this understanding."

When Boulatoff heard that his favourite teacher was to
be exiled to a small town "to render him harmless," he
was shocked. Alexandre Alexandrovich Pievakin was the
last man in the world he would have suspected to be guilty
of seditious agitation. His only idol at school was thus
shattered. Pievakin had not the courage to visit the coun-
tess' house now, and Pavel, on his part, held aloof from
him. The old man was hateful to him, not only as a rebel,
but also as an impostor and a hypocrite. He felt duped.
His blood rankled with disgust and resentment. At the
same time the situation did not seem quite clear to him.
Something puzzled him, although he could not have put his
finger on it.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE III.

PIBVAKIN PLEADS GUILTY.

A LESSON in Latin was in progress. The teacher was
a blond Czech. Pavel looked at him intently, try-
ing to follow the exercises, but he only became
the more aware of the foreigner's struggles with Russian
and made the discovery that his clumsy carriage, as he
walked up and down the room, was suggestive of a peasant
woman trying to catch a chicken. His thoughts passed to
Pievakin and almost at the same instant a question flashed
into his brain : If Pievakin was imreliable politically, why,
then, was he getting off so easily ? How was it that instead
of being cut off from the living world, instead of being
thrown into a dungeon to waste and perish, as was done
with all fellows of that sort, he was merely transferred
to another school?

The bell sounded. The Czech put his big flat record-
book under his arm and left the room. Most of the pupils
went out soon after. The two long corridors were bub-
bling with boys in blue, a-glitter with nickel-plated buttons
and silver galloon, some laughing over their experience
with the lesson just disposed of, others eagerly reviewing
the one soon to be recited. Pievakin passed along. The
pupils bowed to him with curious sympathetic looks, and
he returned their salutes with an air of mixed timidity
and gratitude. Presently the teacher of mathematics

Digitized

by Google

PIEVAKIN PLEADS GUILTY, 21

emerged from one of the glass doors, his deformity bulging
through the blue broadcloth of his uniform.

" Alexandre Alexandrovich! '^ he shouted demonstrative-
ly, and catching up with him he threw his arm around his
waist.

Pavel, who had been watching the scene, was about to
return to his class-room so as to avoid bowing to Pievakin,
when, by a sudden impulse, he saluted the two teachers,
and advancing to meet them, with that peculiar air of
politeness which reminded his classmates of his equipage
and the colonnade in front of his mother^s mansion, he
accosted the instructor of history and geography, turning
pale as he did so:

*^May I speak to you, Alexandre Alexandrovich?**
When the mathematician had withdrawn, he inquired in
a tone of pain and concern : " What has happened, Alex-
andre Alexandrovich?**

*^ Oh, I*m in trouble, prince,** the old man faltered. He
had never addressed the youth by his title before, and there
was a note of abject supplication in his voice, as if the
boy could help him. His face had a pinched, cowed look.

*^But, Alexandre Alexandrovich, it's a terrible thing
they are accusing you of. You*ve been so dear to me,
Alexandre Alexandrovich. I want to know all. I cannot
rest, Alexandre Alexandrovich.**

*^The story is easily told. A misfortune has befallen
me. While touching upon the constitutional form of gov-
ernment, I was somewhat carried away. That I don*t
deny. I know it was wrong of me, but I assure you,
prince, I meant no harm.**

It sounded as though he were a pleading pupil and the
boy before him his teacher.

Pavel was touched and perplexed.

Digitized

by Google

22 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

^^But that's in the text-book, Alexandre Alexandro-
vich/'

*^ To be sure it is. Only the text-book merely uses the
term without explaining it, while I, absent-mindedly, pro-
ceeded to do so, which is against the rules, and, as ill luck
would have it, I warmed up a bit. When I was first asked
about it I was not aware of having done any wrong. I
was so shocked, in fact, I lost my temper. That was the
worst of it. I am a ruined man, prince. Thiriy-six years
have -I served the Czar and there is not a blemish on my
record."

" But why should you call yourself a ruined man, Alex-
andre Alexandrovich,'' Pavel said impetuously. "I don't
see why it should be too late to straighten it all out. I'm
going to see my uncle. Or, better still, my mother will
see him. We can't let it go that way. We should all
be a lot of scoundrels if we did. I'm going to tell him so."

*^ Do it, prince, if you can," the old man said with shame-
faced eagerness. *^ I shall never forget it."

♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦

When Pavel came home he found his mother's sleigh in
front of the main entrance, her coachman in dazzling at-
tire, waiting with pompous stolidity. When the liveried
porter threw the door open to him and he entered the ves-
tibule he saw coming down the immense staircase his moth-
er and his five-year-old half-brother, Kostia, dressed for
their afternoon drive, Anna Nicolayevna in her furs and
the little fellow in the costume of a Caucasian horseman,
which became his grave little face charmingly. Following
at some distance, with a smile of admiration, half servile,
half sincere, on her fresh Gterman face, was Kostia's gov-
erness. She was not dressed for a drive. She was merely
going to see her charge off.

Digitized

by Google

PIEVAKIN PLEADS GUILTY. 23

" Mother, I am afraid I shall have to detain you," Pavel
said, solemnly. ^^ I wish to speak to you about Alexandre
Alexandrovich."

*' Won't it keep? " she asked, with a facetious gesture.

^' Don't make fun of it, mother,'' he reproached her.
" If s a serious matter. My head is in a whirl."

Kostia was burning to show himself in public in his new
Circassian cap and when he saw his mother yield he
screwed up his face for a cry, but he forthwith straight-
ened it out again. He scarcely ever cried in Pavel's pres-
ence for fear of being called '^ damsel " by him — an ap-
pellation he dreaded more than being locked up alone in
the schoolroom.

They went into Anna Nicolayevna's favorite sitting-
room, a square chamber furnished and decorated in tan, in
no particular style, but with an eye to the combined sug-
gestions of old-time solidity and latter-day elegance. It
was the embodiment of rest and silence, an eflfect to which
two life-sized bronze statues — a Diana and a Venus de
Medicis — and the drowsy ticking of an ancient clock
contributed not a little. It was known as the English
room because its former furnishings had been modelled
after London standards.

Pavel painted Pievakin as a penitent, broken spirit till
Anna Nicolayevna's eyes grew red.

''Still, maybe he does hold dangerous views?" she
asked.

"Dangerous nothing! Ifs all nonsense. He's more
loyal than Novikoff anyhow, for Novikoflf is a soulless, atti-
tudinising nincompoop, while he is the kindliest, most
conscientious, most soulful man in the world."

" Unfortunately all this has nothing to do with loyaliy,"
she said; sadly. " This is a very queer world, Pasha. Ifs

Digitized

by Google

24 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

just like those wretches who would do away with czars to
be warm-hearted and good to everybody. They don't be-
lieve there ought to be rich and poor, eitiier. When you
come across a man of this sort keep away from him.
Pasha/'

"But what has that got to do with Pievakin?'' he
shouted. " The very sight of a Nihilist would be enough
to frighten him out of his wits. I want you to tell it all to
uncle, mamman. Give him no peace until he promises
you to write to the curator about the poor old man.''

The governor of Miroslav was a BoulatoflE, being a cousin
of Pavel's deceased father; but he was also related to the
young man by marriage to his mother's sister, who had
died less than a year ago. Anna Nicolayevna promised to
see her brother-in-law the next morning, but Pavel would
not wait. He pleaded, he charged her with heartlessness,
tapping the thick rug with his foot and shaking all over
as he spoke, until she agreed to go at once.

While she was gone Pavel and Kostia went into the ball
room and played "hunter and partridge," a game of the
gymnasium boys' inventing. They had not been many
minutes at it before Pavel had forgotten all about the
errand on which he had despatched his mother and the
vast ball room echoed with his voluminous laughter. His
great pleasure was to tease Kostia imtil the little boy's
moutii would begin to twitch, and then to shake his finger
at him and say: "Better not cry, Kostia, or you know
what I am going to call you." Whereupon Kostia would
make a desperate effort to look nonchalantly grave and
Pavel would burst into a new roar of merriment.

Anna Nicolayevna came back converted to a rigorous
point of view, and although her son had no difficulty in
convincing her once again that Pievakin deserved mercy, he

Digitized

by Google

PIEVAKIN PLEADS GUILTY. 26

made up his mind to see his unde himself^ and he did so
the very next morning.

Gtovernor Boulatoff was a massive^ wom^ blinking old
satrap^ shrewdy tight-fisted^ and^ what was quite unusual
for a man of his class^ with an eye to business. His nose
was extremely broad and fleshy^ his hair was elaborately
dressed^ and altogether he looked like a successful old
comedian. Bribe-giving was as universal in Miroslav as
tipping was in its leading caf & One could not turn round
witiiout showing *^ gratitude.*' The wheels of government
would not move in the desired direction unless they were
greased, the price of this ** grease '* or " gratitude *' vary-
ing all the way from a ten-copeck piece to ten or fifteen
thousand rubles. Governor Boulatoff^ who had come to
Miroslav a ruined man, was now the largest land-owner in
the province. Whenever he was in need of ready cash he
would galvanize into a new lease of life some defunct piece
of anti-Jewish legislation. This was known among the
other officials as ** pressing the spring'* — the spring of
the Jewish pocketbook, that is, the invariable effect of the
proceeding being the appearance of a delegation with a
snug piece of Jewish "gratitude.'' He was continually
sneering at the powers behind the throne, and mildly striv-
ing for recognition; yet so comfortable did he feel in this
city of gardens, card-playing and " gratitude," from which
" the Czar was too far off and God too high up," that he
was in mortal fear lest the promotion which he coveted
should come in the form of a transfer to a more important
province.

Pavel found him in his imposing '*den." The old
potentate was in his morning gown, freshly bathed, shaved
and coiffured and smelling of pomade and cigarette smoke.

" Well, my little statesman," he greeted him in French.

Digitized

by Google

26 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

*^What brings you sa early this morning? Aren't you
going to school at all ? '^ He called him statesman because
of his ambition to follow ill the footsteps of his diplomatic
grandfather.

*^I shall stay away from the first three lessons/' Pavel
answered. " I cannot rest, uncle. I want to speak to you
about that unfortimate man.''

The governor was very fond of Pavel, but he persisted
in treating him as a boy, and the only serious talk young
Boulatoff got out of him regarding Pievakin was an ex-
hortation to give " men of that sort a wide berth."

^' But, uncle "

*^ Don't argue," the governor interrupted him, blinking
as he spoke. " This is not the kind of thing for a boy of
your station to get mixed up in."

*' Oh, it's enough to drive one crazy. The poor man is
sincerely repentant, imcle. He'll never do it again,
uncle."

*^I see you're quite excited over it. Just the kind of
effect fellows of that stamp will have on the mind of a boy.
This is just where the danger comes in. Don't forget your
name. Pasha. Come, throw it all out of your clever little
head. There's a good boy."

" Uncle darling, hell never do it again. Lei him stay
where he is."

" You're a foolish boy. Whether he'll do it again or no,
his very presence in this town would be a source of danger.
Whoever sets his eyes on him will say to himself : * Here
is the man who once talked of the way people live under
a constitution.' So you see he'll be a reminder of unlaw-
ful ideas. We have no use for fellows of this sori They
are like living poison. Do you see the point? Let your
teacher thank his stars the case was not put in the hands

Digitized

by Google

PIEVAKIN PLEADS GUILTY. 27

of the gendarmes entirely^ or he would be sent to a colder
place/'

All this the governor said in the playful manner of one
conversing with a child and^ by way of clinching the mat-
ter^ he explained that he had nothing to do with the case
and that it was under the jurisdiction of the ^' curator of
educational district/'

Pavel was in despair and his being treated as a boy
threw him into a rage^ but he held himself in check for
Pievakin's sake.

"Oh, the curator will do anything you ask of him,
uncle,'' he said in a tone of entreaty and resentment at
once.

'' You don't want your uncle to write letters begging for
a fellow who was foolish enough to get mixed up in such an
affair as that, do you? I used to think you really cared
for your imcle."

Pavel contracted his forehead and put out his chin
sullenly.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE IV.

AT the hour of Pievakin^s departure the Miroslav rail-
way station was crowded with gymnasium pupils
of both sexes, but Pavel was not among them. He
had not been informed that such a gathering was in con-
templation at all.

Alexandre Alexandrovich, a satchel slung across his
breast, wan and haggard, but flushed with excitement, was
bustling about in a listless, mechanical way. He was ac-
companied by his large family and the teacher of math-
ematics. A number of gendarmes, stalwart, bewhiskered,
elaborately formidable, were pacing up and down the large
waiting room. The gendarmerie is the political police of
the Czar. It forms a special military organisation quite
distinct from the police proper. A detail of such gen-
darmes, proportionate to the importance of the place, is to
be found in every railroad station of the country. On this
occasion, however, the presence of the gendarmes seemed
to have some special bearing upon the nature of the scene.
They were all big strapping fellows. Their jingling spurs,
red epaulets and icy silence belonged to the same category
of things as the terrible political prisons of KharkofE and
St. Petersburg; as the clinking of convict-chains, as the
froz^i wastes of Siberia.
All at once most of the bespurred men disappeared.

Digitized

by Google

THE "DEMONSTRATION.^ 29

After an absence of two or three minutes they came back^
considerably re-enforced.

^^All gymnasium pupils^ ladies and gentlemen^ will
please leave the station/' they called out.

About one-half of the throng struck out for the doors as
if the place were on fire. Some fifteen or twenly pupils
stood stilly frowning upon the guardians of the Czar's
saf ety, in timid defiance. The rest^ a crowd of about two
hundred, made a lunge in the direction of the comer where
Alexandre Alezandrovich and his family were pottering
about some light baggage, when three lusty gendarmes
planted themselves in front of the little old man.

^^ Go home, ladies and gentlemen, go home 1 '' Pievakin
besought his friends, waving his hands and stamping his
feet desperately.

" Have we no right to say good-bye to our own teacher ? **
one boy ventured.

'' Not allowed ! '' a gendarme answered, sternly. *' Get
out, get out!''

The crowd surged back; but at this point a young
feminine voice, sonorous with indignation and distress,
rose above the din of the scramble:

" Good heavens ! Can it be that we shall leave without
saying good-bye to our dear teacher? All they say of him
is a lie, a malicious lie. They're a lot of knaves, and he
is the best man in the world. Let them arrest us if thejr
will, let them kill us. It would be a shame if we went
away like traitors to our dear teacher."

The rest was lost in a hubbub of shouts and shrieks. In
their effort to get at the speaker, who was shielded by the
other pupils, the gendarmes were beating young women
with their sheathed swords or pulling them by the hair.
With the exception of a few who had skulked out through

Digitized

by Google

30 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

back doors, the young people now all stood their ground,
ready to fight.

"Arrest us all!'' they yelled. "We all say the same
thing."

" Yes, Alexandre Alexandrovich is the best man in the
world. There!''

" A better man than Novikoff ! "

*^ NovikoflE is a hypocrite and a rogue ! "

In the commotion the gendarmes lost sight of the girl
they were about to arrest. She could not have left the
room, but then it was not easy to tell her from any of the
other girls. The gendarmes had seen her at a distance,
and all they could say was ^that she was blonde. In their
eagerness to pick her out, they were rudely scanning every
young woman in the waiting-room. Had she been arrested
it would have gone hard with her. As good luck would
have it, however. Major SafonoflE, the oflBcer in command
of the railroad gendarmes, was the brother of one of tiie
girls present. He was a plump, good-natured bachelor,
and his devotion to his sister, who had been under his
care since she was a year old, was a source of jests and
anecdotes. When it occurred to him that the conflict,
which was beginning to look like a serious affair, was likely
to cause trouble to his sister, he hastened to make light
of it.

** Go home, ladies and gentlemen,*' he said, in a remon-
strative amicable voice, taking the matter in his own
hands.

His friendly tone and his smiling fat face, added to the
tacit understajiding that the girl who had made the speech
was not to be persecuted, acted as a balm; but the flatter-
ing notion that the gendarmes had surrendered kindled new
fighting blood.

Digitized

by Google

THE " DEMONSTRATION.'' 31

*' Your men have hit ladies. They've no right to hit any-
body. They're a lot of brutes. All we wanted was to say
good-bye to Alexandre Alexandrovich.*'

^^But thafs impossible^ so what's the use getting ex-
cited, gentlemen? Better go home."

The pupils obeyed^ in a leisurely way, as though leaving
of their own accord.

« « « « *

During the following few weeks this ** victory '' over the
gendarmes was the great topic of discussion. The person-
ality of the girl who ** started the demonstration" was
emblazoned with the halo of heroism. The curious part of
it was that only a minority of those who had participated
in the scene had any idea who she was. When the crowd
at the railroad station had dispersed, the handful that
knew her whispered her name to some of those who did
not, so that the number of pupils in the secret was by now
comparatively large, but it was a '* revolutionary " secret,
so it was guarded most zealously against imreliable pupils
as well as against the authorities.

One of the page-proofs of the Miroslav Messenger that
were sent to the censor at midnight contained the following
paragraph :

** Alexandre Alexandrovich Pievakin, for many years in-
structor of History and Gteography at our male gymnasium,
left for his new place of service yesterday afternoon. A
large number of gymnasium pupils were at the railway
station."

The entire paragraph was stricken out, so that the MeS"
senger next morning contained not the remotest reference
to the departure of the old teacher.

When Pasha heard what had happened at the railway
station his heart sank.

Digitized

by Google

32 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" I must speak to you, mother/' he gasped out, bursting
into her room, after school time. When her companion, a
dried-up little Frenchwoman with a thriving streak of
black moustache, had withdrawn, he said : " Mother, I am
a miserable egoist and a scoundrel/' He told her the story
of Pievakin's departure. His dear old teacher was in
trouble, the victim of a cruel injustice, yet he. Pasha, had
not even thought of going to see him oflE. Everybody had
been there except him. But what tantalised him more
than anything else was the fact that a girl was the only
person who had taken a brave noble stand in the old man's
behalf. This hurt his knightly sense of honour cruelly.
He should have been on the scene and done exactly what
that girl had done.

^' I'm an egoist and a coward, mamman. I hate myself.
Oh, I do hate myself ! "

Anna Nicolayevna's eyes grew red. She had an impulse
to fold him in her arms and to ofiEer to take him to Pieva-
kin's new place so that he might protest his sympathy and
affection for the old man, but her instinct told her that
this would be improper. Oh, there were so many things
that made a strong appeal to one's better feelings which
were considered improper. So she emitted a sigh of res-
ignation and said nothing.

Pavel was pacing the floor so vehemently that he came
near running into and knocking down the life-sized Diana.
He walked with rapid heavy steps until his brain grew
dizzy and his despair was dulled as from the effect of
drink. Suddenly the situation rushed back upon him.

" I tell you what, mother, he's too good for them," he
said, stopping in front of her. ** He is better than uncle,
anyhow."

*'Hush, you mustn't say that."

Digitized

by Google

THE "DEMONSTRATION.'* 83

''The devil I mustn't. Ifs true.**

"You are impossible. Pasha. Can't you calm down?''

** 111 tell you calmly, then : uncle is a bribe-taker and a
heartless egoist. There."

" Dear me," she said, in consternation.

"But you know he is, mother. And do you call that
loyalty to the Czar? Pievakin is pure as an infant. If
the Czar knew the real character of both, he would know
that the poor man could give uncle points in loyalty."

A few days after this conversation the governor dined at
'* The Palace," as Countess VaroflPs residence was known
among the common people of Miroslav. Pavel refused to
leave his room. When Anna Nicolayevna pleaded his
uncle's affection for him, he said :

" His affection be hanged. Who wants the affection of
a bribe-taker who will let an honest man perish? Look
here, mother, you have no business to tell him I have
a headache. I want him to know the truth. Tell him
if 8 men like himself, bribe-takers, cowards, who spread
sedition, not men like Pievakin. ' Living poison,' indeed I
Tell him he is a lump of living poison himself. Oh, I hate
him, I do hate him."

His brain was working feverishly. The image of Pieva-
kin with three gendarmes between him and a crowd of
pupils haimted him. Why could he not be pardoned?
Was there no mercy in this world? His sense of the
cruelty of the thing and of his own helplessness seized
him as with a violent clutch again and again.

Once, as he was reviewing the situation for the thou-
sandth time, a voice in him exclaimed: "Pardoned?
What was Pievakin to be pardoned for? What had he
done? Why should it be wrong to dwell on the vital fea-
tures of parliamentary government? Such governments

Digitized

by Google

34 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

existed, didn't they? And if they did, then why should
one be forbidden to explain their essence? For the first
time did his attention fix itself on this point, and ques-
tions came crowding upon him. Where was the sense
of having such terms as " limited monarchy *' in the text-
book at all, if the pupils were not to be told what this
meant? Above all, why should the government be afraid
of such explanations? There seemed to be something
cowardly, sneaking, about all this which jarred on Pavel's
sense of the knightly magnificence of the Czar and left him
with a bad taste in the mouth, as the phrase is.

Alexandre Alexandrovich, then, had done no wrong,
and yet he had been banished as '^ living poison,'' treated
by everybody as a criminal, until he came to believe himself
one. Why, of course he was better than Novikoff. Novi-
kofif was a self-seeking, posing wretch, and all the other
teachers were cringing and crouching before him ; and these
insects turned their backs upon Alexandre Alexandrovich 1
Corruption passed for loyalty, and a really good man was
persecuted, hunted down like a wild beast, trampled upon.
*' Trampled upon, trampled upon, trampled upon 1 '' Pavel
whispered audibly, stamping his foot and gnashing his
teeth as he did so.

The only gleam of light was the veiled figure of that
gymnasium girl. She alone had had sympathy and cour-
age enough to raise her voice for the poor man. ^' Why,
she is a perfect heroine," he said in his aching heart.

At the gymnasium he felt his loneliness more keenly
than ever. Wherever he saw a cluster of boys, he felt sure
they were whispering about the gendarmes and the girl
who had made the " speech " at the railroad station. His
pride was gone. He now saw himself an outcast, shut out
of the most important things life contained.

Digitized

by Google

THE "DEMONSTRATION/' 85

The leader of the ^^ serious-minded ** boys in Pavel's class
was an underfed Jewish youih^ with an anssmic chalky
face and a cold intelligent look, named El kin. To Pavel
he had always been repugnant. Since Pievakin's depart-
ure, however, the aristocratic boy had looked at his class-
mates in a new light, and Elkin now even inspired him
with respect.

^^Who is the girl that made that speech at the sta-
tion?'' he asked simply. The two had scarcely ever
spoken before.

Elkin gave Boulatoff a stare of freezing irony, as who
should say : ^^ What do you think of the assurance of this
man? " and then, dropping his eyes, he asked:

"What girl?" When he spoke his lips assumed the
form of two obtuse angles, exposing to view a glistening
lozenge of white teeth.

" Look here, Elkin, I want to know who that girl is and
all about the whole aflfair, and if you think I ought not to
know it because — well, because I am a Boulatoff and my
uncle is the governor, I can assure you that if I had been
there I should have acted as she did. Whafs more, I hate
myself for not having been there."

" I don't know what you're talking about," replied El-
kin. " As to your hating yourself, that's your own affair."

"Well, however I may feel toward myself, I certainly
have nothing but contempt for a man like you," Pasha
snapped back, paling. " But if you think you can keep it
from me, you're mistaken."

Elkin sized him up with a look full of venom, as he
said:

"Pitiful wretch! How are you going to find it out?
Through the political spies?"

Pavel turned red. It was with a great effort that he

Digitized

by Google

36 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

kept himself from striking EUdn. After a pause he said :

" Now, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that
you axe a knave/'

'* Besides/' said Elkin, as though finishing an inter-
rupted remark, "most of the gymnasium girls who saw
Alexander Alexandrovich off are daughters of poor, hum-
ble people, so of what interest would it have been to a man
in your position?''

Boulatoff stood still for a few moments, and then said
under his breath :

"Well, you're a fool as well as a knave," and turned
away.

The heroine of the demonstration was hateful to him

now. She and Elkin seemed to stand at the head of the

untitled classes all arrayed against him. He retired into

himself deeper than ever. He abhorred her because she

had done the right thing, and each time his sympathy for

Pievakin welled up he hated himself for not having been

at the station, and her for having been there. He sought

relief in charging Elkin with cowardice. "What did he

do there? " he would say to himself. " To think of a lot

of fellows running away when they are told they can't

say good-bye lo their martyred teacher, and a girl being

the only one who has courage enough to act properly. And

now that she has done it this coward has the face to give

himself airs, as if he were entitled to credit for her courage.

If I had been there I should not have run away as Elkin

and his crew did."

This placed Elkin and his followers on one side of the

line and Pavel and the girl on the other. So what right

had that coward of a Jew to place himself between her

and him?

♦ ♦ « « ♦

Digitized

by Google

THE ** DEMONSTRATION.'' 37

Toward springs some two months after the old teacher's
departure^ and when the incident was beginning to grow
dim in the public mind^ the sensation was suddenly revived
and greatly intensified by an extraordinary piece of news
that came from the town to which Pievakin had been trans-
ferred: The Third Section of His Majest/s Own Office —
the central political detective bureau of ihe empire — had
taken up the case, with the result that the action of the
Department of Public Instruction had been repudiated as
dangerously inadequate. The idea of a man like Pievakin
participating in the education of children! Accordingly,
the poor old man was now under arrest, condemned to be
transported to Viatka, a thinly populated province in the
remote north, where he was to live under police surveil-
lance, as a political exile strictly debarred from teaching,
even in private families.

Pavel was stunned. He received the news as something
elemental. He could find fault with his uncle, but the
government at St. Petersburg was a sublime abstract force,
bathed in the efEulgence of the Czar's personaliiy. It was
no more open to condemnation than a thunderstorm or a
turbulent sea. But the incident made an ineffaceable im-
pression upon him. It left him with the general feeling
that there was something inherently cruel in the world.
Aiid the picture of a pretty girl boldly raising her voice
for poor Pievakin in the teeth of formidable-looking gen-
darmes and in the midst of a crowd of panic-stricken men
remained imbedded in his fancy as the emblem of brave
piiy. An importunate sense of jealousy nagged him. He
often caught himself dreaming of situations in which he
appeared in a r81e similar to the one she had played at the
railroad station.

His perceptions and sensibilities took a novel trend.

Digitized

by Google

38 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

One day, for example, as he walked through Theatre
Square, he paused to watch an apple-faced ensign, evidently
fresh from the military school, lecture a middle-aged ser-
geant. The youthful officer sat on a bench, swaggeringly
leaning back, his new sword gleaming by his side, as he
questioned the soldier who stood at attention, the picture
of embarrassment and impotent rage. A young woman,
probably the sergeant's wife, sweetheart, or daughter, stood
aside, looking on wretchedly. Seated on a bench directly
across the walk were two pretty gymnasium girls. It was
clear that the whole scene had been gotten up for their
sake, that the ensign had stopped the poor fellow, who
was old enough to be his father, and was now putting him
through this ordeal for the sole purpose of flaunting his
authority before them. When the sergeant had been al-
lowed to go his way, but before he was out of hearing,
Pavel walked up to the ensign and said aloud :

^^ I wish to tell you, sir, that you tormented that poor
man merely to show oflE.'^

" Bravo ! '' said the two gymnasium girls, clapping their
hands with all their might; ^^ bravo ! ''

The ensign sprang to his feet, his apple-cheeks red aa
fire. " What do you mean by interfering with an officer —
in the performance of his duty ? '^ he faltered. He appa-
rently knew that the young man before him was a nephew
of the governor.

^'Nonsense! You were not performing any duties.
You were parading. That's what you were doing.''

The two girls burst into a ringing laugh, whereupon the
ensign stalked off, mumbling something about having the
gymnasium boy arrested.

'^ Mother," he said, when he came home. ^^The world
is divided into tormentors and victims."

Digitized

by Google

THE "DEMONSTRATION/* 89

Anna Nicolayevna gaye a laugh that made her rusty
face interesting. '^And what are you — a tormentor or
a victim ? '' she asked. ** At any rate you had better throw
these thou^ts out of your mind. They lead to no good.
Pasha.'*

Digitized

by Google

CaaAPTEE V.

PAVEL'S FIBST STBP.

WHEN Pavel arrived in St. Petersburg, in the last
days of July, his recent tribulations seemed a
thing of the faded past. The capital was a fas-
cinating setting for the ^at university which he was soon
to enter and in which he was bent upon drinking deep of
the deepest mysteries of wisdom. His ** certificate of ma-
turity '* — his gymnasium diploma — was a solemn procla-
mation of his passage from boyhood to manhood — a
change which seemed to assert itself in everything he did.
He ate maturely, talked maturely, walked maturely. He
felt like a girl on the eve of her wedding day.

He had not been in the big city for six years, and so
marked was the distinction between it and the southern
town from which he hailed, that to his " mature *' eyes it
seemed as if they were seeing it for the first time. The
multitude of large lusty men, heavily bearded and wearing
blouses of flaming red; the pink buildings; the melodious
hucksters; the cherry-peddlars, with their boards piled
with the succident fruit on their shoulders; the pitchy odor
of the overheated streets; the soft, sibilant affectations in
the speech of the lower classes; the bustling little ferry-
boats on the Neva — all this, sanctified by the presence
of the university buildings across the gay river, made his
heart throb with a feeling as though Miroslav were a for-

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. 41

eign town and he were treading the soil of real Bussia at
last.

He matriculated at the Section of Philology and His-
tory, St Petersburg. Before starting on his studies, how-
eyer, he went off on a sayage debauch with some aristocratic
young relatiyes. The debauch lasted a fortnight, and cost
his mother a small fortune. When he came to the uni-
yersity at last^ weary of himself and his relatiyes, he set-
tled down to a winter of hard work. But the life at the
uniyersiiy disturbed his peace of mind. He found the
students dirided into "crammers,*' " parquette-scrapers '*
and " radicals.'' The last named seemed to be in the ma-
jority — a bustling, whispering, preoccupied crowd with
an effect of being the masters of the situation. There was
a yast difference between Elkin and his followers and these
people. Pavel knew that the uniyersity was the hotbed
of the secret moyement, of which he was now tempted to
know something. There was no telling who of his present
classmates might proye a candidate for the gallows. The
wide-awake, whispering, mysterious world about him re-
minded him of the Miroslay girl and of his rebuff upon
trjring to discover who she was. When he made an attempt
to break through the magic circle in which that world was
enclosed his well-cared-f or appearance and high-bom man-
ner went against him. A feeling of isolation weighed on
his soul that was much harder to bear than his ostracism
at the gymnasium had been. Harder to bear, because the
students who kept away from him here struck him as his
superiors, and because he had a humble feeling as though
it were natural that they should hold aloof from him.
And the image of that Miroslay girl seemed to float oyer
these whispering young men, at once luring and repulsing
him. He often went about with a lump in his throat.

Digitized

by Google

42 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

One day he met a girl named Sophia Perovskaya, the
daughter of a former governor of the Province of St. Pe-
tersburg and the granddaughter of a celebrated cabinet min-
ister. She was a strong-featured, boyish-looking little crea-
ture, with grave blue eyes beneath a very high forehead.
He had known her when he was a child. There was some-
thing in her general appearance now and in the few words
she said to him which left a peculiar impression on Pavel.
As he thought of her later it dawned upon him that she
might belong to the same world as those preoccupied, whis-
pering fellow-students of his. He looked her up the same
day.

'*I should like to get something to read, Sophia
Lvovna,^' he said, colouring. *^Some of the proscribed
things, I mean.*' Then he added, with an embarrassed
frown, ^* Something tells me you could get it for me. If
I am mistaken, you will have to excuse me.^^

The governor's daughter fixed her blue eyes on him as
she said, simply:
'* All right. I'll get you something.'*
She lent him a volume of the " underground " magazine
Forward! and some other prints. The tales of valour
and martyrdom which he found in these publications, added
to the editorials they contained calling upon the nobility
to pay the debt they owed to the peasantry by sacrificing
themselves for their welfare, literally intoxicated him.

" Dear Mother and Comrade," he wrote in a letter home,
*' I have come to the conclusion that the so-called nobility
to which I belong has never done anything useful. For
centuries and centuries and centuries we have been living
at the expense of those good, honest, overworked people, the
peasantry. It is enough to drive one to suicide. Yes,
mamma darling, we are a race of drones and robbers. The

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. 48

ignorant, unkempt moujiks that we treat like beasts are
in reality angels compared to us. There is something in
them — in their traditions and in the inherent purity of
their souls — which should inspire us with reverence. Yet
they are literally starved and three-fourths of their toil
goes to maintain the army and the titled classes.*'

Further down in the same letter he said : *^ Every great
writer in the history of our literature has been in prison
or exiled. Our noblest thinker and critic, Chemyshevsky,
is languishing in Siberia. Why? Why? My hair stands
erect when I think of these things.*'

When it came to posting the letter, it dawned upon him
that such sentiments were not to be trusted to the mails,
and, feeling himself a conspirator, he committed the epistle
to the flames.

He was touched by the spirit of that peasant worship —
the religion of the ** penitent nobility** — which was the
spirit of the best unproscribed literature of the day as well
as of the '^ underground ** movement. Turgeneff owed the
origin of his fame to the peasant portraits of his Notes of
a Hvntsman. Nekrasoflf, the leading poet of the period^
and a score of other writers were perpetually glorifying
the peasant, going into ecstasies over him, bewailing him.
The peasant they drew was a creature of flesh-and-blood
realily, but shed over him was the golden halo of idealism.
The central doctrine of the movement was a theory that
the survival of the communistic element in the Bussian
village, was destined to become the basis of the country*s
economic and political salvation; that Bussia would leap
into an ideal social arrangement without having to pass
through capitalism ; that her semi-barbaric peasant, kindly
and innocent as a dove and the martyr of centuries, carried
in his person the future glory, moral as well as material.

Digitized

by Google

44 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

of his unhappy country. As to the living peasant, he had
no more knowledge of this adoration of himself (nor
capacity to grasp tiie meaning of the movement, if an at-
tempt had been made to explain it to him) than a squirrel

has of the presence of a ^^ q ^^ in the spelling of its name.
« ♦ « ♦ «

Sophia disappeared from St. Petersburg, and Pavel
found himself cut oflE from the ^^ underground ^' world once
more. The prints she had left him only served to excite
his craving for others of the same character. The preoc-
cupied, myterious air of the " radicals ^' at the university
tantalised him. He was in a veritable fever of envy, re-
sentment, intellectual and spiritual thirst. He subscribed
liberally to the various revolutionary funds that were con-
tinually being raised under the guise of charity, and other-
wise tried to manifest his sympathy with the movement,
all to no purpose. His contributions were accepted, but
his advances were repulsed. One day he approached a
student whom he had once given ten rubles " for a needy
family'* — a thin fellow with a very long neck and the
face of a chicken.

" I should like to get something to read,*' he said, trying
to copy the tone of familiar simplicity which he had used
with Sophia. " I have read one number of Forward and
another thing or two, but that's all I have been able to
get"

*^ Pardon me," the chicken-face answered, colouring, *' I
really don't know what you mean. Can't you get those
books in the book-stores or in the public library ? "

Pavel was left with an acute pang of self-pity. He felt
like a pampered child undergoing ill-treatment at the
hands of strangers. His mother and all his relatives
thought so much of him, while these fellows, who would

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FraST STEP. 45

deem it a privilege to talk to any of them^ were treating
him as a nobody and a spy. The tears came to his eyes.
But presently he clenched his fists and said to himself^ ^ I
will be admitted to their set*'

In his fidget he happened to think of Pani Oginska. As
the scene at the German watering-place came back to him^
he was seized with a desire to efface the affnmt he had
offered her. '' How can I rest nntU I have seen her and
asked her pardon? '* he said to himself. ** If I were a real
man and not a mere phrase-monger I shoidd start out on
the journey at once. But^ of course^ I won^t do anything
of the kind^ and writing of such things is impossible. I
am a phrase-maker. That* s all I am.'*

But he soliloquized himself into the reflection that Pani

Oginska was likely to know some of her imprisoned son^s

friends^ if, indeed, she was not in the '^underground^

world herself, and the very next morning found him in a

railway car, bound for the south.

♦ * « « *

Pani Oginska's estate was near the boundary line be-
tween the province to which it belonged and the one whose
capital was Miroslav, a considerable distance from a rail-*
way station. Pavel covered that distance in a post-sleigh
drawn by a troika. His way lay in the steppe region. It
was a very cold forenoon in mid-winter. The horses*
manes were covered with frost; the postilion was bundled
up so heavily that he looked like an old woman. The sun
shone out of a blue, imconcemed sky upon a waste of eery
whiteness. There were ridges of drifts and there were
black patches of bare ground, but the general perspective
unfolded an unbroken plane of snow, a level expanse
stretching on either side of the smooth road, seemingly
endless and bottomless, destitute of any trace of life save

Digitized

by Google

46 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

for an occasional inn by the roadside or the snow-bound
hovel and outhouses of a shepherd in the distance — a
domain of silence and numb monotony. That this desert
of frozen sterility would four or five months later, be
transformed into a world of grass and birds seemed as
inconceivable as the sudden disappearance of the ocean.

The last few versts were an eternity. Pavel's heart
leaped with a foretaste of the exciting interview.

^* Lively, my man/' he pressed the postilion. "Can't
your horses get a move on them ? "

The postilion nodded his mufiSed head and set up a
fierce yelp, for all the world like a wolf giving chase;
whereupon the animals, apparently scared to deatii, broke
into a desperate gallop, the scud flying, the sleigh dashing
along like an electric car in open country, its bell ringing
frostily.

" Thaf s better," Pavel shouted with a thrill of physical
pleasure and speaking with diflBculty for the breakneck
speed that seemed to fling the breath out of his lungs.
** Thafs better, my man. You shall get a good tip. But
where have you learned the trick? "

The postilion gave a muffled grunt of appreciation and
went on howling with all his might.

They passed through a small village. The chimneys of
some of the white clay hovels on either side of the road
poured out clouds of sweetish, nauseating smoke. Wood
being scarce in these parts, the peasantry made fuel of
manure.

At last the sleigh swung into the great front yard of Pani
Oginska's manor house. It was greeted by the curious eyes
of half a dozen servants. Pavel entered a warm vestibule
with a painted floor, where he found waiting to meet him
Pani Oginska and an aged man with hair as white as the

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. 47

snow without. He bowed politely and asked, in French,
with nervous timidity :

'^ Do you remember me, Madame Oginska? "

She screwed up her eyes as she scanned his flushed,
frozen face.

" Prince BoulatoflE I *' she said in a perplexed whisper.

*^I have come all the way from St Petersburg to beg
your pardon, Madame Oginska,^' he fired out. "I acted
like a brute on that occasion. I was an idiotic boy. For-
give me.''

" Have you actually come all the way from St. Peters-
burg, to tell me that?*' she asked with a hearty peal of
laughter. She introduced him to the white-haired man,
her father, who first made a bow full of old-fashioned
dignity and then gave Pavel's cold hand a doddering grasp.

"So you have really come for that express purpose?"
Pani Oginska resumed, while a servant was relieving the
newcomer of his fur-lined coat, fur cap, heavy gloves, muf-
fler and storm shoes. "A case of compunction, I sup-
pose?"

Her father followed them as far as the open door of a
vast, plainly furnished parlour, and after looming on the
threshold for a minute or two, in an attitude of pained
dignity, he bowed himself away. Pani Oginska gently
pressed the young man into a huge, rusty easy-chair, she
herself remaining in a standing posture, her mind ap-
parently divided between hospitality and an important
errand upon which she seemed to have been bent when
he arrived. She wore a furred jacket, her head in a
grey shawl and her feet in heavy top-boots — a costume
jarringly out of accord with her pale, delicate, nunnish
face She made quite a new impression on the yoimg
prince.

Digitized

by Google

48 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

^^ I was blind then," he began, when they were left alone.
*^ My eyes were closed."

" Oh, you needn't go into detail," she rejoined with an
amused look. ^^ I think I can guess how it has come about.
You have caught the contagion, haven't you?"

^^Why call it ^contagion?' It's the truth; ifs justice.
If I hadn't been such a silly boy when I first had the pleas-
ure of meeting you, I should certainly not have acted the
way I did."

^^ A boy? And what are you now, pray? An old man
with the weight of experience on your shoulders?" she
asked with motherly gaiety. *^ Well, we'll talk it over later
on, or, indeed, we'll find better things to talk about; and
meanwhile I want you to excuse me, prince, and make
yourself comfortable without me. You are hungry, of
course ? "

*^ Not at all. I had luncheon at the station."

**Well, you shall have some refreshments at any rate,
and by and by I shall be back. I am a rather busy woman,
you see. I have to be my own manager, and there are
a thousand and one things to look after, and the snow is
rather deep " — pointing at her heavy boots. " Well, here
are some books and magazines. Au revoir/' She made
for the door, but faced about again. ** By the way, prince,
does your mother know of this crazy trip of yours?"

^^ I confess she does not," he answered, feeling helplessly
like a boy. ''Why?"

**WhyI Because she is the best woman in the world,
and because ifs too bad you did anything so foolish without
letting her know at least. By the way, this is anything
but a desirable place for a young man to visit. Since my
son got into trouble the police have tried to keep an eye
on us; but then the police are so stupid. Still, I am sorry

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. 49

you didn't first consult your mother. If you boys would
only let yourseWes be guided by your mothers you would
be spared many a trouble/'

'^Is that the prime object of life — to guard against
harm to oneself? '* Pavel protested.

She fixed him with a look of amusement^ and then re-
marked sadly: ^^You hwve caught the contagion, poor
thing. Til write your mother about it. Let her put a
stop to it if it isn't too late.''

He took fire. '^ I don't know what you are hinting at,
Madame Oginska," he said. Asking her to introduce him
to Nihilists seemed out of the question.

** I am hinting at those * circles,' prince. You probably
belong to one of them ; thaf s what I am hinting at. Don't
you, now?"

**I don't belong to any circles. Nor do I know what
you mean, madame."

** Well, weU. You have come to ask me not to be of-
fended with you, and now it seems to be my turn to ask
you not to be angry with me. Don't be uneasy, prince.
I shan't write to your mother. Indeed, she couldn't afford
to be in correspondence with me at all. However, if you
really aren't yet mixed up in those dreadful things" —
there was a dubious twinkle in her eye — *' you had better
keep out of them in the future, too. Think of your charm-
ing mother and take care of yourself, prince. Well, I have
got to go. If s barbaric of me to leave you, but I'll soon be
back. Here are some books and magazines. Or wait, I
have another occupation for you. I want you to meet
the best Jew in the world. I want you to examine him
in * Gentile lore,' as his people would put it. They would
kill me, his people, if they knew he came to read my ' Gen-
tile books.'"

Digitized

by Google

50 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" He is a brainy fellow/' she went on, leading the way
through a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, " chockf ul of
that Talmud of theirs, don't you know. Now that he is
married they are trying to make a business man of him,
but he prefers worldly wisdom and that sort of thing. I
let him use my library, the only place he has for his
' unholy ' studies, in fact. He is supposed to come on busi-
ness here. He lives in a small town a mile from here.''

She was speaking in Russian now, a language she had
perfect command of, but which she spoke with a strong
Polish accent, making it sound to Pavel as though she
was declaiming poetry. Twelve years ago, before she in-
herited this estate, and when she still lived in Poland, her
birthplace, she could scarcely speak it at all.

She took him into a room whose walls were lined with
books, mostly old and worn, and whose two windows looked
out upon a frozen pond in front of a snow-covered clump
of trees.

^^ Monsieur Parmet, Prince Boulatofif," she said, as a
man sprang to his feet with the air of one startled from
mental absorption. He was of strong, ungainly build,
with the peculiar stamp of rabbinical scholarship on a
plump, dark-bearded face. **See how much he knows,
prince. He thinks he can take the examination for a cer-
tificate of maturity and enter the university. But then
he thinks he knows everything." With this she left them
to themselves.

Pavel was in a whirl of embarrassment and annoyance,
but the abashed smile of the other mollified him. " What
I need more than anything else is to be examined in Latin
and Greek," Parmet said. "I haven't had my exercises
looked over for a long time, and it may be all wrong for all
I know." His Russian had a Yiddish accent. He spoke

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. 51

in low^ purring tones that seemed to soften the heavy out-
line of his figure. He was a lumbering mass of physical
strength^ one of those bearlike giants whom village people
will describe as bending horseshoes like so many blades of
grass or driving nails into a wall with their bare knuckles
for a hammer. His dark-brown eyes shone meekly.

" Have you learned it all by yourself? *' Pavel asked.

^Not altogether.'*

Pavel began with an air of lofty reluctance, but he was
soon carried away by the niceties of the ancient syntax,
and his stiffness melted into didactic animation. As to
Parmet, his plump, dark face was an image of religious
ecstasy. Pavel warmed to him. His Talmudic gestures
and intonation amused him.

" There's no trouble about your Latin,'* he said, famil-
iarly; *^no trouble whatever."

^^ Isn't there? It was Pani Oginska's son who gave me
the first start," the other said, blissfully, uttering the name
in a lowered voice. " If it had not been for him I should
still be immersed in the depths of darkness."

"^Immersed in the depths of darkness!' There is a
phrase for you ! Why should you use high-fiown language
like that?"

Parmet smiled, shrugging his shoulders bashfully.
^^ Will you kindly try me on Greek now ? " he said.

*' One second. That must have been quite a little while
ago when Pani Oginska's son taught you, wasn't it? "

Parmet tiptoed over to the open door, closed it, tiptoed
back and said : " Not quite two years. If you knew what
a man of gold he was ! They are slowly killing him, the
murderers. And why? What had he done? He could
not harm a fly. He is all goodness, an angel like his
mother. He was of delicate health when they took him.

Digitized

by Google

52 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

and now he is melting like a candle. Why, oh why, should
men like him have to perish that way ? ^^

" Isn^t it rather risky for you to be coming here? '' Payel
demanded, looking him over curiously.

Parmet smiled, a queer, outlandish smile, at once naive
and knowing, as he replied :

^* Risky? No. What does an old-fashioned Jew like
myself care about politics? I am supposed to come here
on business. Did you know Eugene ? '^

** Who is Eugene ? Pani Oginska's son ? ^^

** Yes. I thought you knew him.^^

** I wish I had. People like him are the only ones worth
knowing. Most of the others are scoundrels, humbugs,
cold-blooded egoists; thafs what they are.^'

So talking, they gradually confided to each other the
story of their respective conversions and tribulations.
Parmet followed the prince's tale first with a look of child-
like curiosity and then with an air that betrayed emotion.
As he listened he kept rubbing his hand nervously. When
Pavel had concluded, the Jew took to tiptoeing up and
down the room, stopped in front of him and said, with great
ardour :

^' Don't grieve, my dear man. I may be able to help you.
I know a friend of Eugene's who could put you in touch
with the proper persons.''

*' Is he in St. Petersburg?"

'TTo, but thafs no matter. He can arrange ii He
knows somebody there. Ill see him as soon as I can, even
if I have to travel many miles for it."

Pavel grasped his hand silently.

"Well," the other said. ''There was a time when I
thought every Christian hard-hearted and cruel. Now I
am ashamed of myself for having harboured such ideas in

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. 53

my mind. Every Cbrifitian whose acquaintance I happen
to make turns out to be an angel rather than a human
being/'

"Why these compliments?'* Pavel snarled. "Most of
the Christians I know are knaves. The whole world is
made up of knaves for that matter.''

When Pan! Oginska came home and saw them together^
she said :

"I knew I should find you two making love to each
other."

♦ 41 41 ♦ ♦

A month or two after Pavel's return to St. Petersburg
a tall blond young man with typical Oreat-Sussian features
looked him up at the university.

"I have received word from the south about you," he
said, without introducing himself.

"I am pleased to meet you," Pavel returned gruflfly,
" but I hope I won't be kept on probation and be subjected
to all sorts of humiliations."

" Why, why," the other said, in confusion. " 111 be glad
to let you have any kind of literature there is and to intro-
duce you to other comrades. Thaf s what I have been
looking for you. Why should you take it that way ? "

Pavel's face broke into a smile. "Dashed if I know
why I should. Something possessed me to put on a harsh
front. It was mere parading, I suppose. Don't mind it.
What shall I call you?"

"Why — er — oh, call me anything," the other an-
swered, colouring.

" Very well, then. I'll call you Peter; or no, will ' god-
father' do? That is, provided you are really going to be
one to me," Pavel said, in a vain struggle to suppress his
exultation.

Digitized

by Google

54: THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

"It'll be all right/' his new acquaintance replied with
bashful ardour.

"Godfattier, then?"

Godfather introduced him to several other "radicals,"
who gave him underground prints and a list of legit-
imate books for a course of "serious" reading. He
would stay at home a whole week at a time without
dressing or going down for his meals, perusing volume
after volume, paper after paper. When he did dress and
go out it was to get more books or to seek answers to the
questions which disturbed his peace. He was in a state
of vernal agitation, in a fever of lofty impulses. And so
much like a conspirator did he feel by now, that he no
longer even thought of opening his mind to his mother.
Indeed, the change that had come over him was so com-
plete that she was not likely to understand him if he had.
To drive her to despair seemed to be the only result he
could expect of such a confession. The secret movement
appealed to him as a host of saints. He longed to be one
of them, to be martyred with them. It was clear to him
that some day he would die for the Russian people ; die a
slow, a terrible death; and this slow, terrible death im-
pressed him as the highest pinnacle of happiness.

When his mother came to see him, a year later, she
thought he was in love.

He was in the thick of the movement by that time. He
was learning shoemaking with a view to settling in a vil-
lage. He would earn his livelihood in the sweat of his
brow, and he would carry the light of his lofty ideas into
the hovels of the suffering peasantry. But his plans in
this direction were never realized. The period of "going
to the people " soon came to an end.

The mothlike self-immolation of universily students con-

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL*S FIRST STEP. 65

tmued^ but the spirit of unresisting martyrdom could not
last. Violence was bound to result from it.

The next year saw the celebrated ^' trial of 193/' mostly
college men and college women. They were charged with
political propaganda^ and the bold stand they took thrilled
the country. The actual number tried was^ indeed^ much
less than 193^ for of those who had been kept in prison in
connection with that case as many as sevenly had perished
in their cold^ damp cells while waiting to be arraigned.
Of those who were tried many were acquitted, but instead
of regaining their liberty a large number of these were
transported to Siberia " by administrative order," More-
over, hundreds of people were slowly killed in the dungeons
or exiled to Siberia without any process of law whatsoever.
School children were buried in these consumption breeding
cells; whole families were ruined because one of their mem-
bers was accused of reading a socialist pamphlet. Student
girls were subjected to indignities by dissolute officials —
all ** by administrative order/*

The Eussian penal code imposes the same penalty for
disfiguring the eyes of an imperial portrait as it does for
blinding a live subject of the Czar. But political suspects
were tortured without regard even to this code.

It gradually dawned upon the propagandists that instead
of being decimated in a fruitless attempt to get at the com-
mon people they should first devote themselves to an effort
in the direction of free speech. By a series of bold attacks
it was expected to extort the desired reforms from the
government. Nothing was lawless, so it was argued, when
directed, in self-defence, against the representatives of a
system that was the embodiment of bloodthirsty lawlessness.

Thus peaceful missionaries became Terrorists. The gov-
ernment inaugurated a system of promiscuous executions;

Digitized

by Google

66 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the once unresisting propagandists retaliated by assassina-
tion after assassination. Socialists were hanged for dis-
seminating their ideas or for resisting arrest; high officials
were stabbed or shot down for the bloodthirsty cruelty with
which they fought the movement; and finally a series of
plots was inaugurated aiming at the life of the emperor
himself.

The White Terror of the throne was met by the Bed
Terror of the Beyolution.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER VI.

A HBBTIKG ON NEW TERMS.

IT was an evening in the spring, 1879. The parlour of
a wealthy young engineer in Kharkoff — a pudgy little
man with eyelids that looked swollen and a mouth that
was usually half-open, giving him a drowsy appearance —
was filled with Nihilists come to hear ^^ an important man
from St. Petersburg.'' The governor of the province had
recently been killed for the maltreatment of political pris-
oners and students of the local university, while a month
later a bold attempt had been made on the life of the
Czar at the capital. The new phase of the movement
was asserting itself with greater and greater emphasis, and
the address by the stranger, who was no other than Pavel
Boulatoff, though he was known here as Nikolai, was
awaited with thrills of impatience.

The room was fairly crowded and the speaker of the
evening was on hand, but the managers of the gathering
were waiting for several more listeners. When two of
these arrived, one of them proved to be Elkin. He and
Pavel had not met since their graduation from the Miros-
lav gymnasium. Both wore scant growths of beard and
both looked considerably changed, though Pavel was still
slim and boyish of figure and Elkin's face as ansemic
and chalk-coloured as it had been four years ago. Elkin
had been expelled from the University for signing some

Digitized

by Google

58 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Bort of petition. Since then he had nominally been en«
gaged in revolutionary business. In reality he spent his
nights in gossip and teardrinking^ and his days in sleep.
Too proud to sponge on his Nihilist friends for more than
tea and bread and an occasional cutlet, and too lazy to
give lessons, he was growing ever thinner and lazier. He
was a man of spotless honesty, overflowing with venom,
yet endowed with a certain kind of magnetism.

When Elkin discovered who the important revolutionist
from St. Petersburg was the blood rushed to his face.
It was a most disagreeable surprise. But Pavel greeted
him with a cordiality so free from consciousness, and his
roaring laughter, as he compared the circumstances of their
last quarrel and those that surrounded their present meet-
ing, was so hearty that Elkin's hostility gave way to a feeling
of elation at being so well received by the lion of the even-
ing. He was one of the rank and file of the local *^ Circles,^^
and the prominence into which Pavel's attention brought
him at this meeting, in the presence of several of his
chums, gave him a sense of promotion and triumph. He
wished he could whisper into the ear of everybody present
that this important revolutionist who was known to the
gathering as Nikolai was Prince Boulatoflf.

"I am still in the dark as to the identity of that girl/*
said Pavel.

'^ I shouldn't keep it from you now,'' the other returned,
exposing an exultant lozenge of white teeth. *' Next time
we meet in Miroslav I shall look her up and introduce
you to her. I have not seen her for a long time. She is
quite an interesting specimen."

^' I should like to meet her very much,'^ Pavel said earn-
estly. '^ I have been wanting to know something about her
all along. You see, if there were a circle in that blessed

Digitized

by Google

A MEETING ON NEW TERMS. 69

out-of-the-way town of ours one might be able to find out
things^ but if there is I have not seen anybody who knows
of its existence. I myself have not been there for two
years.**

" I was there last summer. There is a small circle there.
At least there are several people who get things through
•me, but that girl I have not seen for a long time.**

''Is it possible? Can it be that you have not tried to
get her in? Beally, a Miroslav circle without her seems
like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.**

" Yes, she is a lass with some grit to her, and with brains
too.**

'' If she is, we ought to get her in. We ought to get
her in.**

^ She was only sixteen when that affair happened.**

'' Was she ? Well, you wouldn*t believe it, but my curios-
ity about that girl has been smouldering ever since. If it
were not for her and for poor Pievakin I might not be in
the movement now.**

'' I see. It needed a little girl to make a convert of a
great man like you. Well, well. That's interesting,** El-
kin remarked, with a lozenge-shaped sneer; but he hastened
to atone for it by adding, ardently: ''You're right. She
should be in the circle. 1*11 make it my business to see
her next time I am there. I'll go there on purpose, in
fact.**

He was always trying to be clever, for the most part with
venom in his attempts. Friend or foe, whatever humour
was his was habitually coloured by an impulse to sting.
"For the sake of a pretty word he would not spare his
own father,** as a Eussian proverb phrases it, and his
pretty words or puns were usually tinctured with malice.

He painted the Miroslav girl in the most attractive col-

Digitized

by Google

60 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ours. It gave him a peculiar satisfaction to whet Pavel's
curiosity and to be able to say mutely: "Indeed, she is
even more interesting than you suppose, yet while you are
so crazy to know her, I, who do know her, have not even
thought of getting her into my Circle/'

When Pavel was making his speech Elkin, whose natural
inclination was to disapprove, listened with an air of
patronising concurrence. Pavel's oratory was of the un-
sophisticated, *^hammer-and-tongs," fiery type, yet its gen-
eral effect, especially when he assailed existing conditions,
was one of complaint. In spite of the full-throated buzz
of his voice and the ferocious rush of his words, he conveyed
the impression of a schoolboy laying his grievance before
his mother.

Before he took leave from his former classmate the two
had another talk of the '^ heroine of the Pievakin demon-
stration." It was Elkin who brought up the subject, which
took them back to the time when, from a Nihilist point of
view, he was Pavel's superior. He foimd him a ready
listener. The student girls of the secret movement, their
devotion to the cause, their pluck, the inhuman sufferings
which the government inflicted on those of them who fell
into its hands, — all this was the aureole of Pavel's ecstasy.
His heart had remained spotless, the wild oats he had sown
during the first weeks of his stay in the capital notwith-
standing. The word Woman would fill him with tender
whisperings of a felicity hallowed by joint sacrifices, of love
crowned with martyrdom, and it was part of the soliloquies
which the sex would breathe into his soul to tell himself
that he owned his conversion to a girl. But these were
sentimentalities of which the Spartan traditions of the
underground movement had taught him to be ashamed.
Moreover^ there was really no time for such things.

Digitized

by Google

A MEETING ON NEW TERMS. 61

During the following summer and fall mines were laid
in several places under railway tracks over which the
Emperor was expected to pass. The revolutionists missed
their aim, but the Czar^s narrow escape, coupled with the
gigantic scope of the manifold plot, with the skill and the
boldness it implied, and with the fact that the digging of
these subterranean passages had gone on for months with-
out attracting notice, made a profound impression. Such
a display of energy and dexterity on the part of natives
in a country where one was accustomed to trace every bit
of enterprise to some foreign agency, could not but pro-
duce a fascinating effect. The gendarmes were apparently
no match for the Nihilists.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER VII.

ONE afternoon, in December of the same year, Pavel
sat in a student restaurant, in the capital, eating
fried steak and watching the door for a man with
whom he had an appointment. He ate without appetite
and looked fatigued and overworked. He had been out
from an early hour, bustling about on perilous business and
dodging spies. It was extremely exhausting and enervat-
ing, this prowling about Under the perpetual strain of
danger. He was liable to be arrested at any moment. It
was like living continually under fire.

The restaurant was full of cigarette smoke and noise.
Somebody in the rear of Pavel, who evidently had nothing
to say, was addressing somebody else in high-flown Bussian
and with great gusto. His fine resonant voice, of which
he was apparently conscious, jarred on Pavel's nerves, in-
terfering with what little relish he had for his meaL
He was eyeing the design on the frost-covered door-glass
and lashing himself into a fury over the invisible man's
phrase-mongery, when he was accosted by a fair-complex-
ioned young woman :

" Pardon me, but if I am not mistaken you are Prince
BoulatofiE?''

'^ That^s my name. And with whom have I the pleas-
ure ?''

Digitized

by Google

•* TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE.'' 63

^ Oh, that would really be uninteresting to know. Ill
tell you, though, that I belong to Miroslav.''

He reluctantly invited her to a glass of tea, which she
accepted, saying : " It may look as if I were forcing my-
self upon your acquaintance, prince, but I really could
not help it. Whatever comes from Miroslav is irresistible
to me.'* And talking rapidly in eflfervescent, choking
sentences, she told him that her name was Maria Andreevna
Safonova (Safonoff), that she was a student at the Bes-
tusheflf Women^s College and that her brother was a major
of gendarmes.

Pavel had heard of there being a daughter or a sister
of a Miroslav gendarme officer at the BestushefiE College;
also that she made a favourable impression on her class-
mates; but he had been too busy to give the information
more than passing notice.

^ Is your brother in Miroslav? '* he asked.

*' Yes, and I can assure you he is a gentleman, even if
he is in the gendarme service. Some day, I hope, he'll
give it up. He is really too good to be in the business.*'

Pavel ascribed her ebullition to the nature of the subject,
but he soon found that she was in the same state of excite-
ment when a railroad ticket was the topic. She looked
twenty-three but she had the cheeks and eyes of a chubby
infant, while her arms and figure had the lank, immature
effect of a girl of thirteen.

While they sat talking, a dark man in the military
uniform of the Medico-Surgical Academy entered the caf 6.
It was Parmet, the man Pavel was waiting for. Finding
him engaged, the newcomer passed his table without greet-
ing him, took a seat in a remote comer and buried himself
in a book.

Mile. Safonoff did all the talking. She had not sat at

Digitized

by Google

64: THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Boulatoff^s table half an hour nor said much about Miroslay
before she had poured out some of her most intimate
thoughts to him.

" If you think it a pleasure to be the sister of a gendarme
oflBcer you are mistaken/' she said. " It is not agreeable
to be treated by everybody as though you had been put
at the college to spy upon the girls, is it? My brother
is a better man than the brothers and fathers and grand-
fathers of all the other student-girls put together, I assure
you, prince. But then, of course, you may think I'm
trying to spy on you, too.''

" No, I don't," said Boulatoff with a laugh, pricking up
his ears.
*^ Don't you, really ? " And her eyes bubbled.
'' Of course, I don't."

*^ Oh, if you knew how good he is, my brother. Do you
remember the time when poor Pievakin left Miroslav?
I know you do. You were in the eighth class then. Well,
I may as well tell you, prince " — she lowered her voice —
*'had it not been for my brother there would have been
no end of arrests at the railroad station. He simply told
his men not to make a fuss. You see, I can confide in
you without hesitation, for who would suspect a Boulatoff
of — pardon the word — spying? But I, why, I am the
sister of a gendarme oflBcer, so it is quite natural to sup-
pose, and so forth and so on, don't you know."
" Do you know the girl who made that speech ? "
'* There you are," she said dolefully. **I happened to
be at the other end of the room just then. When I tried
to find out who she was everybody was mum. Fancy, my
best girl-friend said to me: ^If I were you, Masha, I
shouldn't want to know her name if I could. Suppose
you utter it in sleep and your brother overhears you.' The

Digitized

by Google

'' TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE.** 66

idiots I They didn't know it was my brother who saved
that girl from being arrested. And, by the way, if she
had been arrested by some of his men, it would not have
been hard for her to escape. I know I am saying more
than I should, but I really can't help it. You have no
idea how I feel about these things. And now, at the
sight of you, prince — a man from Miroslav — I seem
to be going to pieces altogether. Well, I don't mean,
though, that my brother would have let her escape. But
then I have an aunt, who is related to the warden of the
Miroslav prison by marriage, so she can arrange things
there. Oh, she's the greatest revolutionist you ever saw.
Of course, I don't know whether you sympathise with these
things, prince, but I'll tell you frankly, I do. It was
that aunt of mine who talked it into me. She is simply
crazy to do something. She is sorry there are no political
prisoners in Miroslav. If there were she would get them
out. She's just itching for a chance to do something of
that sort. And yet she never met a revolutionist in her
life, nor saw a scrap of underground paper."

To question the ingenuousness of this gush seemed to be
the rankest absurdity. The Russian spies of the period
were poor actors. Pavel was seized by a desire to show
her that he, at least, did not suspect her of spying, and
quite forgetting to restrain the "idotic breadth" of his
Russian nature for which he was often rebuked by a certain
member of the revolutionary Executive Committee who was
forever berating his comrades for their insuflScient caution,
he slipped a crisp copy of the Will of the People into her
hand.

'^ Put it into your muflf," he said.

The colour surged into her chubby face. Her whole fig-
ure seemed tense wltii sudden excitement^ as though the fine

Digitized

by Google

66 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

glossy paper in her hand were charged with electricity.

*' How shall I thank you? " she gasped.

Pavel saw a moist glitter in her eyes, and as he got up,

his slender erect little frame, too, seemed charged with

electricity. When she had gone he asked himself whether it

had not all been acting, after all. He cursed himself for

his imprudence, but he said : *^ Oh, well, what must be

will be,^^ and as usual the phrase acted like an effectual

incantation on his frame of mind.

♦ ♦ ♦ « ♦

Parmet had been dubbed Bismarck, because he bore con-
siderable resemblance to Gambetta. Another nickname,
one which he had invented himself, on a similar theory of
contrasts, was Makar. Makar was as typically Slavic as
his face was Semitic. His military uniform, which he
had to wear because his Academy was under the auspices
of the War Department, ill became him. Instead of con-
cealing the rabbinical expression of his face, it emphasised
it When they came out of the restaurant, a man, shoul-
dering a stick, was running along the snow-covered pave-
ment, lighting the street-lamps, as though in dread of being
forestalled by somebody.

" Guess who that girl is,*' Pavel said.

"Have I heard of her?''

"No. Quite an amusing sort of a damsel. Seething
and steaming for all the world like a samovar. You should
have seen her calf like ecstasy when I handed her something
to read. I was afraid she was going to have a fif

Makar trotted silently on, continually curling himself
in his wretched grey cloak and striking one foot against
the other, to knock the caked drab-coloured snow off his
boots. Pavel wore a new furred coat.

"She may be useful though,'' Pavel resumed, after a

Digitized

by Google

" TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE.** 67

pause. ^^ That is^ provided she is all she seems to be. Her
brother is a gendarme major. What do you think of
that?*'

^^ Is he ? '* Makar asked^ looking up at his companion in
beatific surprise.

** Yes, and she says he's a good fellow, too. Of course,
she's quite a full-fledged ninny herself, and ought to be
taken with a carload of salt, but she referred to some
facts with which I happen to be familiar." While he was
describing the girl's aunt, a passing soldier saluted Makar,
mistaking him for an army officer. Makar, however, was
too absorbed in his companion's talk to be aware of what
was going on about him. Pavel shrieked with laughter.
"He must be a pretty raw sort of recruit to take you
for a warrior," he said. When he had finished his sketch
of the woman who was longing to set somebody free, the
medical student paused in the middle of the sidewalk.

** Why, she's a godsend, then," he said.

" Moderate your passions, Mr. Army Officer," Pavel said
languidly, mocking his old gymnasium director. " If she
does not turn out to be a spy we'll see what we can do with
her. She strikes me rather favourably, though."

" Why, you oughtn't to neglect her. Pasha. If I were
you I would lose no time in making her brother's acquaint-
ance. Think of the possibilities of it!"

*^ Bridle your exuberance, yoimg man. Her brother lives
many miles from here. He is on the hunt for sedition in
the most provincial of provinces. Want to make a Terror-
ist of him? Go ahead. He lives in Miroslav. There."

" In Miroslav 1 " Makar echoed, with pride in the capital
of his native province.

Presently they entered a courtyard and took to climbing
a steep stony staircase. Strong, inviting odours of cabbage

Digitized

by Google

68 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

soup and cooked meat greeted them at several of the land-
ings. Makar^s lodging was on the sixth floor. He had
moved in only a few days ago and the chief object of
Pavel's visit was to make a mental note of its location.

The first thing Makar did as he got into the room was
lo put a pitcher on one of his two windows. The windows
commanded a little side street, and the pitcher was Makar's
safely signal. When he had lit his lamp a sofa, freshly
covered with green oil-cloth, proved to be the best piece
of furniture in the room, the smell of the oil-cloth mingling
with the stale odours of tobacco smoke with which the very
walls seemed to be saturated.

" Ugh, what a room ! '^ Pavel said, sniflBng. They talked
of a revolutionist who had recently been arrested and to
whom they referred as " Alexandre.^' Special importance
was attached by the authorities to the capture of this man,
because among the things found at his lodgings was a dia-
gram of the Winter Palace with a pencil mark on the
imperial dining hall. As the prisoner was a conspicuous
member of the Terrorists' Executive Committee, the natural
inference was that another bold plot was imder way, one
which had something to do with the Czar's dining room,
but which had apparently been frustrated by the discovery
of the diagram. The palace guard was strongly re-enforced
and every precaution was taken to insure the monarch's
safety. Now, the Terrorists had their man in the very
heart of the enemy's camp, and the result of the search of
Alexandre's lodgings was no secret to them. This revolu-
tionist, whose gloomy face was out of keeping with his
carefully pomaded hair, kid gloves, silk hat, showy
clothes and carefully trimmed whiskers a Id Alexander II.,
was known to Makar as " the Dandy." Less than a year
before he had obtained a position in the double capacity

Digitized

by Google

" TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE.'* 69

of spy and clerk^ at the Third Section of his Majesty's
Own Office, and so liked was he by his superiors that he
had soon been made private secretary to the head of the
secret service, every document of importance passing
through his hands. Since then he had been communicating
to the Executive Committee, now a list of new suspects, now
the details of a contemplated arrest, now a copy of some
secret circular to the gendarme offices of the empire.

While they were thus conversing of Alexandre and the
Dandy, Pavel stretched himself full length on the sofa
and dozed off. When he opened his eyes, about two hours
later, he found Parmet tiptoeing awkwardly up and down
the room, his shadow a gigantic crab on the wall. Pavel
broke into a boisterous peal of laughter.

''Here is a figure for you! All that is needed is an
artist to set to work and paint it.'*

" Are you awake ? Look here. Pasha. Your gendarme's
sister and her aunt are haunting my mind.''

" Why, why, have you fallen in love with both of them
at once? " Pavel asked as he jumped to his feet and shot
his arms toward the ceiling. He looked refreshed and
full of animal spirits.

'' Stop joking, Pasha, pray," Makar said in his purring,
mellifluous voice. " It irritates me. It's a serious matter
I want to speak to you about, and here you are bent upon
fun." Pavel's story of the gendarme officer's sister had
stirred in him visions of a mighty system of counter-espion-
age. He had a definite scheme to propose.

Pavel found it difficult to work himself out of his play-
ful mood until Makar fell silent and took to pacing the
floor resentfully. When he had desisted, with a final guf-
faw over Makar's forlorn air, the medical student, warm-
ing up to fresh enthusiasm, said :

Digitized

by Google

70 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

"Well, to let that prison stand idle would be criminal
negligence. That girFs aunt must be given a chance/*

"Whafs that?** Pavel said, relapsing into horseplay.
'^Do you want somebody nabbed on purpose to give a
bored lady something to excite her nerves? ** He finished
the interrogation rather limply. It flashed upon him that
what Makar was really aiming at was that some revolution-
ist should volunteer to be arrested on a denunciation from
the Dandy or some other member of the party with a
view to strengthening its position in the Third Section.

Makar went on to plead for an organised effort to get
into the various gendarme oflSces.

"It is a terrible struggle we are in. Pasha. Our best
men fall before they have time to turn round. If we had
more revolutionists on the other side, Alexandre might be
a free man now.**

"Well, and sooner or later you and I will be where
he is now and be plunged into the sleep of the righteous,
and there won*t even be a goat to graze at our graves.
Let the dead bury the dead, Makashka. We want the liv-
ing for the firing line. We can*t afford to let fresh blood
turn sour in a damp cell, if we can help it.**

"But this is ^the firing line*,** Makar returned with
beseeching, almost with tearful emphasis. "If you only
gave me a chance to explain myself. What I want is to
have confusion carried into every branch of the govern-
ment; I want the Czar to be surrounded by a masquerade of
enemies, so that his henchmen will suspect each other of
being either agents of the Third Section or revolutionists.
Do you see the point? I want the Czar to be surrounded
by a babel of mistrust and espionage. I want him to be
dazed, staggered until he succumbs to this nightmare of
suspicion and hastens to convoke a popular assembly, as

Digitized

by Google

« TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE/' 71

Louis XVI. was forced to do; I want the inhabitants of
our tear-drenehed country to be treated like human beings
without delay. My scheme practically amounts to a sys«
tern or terrorism without violence^ and I insist that one
good man in the enemy's camp is of more value than the
death of ten spies.*' His low, velvety voice rang dear,
tremulous with pleading fervour; his face gleamed with
an intellectual relish in his formula of the plan. As he
spoke, he was twisting his mighty fist, opening and closing
it again, Talmud-fashion, in unison with the rhythm of
his sentences.

Ejaculations like ''visionary!'' *' phrase-maker 1 " were
on the tip of Pavel's tongue, but he had not the heart to
utter them. Aerial as the scheme was, Makar's plea had
cast a certain spell over him. It was like listening to a
beautiful piece of mythology.

"Let us form a special force of men ready to go to
prison, to be destroyed, if need be," Makar went on. *' The
loss of one man would mean, in each case, the saving of
twenty. Think how many important comrades a single
leak in the Third Section has saved us. It's a matter of
plain arithmetic."

^ Of plain insanity," Pavel finally broke in.

''Don't get excited. Pasha, pray. Can't you let me
finish? If I am wrong you'll have plenty of time to prove
it."

His purring Talmudic voice and the smell of the fresh
oil-cloth were unbearable to Pavel now.

"Ifs like this," Makar resumed. "In the first place
[he bent down his little finger] every honest man is sure
to be arrested some day, and what difference does it make
whether the end comes a few months sooner or a few months
later ? In the second place [he bent down the next finger]

Digitized

by Google

72 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

there must be some more people like that girPs aimt. It
is quite possible that most of those who would be arrested
on this plan would get out, and that itself would be a
good thing, for it would add to the prestige of the party.
Everything that reveals the weakness of the government
on the one hand, and the cleverness and daring of our
people on the other, is good for the cause. Every success
scored by the ' Will of the People * is a step in the direction
of that for which men like yourself are staking their lives.
Pasha. Don^t interrupt me, pray. Til go a step further.
I am of the opinion that under certain conditions, where
sn escape is assured, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let
one's self be arrested just in order to add another name
to the list of political gaol-breakers, that is to say, to the
list of the government's fiascos. Every little counts. Every
straw increases that weight which will finally break the
back of Russia's despot."

''Do you really mean what you say, Makar? Do you
actually want to be arrested? " Pavel asked.

" Not at all. All I want is that another good man should
gain the confidence of the Third Section and that another
political prisoner should escape."

"And what if all Mile. Safonoff says turns out to be
as idiotic a dream as all this tommyrot of yours? "

"*If one is afraid of wolves one had better keep out
of the woods.' You, yourself, have taken much greater
chances than that. Pasha. If I am arrested with papers
and the worst comes to the worst they won't hang me."

''I see you take it seriously after all. Well, if you
think I'll let you do anything of the kind you are a fool."

"You can't prevent me from doing what I consider to
be right. Nor do I want anybody else to send the de-
nunciation which is to result in my arrest 111 send it

Digitized

by Google

••TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE.'' 73

myself. All I want is thai somebody should daim credit
for it afterward^ when I am in prison — on that very
day, if possible. The search and arrest will be ordered
from St. Petersburg, and then some of our men will say
at the Third Section that the anonymous letter was his,
adding some details about me. Details can be worked out
later. Where there is a will there is a way. At any rate,
I don't expect anybody but myself to bear the moral re-
sponsibility for my arresf

He talked on in the same strain until Pavel sprang to
his feet, flushed with rage. ''It's all posing — thafs all
there's to it I" he shouted. "On the surface it means
that you are willing to sacrifice yourself without even at-
tracting attention, but in reality this subtle modesty of
yours is only the most elaborate piece of parading that was
ever conceived. Ifs love of applause all the way through,
and you are willing to stake your life on it. That's all
there is about it."

Makar grew yellow in the face and sweat broke out on
his forehead. "In that case, there's no use talking, of
course," he said in a very low voice. " If I am a humbug
I am a humbug."

" And if you are a fool, you are a fool," Pavel rejoined,
with a conciliatory growl.

" You need not back out. Pasha. Maybe you are right,"
Makar rejoined. "Who is absolutely free from vanity?
Human nature is such a complex mechanism. One may
be governed by love of approbation and, perhaps, also, by
a certain adventuresome passion for the danger of the thing.
The great question is whether there is something besides
this. No, it is not all posing, Pasha. There are moments
when I ask myself why I should not live as most people
do, but I only have to realise all that is going on around

Digitized

by Google

74 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

us; the savage tyranny, the writhing millions, the hunger,
the bottomless darkness, the unuttered groans, — I only
have to think of this and of the dear comrades I have known
who have been strangled on the gallows or are wasting
away in the casemates; I need only picture all this, I say,
to feel that even if there be an alloy of selfishness in my
revolutionary interests, yet, in the main, it is this sense of
the Great Wrong which keeps me from nursing my own
safety. Do you know that the dangling corpses of our
comrades are never absent from my mind? I am not
without a heart. Pasha/'

" Nobody says you are, only you are a confounded dream-
er, Makashka,'' Pavel answered. *^We have no time for
dreams and poetry. Our struggle is one of hard, terrible
prose.'*

''You are even more of a dreamer than I, Pasha,''
Makar retorted, blissfully.

When Makar resumed speaking the last echo of resent-
ment was gone from his voice. " After all, one gets more
than one gives. When I think of the moments of joy the
movement affords me, of the ties of friendship with so many
good people — the cream of the generation, the salt of the
earth, the best children Russia ever gave birth to — when
I think of the glorious atmosphere that surroimds me, of
the divine ecstasy with which I view the future; when I
recall all this I feel that I get a sort of happiness which
no Rothschild could buy. To be kept in solitary confine-
ment is anjrthing but a pleasure, to be sure, but is there
nothing to sweeten one's life there? And how about the
thought that over yonder, outside, there are people who are
going on with the struggle and who think of you some-
times? Sooner or later the government will yield. And
then, oh then somebody — some comrade of ours — will

Digitized

by Google

** TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE.'' 75

throw the cell-door open^ and I'll join in the celebration of
our triumph. Really^ Fasha^ I am strong as a bull^ and
a few years of confinement would not kill me. While
some of our people may die by the hand of the hangman^
my life would be spared. Did you ever stop to think of
the time when the cells of Siberia and of Peter and Paul
are thrown open and one says to the immured comrades^
'Out with you, brothers 1 You're freel The naticm is
free!' Come, another year or two and this will be re-
alised."

*^ You had better save your sentimentalities for novices/'
Pavel said. *' And, by the way, your eloquence is certainly
of more use than your dreaming in a dungeon would be."

He was arguing with a rock of stiff-necked will-power.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER VIIL

MAKAB^S OAmrASS.

PAEMET now gave most of his time to the secret move-
ment, making himself useful in a variety of ways.
His great unrealised ambition, however, was to work
in an underground printing oflSce — an offence which at
the period was punished by a long term of penal servitude
in Siberia. He had a feeling as though nothing one did for
the movement could be regarded as a vital service to the
cause of free speech as long as it fell short of typesetting
in a secret printing establishment. He had applied for
work of this kind several times, but his proverbial absent-
mindedness stood in his way. Being in the habit of read-
ing some book or newspaper as he walked through the
streets, he would sometimes catch himself drinking in the
contents of some " underground '* publication in this man-
ner. Once as he stood on a street comer intent upon
a revolutionary leaflet, he heard an infuriated whisper:

"Imbecile! Scoundrel!''

When he raised his eyes he saw the ample back of a
compactly built man dressed in citizen's clothes except for
a broad military cap with a red band. This was "the
Janitor," so nicknamed because he made it his business
to go the rounds of " conspiracy houses " every morning
and to pick a quarrel with those of their occupants who
had neglected to furnish their windows with safety signals

Digitized

by Google

MAKAR^S CANVASS. 77

or were guilty of some other manifestation of ^Bnssian
breadth/' The episode antedated the above conversation
between Makar and Pavel by two months^ and the medical
student had not seen the Janitor since. He dreaded to
meet him. At this minute^ however^ he was just the man
he wanted to see^ for it was he who had taken the initiative
in getting the Dandy into the Third Section. Accordingly,
Pavel had no sooner left him than he betook himself to a
place at which he expected to find that revolutionisi The
place was the lodging of a man who was known in fhe
organisation as Purring Gat — a nickname based aa his
sbaggy eyebrows and moustache. His face was almost en-
tirely overgrown with hair. Short of stature, with a thick
dark beard that reached down to his knees and with blue
eyes that peered up from imder his stem eyebrows, this
formidable looking little man, the nearest approach to the
wax-works version of a Eussian Nihilist, was the gentlest
soul on the Executive Committee. Besides Purring Cat
and the Janitor, Makar found in the room Audrey, an ex-
tremely tall man with Tartarian features.

The Janitor greeted Makar with a volley of oaths, stut^
tering as he spoke, as was usually the case when he was
angry.

**You have no business to be here,'* he fulminated.
*' You are just the man to bring a spy in tow. I shouldn't
be a bit surprised if you had one at your heels now."

^'Come, don't fume," Makar pleaded, confusedly. ^'I
won't be absent-minded any more. I have taken myself
in hand. Besides, my absent-mindedness is not without
its redeeming feature. You see, I am the last man to be
suspected of being on my guard; so the spies would
never bother me."

Audrey and Purring Cat smiled. The Janitor started

Digitized

by Google

78 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

to do the same^ but changed his mind. Instead^ he
broke into a more violent fit of temper and a more pain-
ful stutter than before. His compact figure was of
medium height, his face very blond, with prominent
eyes and well-trimmed red beard. His military cap
matched the passport of a retired army oflScer under
which he was registered at the police station. He was
supposed to be employed at some civil tribunal, and
every morning, on the stroke of eleven he would leave
his lodgings, a portfolio under his arm, his military cap
slightly cocked — the very personification of the part he
acted. The name in his passport was Polivanoff. His
real name was Michailoff, and under that name he was
wanted by the gendarmes in prominent connection with
several attempts on the life of the Czar. He had once
escaped from under arrest and on another occasion he
had managed to disappear from a railroad train while
it was being searched for him. He was one of the
ablest and bravest men in the party. His un-Eussian
punctuality and indefatigable attention to detail; his
practical turn of mind and the way he had of nagging
his friends for their lack of these qualities, were common
topics of banter among the Terrorists. He had made a
special study of every lane and court in the capital by
which one might ^^ trash ^' one's trail. He not only shad-
owed his fellow revolutionists to see if they were aware of
being shadowed or whether they dressed in accordance
with the type implied by their false passports, but he also
made a practice of spying over the spies of the Third
Section. With this end in view, he had once rented a room
across the street from that office — an institution that
would have given millions for his head. Here he would
sit for hours at his window, scrutinising every new person

Digitized

by Google

MAKAR'S CANVASS. 79

who entered the building so as to be able to keep track of
their moven^ents afterward. Having thus discovered a
boarding house in which lived an important officer of the
secret service he had sent the Dandy to hire a room there.
The desired appointment had then been obtained without
difficulty.

When Makar had laid the practical part of his scheme
before the three men, the Janitor fixed his prominent
eyes on him and said, without stammering:

^^ And you ar^ just the chap to do it, aren't you? '*

" And why not? It certainly doesn't need much adroit-
ness and vigilance to get arrested.''

*^ The devil it does not. A fellow like you would get ten
men arrested before he fooled the measliest cub spy in the
Third Section. Better keep your hands off."

" Oh, well, if the escape was really a sure thing, the mat-
ter might be arranged," Purring Cat interposed, charit-
ably, in a low, gentle voice. "Only this is scarcely the
time for it." Whereupon Makar, feeling encouraged,
laimched out to describe his far-reaching scheme in detail.
The look of the Janitor's prominent eyes, however, dis-
turbed him, so that he expounded the plan in a rather
nerveless way; when he had finished, the Janitor declared:

"He's certainly crazy."

Purring Cat's blue eyes looked up under their bushy
brows, as he said, gravely :

*^ There may be something it it, though, theoretically at
least. In reality, however, I am afraid that general state
of chaos would rebound upon ourselves. The government
may get its spies into our circles until one does not know
who is who. It may become a double-edged weapon, this
^ babel of distrust.' As to that prison scheme it might be
tried some day. Only don't be in a hurry, Makar."

Digitized

by Google

80 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

^' And what is your opinion ? ^^ Makar addressed himself
to Andrey solicitously.

Audrey who was a man of few words, and spoke with a
slight lisp, said he had no definite opinion to offer, but,
when Makar pressed him hard, he said:

^^Well, we have one man there ^' (meaning the Third
Section), *^so let us not make the mistake of the woman
who cut her hen open in order to get at all her eggs at
once. Still, if the scheme could be worked in some of the
provinces, it might be worth while. It all depends on cir-
cumstances, of course.'^

Makar longed to see Sophia, the daughter of the former
governor of St. Petersburg. She had taken an active part
in one of the most daring rescues and was celebrated for
the ingenuity and motherly devotion with which she gave
herself to the ^^ Red Cross " work of the party, supplying
political prisoners with provisions and keeping them in
secret communication with their relatives. It was the
story of this young noblewoman's life which afterwards
inspired TurgeneflE's prose poem. The Threshold. Makar
thought she might take an active interest in his scheme,
but she was overwhelmed with other work and inaccessible.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER IX.

A DAY UNDEBOROUKD.

ABOUT a week had elapsed, when Pavel read in his
morning paper of the hanging of three revolution-
ists in Odessa: two (Jentiles and a Jew. He had
never met these men, but he knew that two of them had not
been implicated in anything more violent than the diffusicm
of socialist ideas. Also that the parents of the one who be-
longed to the Jewish race were under arrest, condemned
to be exiled to Siberia for no other crime than their having
given birth to an enemy of the existing regime.

Pavel moved about his room with a sob of helpless fury
in his throat. He found feverish satisfaction in the
thought that he had some chemicals in his overcoat which
he was to carry to the dynamite shop of the Terrorists.
The explosives to be made from it were intended for a new
attempt upon the life of the Emperor. Not being directly
connected with the contemplated attack, neither he nor the
dynamite makers of the organisation had any clear idea
about the plot, which was in the hands of a special sub-
committee, Alexandre's place having been taken by another
man; but he did know that preparations were under way
in the Winter Palace.

The dynamite shop was kept by a woman with a deep*
chested, almost masculine voice, and a man with a squeaky
feminine one. They were registered as man and wife.

Digitized

by Google

82 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

She was the daughter of a priest, but she looked like a
woman of the people and dressed like one — a thick-set
extremely blonde young woman with coarse yet pleasing
features. Her revolutionary name was Baska. Her fic-
titious husband, who was one of the chemists of the party,
was addressed by the revolutionists as Grisha. He had a
scholarly face, yet the two had no difficulty in passing
among the neighbours for a tradesman or shop clerk and his
wife. For the greater reality of the impersonation and as
a special precaution against curiosity they made friends
with the porter of the house and his wife and with the
police roundsman of the neighbourhood, often inviting them
to a glass of vodka. The porter of St. Petersburg, like his
brother of Paris under the empire, is a political detective
"ex-officio.^^ The two spies and the police officer were
thus turned into unconscious witnesses of the young
couplers political innocence, for in the first place they had
many an opportunity to convince themselves that their
dwelling was free from anything suspicious and, in the
second, people who drank vodka and went, moreover, on
sprees with the house porter, certainly did not look like
Nihilists.

" Good morning, PaveV Baska greeted him vivaciously,
as she gave his hand a hearty squeeze, while her other hand
held a smoking cigarette. '^ Just in time I I hate to eat
my breakfast all alone. Grisha has another bad headache,
poor fellow. But I see you, too, have a long face. Where
did you get it?''

Pavel smiled lugubriously as he handed her the package.
He had not the heart to disturb her good spirits, and she
went on chirping and laughing.

Grisha came in, haggard, sickly and trying to smile.
The skin of both his hands was off. This, like his frequent

Digitized

by Google

A DAY UNDERGROUND. 88

headaches^ was the effect of the work he did in these room8
— of inhaling nitroglycerine and kneading dynamite with
his bare fists.

Baska gayly told how the porter's wife had offered her
a salve for her " husband/' and how the night before^ as
Grisha was pouring nitroglycerine into some dynamite
^^ dough/' there was an explosion and the house filled with
smoke.

" Our next door neighbour knew at once that our kero-
s^ie stove exploded and set fire to a rag/' Baska said with
a deep-voiced titter. ^^She gave me quite a lecture on
negligence."

^* She only wondered why there should be such a strange
smell to the smoke/' Grisha added^ his hand to his head.

As Pavel looked at Baska relishing her tea and her
mu£Sn and talking merrily between gulps^ a desire took
hold of him to spoil her vivaciiy. It jarred on him to see
her enjoy herself while the image of the three new gallows
was so vivid in his mind.

^'You people don't seem to know what's going on in
the world/' he said testily. " They have hanged Malinka,
MaidansM and Drobiazgin."

" Have they ? " Baska asked paling. She had known two
of them personally.

While Pavel took out his newspaper and read the brief
despatch^ her head sank on the table. Her solid frame was
convulsed with sobbing.

"Be calm, be calm/' Grisha entreated, offering her
a glass of water. In spite of her excellent physique she
was subject to violent hysterical fits which were apt to
occur at a time when the proffer of neighbourly sympathy
was least desirable.

She told all she remembered of the executed men^ whom

Digitized

by Google

84 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

she had met in the south. But that was not much; so
Pavel went to see Purring Cat who, being a southerner,
had detailed information to give him about the three
Nihilists. Boulatoff could talk of nothing else that day.
When he met Makar, in the afternoon, he said :

" People are being strangled right and left and here you
are bent on that idee fixe of yours.^^

^^Pine logic, that,^' Makar replied. "If my idee fixe
had been realised a year ago these men would now be free.
But this is not the time to talk about things of that kind.^'
Instead of mourning the loss of the three revolutionists
he was in a solemn, religious sort of mood at the thought
of the new human sacrifices offered on the altar of liberiy.
He was panting to speak about the Jew who had been
executed. He was proud of the fact that two men of his
race had given their lives for the cause within five months.
The other Jewish revolutionist had been executed in Nico-
layeff. A letter which he had addressed to the revolution-
ists a few days before his execution, exhorting them not to
waste any of the forces of the movement on attempts to
dvenge his death, was enshrined in Makar's heart as the
most sacred document in the entire literature of the strug-
gle. But race pride was contrary to the teachings of the
movement; so he not only kept these sentiments to himself,
but tried to suppress them in his own bosom.

4b ♦ 4b 4b 4b

In .the evening Pavel took two young cavalry oflSeers of
his acquaintance to the house of a retired major where
a revolutionary meeting was to be held. They found
the major^s drawing room sparkling with military uni-
forms. The gathering was made up of eight officers, two
men in citizen's clothes, and one woman, the dark long-
necked hostess.

Digitized

by Google

A DAY UNDERGROUND. 85

Two cheap lithographs, one of General Suvoroff and
the other of the reigning monarch, occupied the centre of
the best wall, in jarring disharmony with the refined and
somewhat Bohemian character of the rest of the room.
The two portraits had been put there recently, to bear
witness to the political "reliability^' of the house. The
hostess presided over a pile of yellow aromatic tobacco,
rolling cigarettes for her guests and smoking incessantly
herself. An idiotic-looking man-servant and a peasant
girl fresh from the country kept up a supply of tea, zwie-
backs and preserves. Every time they appeared the host-
ess, whose seat commanded the door, would signal to the
company. She did it rather perfunctorily, however, the
revolutionary discussion proceeding undisturbed. The cul-
tured, bookish Russian of the assemblage was Greek to the
two servants. They talked of the tiiree executions.

Presently two other civilians were announced.

*' At last ! *' the hostess said, getting up from her pile
of tobacco in a flutter.

The two newcomers were both above medium height,
of solid build and ruddy-faced; but here their similarity
of appearance ceased. One of them looked the image of
social refinement and elegance, while the clothes and gen-
eral aspect of the other bespoke a citified, prosperous
peasant. His rough top-boots, the red woolen belt round
his coat and the rather coarse tint of his florid complexion,
like his full Russian beard, proclaimed the son of the un-
enlightened classes. He was taller than his companion
and remarkably well-built, with a shock of dark brown
hair thrown back from a high prominent forehead and
regular features. He was introduced to the gathering as
Zachar. He and the stylish-looking man by his side
whose revolutionary nickname was "My Lord,'' con-

Digitized

by Google

86 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

veyed the effect of a bright, shrewd tradesman and a high-
class lawyer bent on some legal business.

"If we are late, blame this guide of mine, not me,*'
Zachar said to the hostess, in a deep, rather harsh baritone,
pointing at his companion. "It turned out that he did
not know the place very well himself. There is a pilot for
you.** He accepted a glass of tea in a silver holder and
during the ensuing small talk the room rang with his
merriment. His jests were commonplace, but his Eussian
and all he said betrayed the man of education. The trades-
man's costume was his disguise, and if it became him so
well it was because his parents were moujiks. Bom in
serfdom but brought up as a nobleman at the expense of
his former master, this university-bred peasant — a case of
extreme rarity — for whom the gendarmes were searching
in connection with a bold attempt to blow up an imperial
train, loomed in the minds of the revolutionists as the
most conspicuous figure of their movement.

" And how is my young philosopher ? ** he said to Pavel.
"I was at your place this morning, but found you out.
Pasha.**

"1*11 see you later on,** Pavel said dryly. "Philoso-
pher ** referred to the nature of the studies which Pavel*s
mother thought him to be pursuing. There was a touch
of patronage in the way Zachar used the word, and Pavel
resented it.

As the gathering began to lapse into a graver mood the
conversation was expectantly left to Zachar, who by degrees
accepted the r61e of the principal speaker of the evening.
That he relished this role and was fond of a well turned
phrase became apparent at once, but the impression soon
wore oflf. He compelled attention.

" The practice of nations being inherited like furniture

Digitized

by Google

A DAY UNDERGROUND. 87

or chickens has been out of date for centuries/' he said in
the course of a ferocious attack on the existii^ adjustment
of things. *^ But our party does not demand full justice at
once. The Will of the People is not inconsiderate. We
are willing to project ourselves into the position of an
old chap with whom the love of power has been bred in
the bone. All our parly does demand^ as a first step^ is
some regard for the rights of the individual; of those
rights without which the word civilisation is of a piece
with that puerile sort of hypocrisy as our late war with
Turkey, when the ambitious old fellow in his unquench-
able thirst for territory sent his subjects to die for the
liberiy of Bulgarians so that their own children at home
might be plimged into more abject slavery than ever.

"The government knows, of course, that its days are
numbered and that it is only cowardice and incapacity
for concerted action which make its brief respite possible.
To retreat honourably, before it is too late, to yield to the
stem voice of the revolution under some specious pretext
— this is the step indicated by the political situation, but
then this is not what the ambitious oldster is after. Is
there any wonder he has lost his head? So much the
better for the revolution. One or two decisive blows and
the government will topple over. Thanks to the splendid
army section of the Will of the People, on the one hand,
and to our powerful Workingmen's Section, on the other,
one hundred resolute men will be enough to seize the Win-
ter Palace, to cut oflf all egress, arrest the new Czar and,
amid the general confusion following the death of the
old tyrant, proclaim a provisional government. What a
glorious opportunity to serve one's coimtryf

His speech lasted an hour and a half. Most of his
hearers were recent converts, and these the matter-of-fact

Digitized

by Google

88 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

tone of his utterances took by storm. The Third Section
had heard of him as an irresistible agitator. So he was^
and the chief secret of his success lay — despite an effect
of conscious floridity and bravado — in a sincere depth of
conviction manifested by a volcanic vehemence of delivery.
His speeches took it for granted that Russia was at the
threshold of a great historical change and that his organi-
sation was going to play a leading part in that change.
He gathered particular assurance from the fact that the
''army section^' that had been formed by his efforts in-
cluded several oflScers of the court guard whose number he
hoped to increase. These court oflBcers it was whom his
imagination pictured as "cutting off all egress*' at the
Winter Palace. The funds of his party included con-
tributions from some high sources. Things seemed to be
coming the ''Will of the People's*' way. As he spoke
his strong physique seemed to be aflame with contagious
passion, sweeping along audience and speaker. The harsh-
ness of his mighty baritone was gone; his peasant face was
beautiful. Words like "party," "citizen," "National
Assembly," are winged with the glamour of forbidden fruit
in Russia, and when Zachar uttered these words, in accents
implying that these things were as good as realised, his
audience was enravished. To all of which, in the present
instance, should be added the psychological effect of a
group of dashing army oflBcers, all members of the nobility,
reverently listening to an address by a peasant. He struck
one as a giant of energy and courage, of nervous vitality
as well as of bodily strength. He had the stuff of a polit-
ical leader in him. Under favourable conditions he would
have left his mark as one of the strong men of tiie nine-
teenth century. He carried people along current-fashion
rather than magnetised them.

Digitized

by Google

A DAY UNDERGROUND. 89

Pavel was the next speaker^ but the outraged sense of
justice which was the keynote of his impassioned plea^
coming as it did upon the heels of Zachar's peremptory
and matter-of-course declarations^ sounded out of date.

^'Oh^ it takes an idiot to talk after you^ Zachar/' he
said^ breaking off in the middle of a sentence. ^* One feels
like being up and doing things^ not talking. I wonder
why we don't start for the Winter Palace, at once/*

*' That* 8 the way I feel, too," chimed in a very young
cavalry oflScer, while two older men in brilliant uniforms,
were grasping Zachar each by one hand. The long-necked
hostess was brushing the tears from her eyes and calling
herself " fool,** for joy.

An artillery oflBcer with bad teeth of whom Pavel could
not think without thinking of the rheumatism of which
that revolutionist had once complained to him, drew his
sword fiercely, the polished steel flaming in the bright light
of the room, as he said :

*' By Jove!**

*' Look at him ! Look at him 1 ** Zachar shouted.

*' Bridle your passions, old boy,** Pavel put in.

A minute or two later he called the orator into the
next room and handed him what looked like a package of
tobacco.

Zachar was in high feather over the success of his speech
and loath to leave the atmosphere of adoration that sur-
rounded him here; but an important engagement forced
him to take his departure.

4B 4c 4c 4c 4B

A quarter of an hour*s ride in a tramcar and a short
walk through the moonlit streets brought him to a de-
serted comer in the vicinity of the Winter Palace, where
he was met by a man dressed like an artisan, as tall as

Digitized

by Google

90 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

himself, but slimmer of girth, and the two went on trudg-
ing along the snow-encrusted sidewalk together. The
other man had an expressive sickly face which the pallid
glare of the moonlight gave a ghastly look.

" How is your health? ^* Zachar asked.

^^Bad,'' the sickly looking man answered, holding out
his hand into which Zachax put the package of tobacco,
saying:

" See if it isn^t too heavy for a quarter of a pound.^'

** It is, rather, but it^ll pass,'^ the other replied, weighing
the package in his hand and then putting it into his
pocket. Buried in the tobacco was a small quantiiy of
dynamite.

" It^s too bad you are not feeling well.^^

*^Yes, my nerves are playing the devil with me. The
worst of it is that I have got to keep the stuff under my
pillow when I sleep. That gives me headaches.^^

** I shouldn^t wonder. The evaporations of that stufE do
that as a rule. But can't you find another place for it? '^

" Not for the night. They might go through my trunk
then. They are apt to come in at any time. Oh, those
surprise visits of tiieirs keep my wretched nerves on edge
all the time.''

While the gendarmerie and the police knew him to be
a leader among the revolutionary workmen of the capital
and were hunting for him all over the city, this man, whose
name was Stepan Ehaltourin, had for the past few months
been making his home, under the name of Batushkoff, in
the same building as the Czar, in the Winter Palace, where
his work as a vamisher was highly valued. He was a self-
taught mechanic, unusually weU-read and clear-headed.
Of retiring disposition and a man of few words, with an
iron will under a bashful and extremely gentle manner.

Digitized

by Google

A DAY UNDERGROUND. 91

he was one of the prominent figures of the Will of the
People, having been driven to terrorism by the senseless
persecutions which he had met at the hands of the authori-
ties in his attempts to educate some of his fellow-workmen.
He now lodged, together with other mechanics, in the
basement of the Winter Palace, with only one room — the
guard-room — between the ceiling over his head and the
floor of the Imperial dining hall. Indeed, the frequent
raids which a colonel at the head of a group of gendarmes
had been making upon that basement since the seizure of
** Alexandre's '* diagram were largely a matter of display
and red tape. There was more jingling of spurs and
flaunting of formidable looking moustaches than actual
searching or watching. Nowhere was the incapacity of
Russian officialdom illustrated more glaringly than it was
in the very home of the Czar. The bold Terrorist for whom
the police were looking high and low had found little diffi-
culiy in securing employment here, and one of the first
things that had attracted his attention in the place was
the prevailing state of anarchy and demoralisation he
found in it. Priceless gems and relics were scattered about
utterly unguarded; stealing was the common practice of
the court servants, and orgies at which these regaled their
friends from the outside world upon wines from the im-
perial cellars were a nightly occurrence. Since Alexandre's
arrest the vigilance of the court gendarmes had been greatly
increased, so that no servant could enter the palace without
being searched ; yet Khaltourin contrived to smuggle in a
small piece of dynamite every evening, thus gradually accu-
mulating the supply that was needed for the terrible work
of destruction he was preparing.

As to his position within the palace, he played his rdle
so well that he was the favourite of gendarmes and servants

Digitized

by Google

92 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

alike, often hearing from them stories of the Nihilists and
of the great plot to blow up the dining hall that was sup-
posed to have been nipped in the bud.

*'Wel), how is that old gendarme of yours?** Zachar
inquired. "Still teaching you manners?*'

" Yes/* Khaltourin answered with a smile. *' I am get-
ting sick of his attentions, though. But there is some-
thing back of them, it appears. What do you think he*s
after? Why, he has a marriageable daughter, so he has
taken it into his head to make a son-in-law of me.**

** Ho-ho-ho-ho ! ** Zachar exploded, restraining a guffaw.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER X.

THB OZAB's ESOAPB.

ON Tuesday, February 17th, at about six o'clock in
the evening, Favd and Makar were sauntering
through the streets of the Vassili Island. Their
conversation languished. While indoors they had had an-
other discussion of Makar's scheme, a heart-to-heart talk in
which Pavel showed signs of yielding; and now that they
were out in the snow-dappled night they were experiencing
that feeling of embarrassment which is the aftermath of
sentimental communion between two men. When they
reached the Neva, Pavel cast a glance across, in the direction
of the Winter Palace. The frozen river looked infinitely
wider than it was. Dotted with lamps and crossed by
streams of home-bound humanity, it lay vast, gorgeous,
uncanny — a white plain animated with mysterious bright-
ness and mysterious motion. The main part of the capital,
on the Palace side of the Neva, was a world of gloom
starred with myriads and myriads of lights, each so dis-
tinct that one almost felt tempted to count them; all this
seemingly as far away as the gold-dotted sky overhead.
Makar was huddling himself in his grey military doak,
his bare hands loosely thrust into its sleeves, looking at
nothing, Pavel, his furred coat unbuttoned, gazed across
the Neva.
** Come on,'' the medical student urged, knocking one

Digitized

by Google

94 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

foot against the other. "It^s too cold to be tramping
around like this.^^

** One moment/^ Pavel responded, impatiently. He had
been visiting this point at the same hour every day for the
past week or two. Makar, who did not know of it, re-
lapsed into his revery.

Suddenly there came a dull rolling crash. It burst
from the other side, and as Pavel and Makar looked across
the river they saw that the lights of the Winter Palace
which had been burning a minute ago, were out, leaving
a great patch of darkness. The human stream paused.
Then came a rush of feet on all sides.

" If s in the Palace,'' BoulatoflE whispered ; and seizing
his companion's hand at his side he pressed it with furious
strength.

4b ♦ ♦ 4b ♦

The next day the newspapers were allowed to state that
the previous evening, as the Czar and a royal guest were
about to enter the dining hall through one door and the
other members of the imperial family through another, a
terrific explosion had occurred, making a hole in the floor
ten feet long and six wide; that eleven inmates of the
guard room, which was directly under the dining hall, were
killed and fifty-seven injured, the Czar's narrow escape
having been due to an accidental delay of the dinner. The
explosion had shattered a number of windows and blown
out the gas, leaving the palace in complete darkness.
Traces of an improvised dynamite mine had been discov-
ered in the basement. Three artisans employed in the
palace were arrested, but their innocence was established,
while a fourth man, a vamisher named Batushkofif, had
disappeared. Now that Batushkofif was gone the Third
Section learned that he was no other than Stepan Khal-

Digitized

by Google

THE CZAR^S ESCAPE. 95

toiirin^ one of the active revolutionists its agents were
looking for.

One week after the explosion the Czar signed a decree
which practically placed the government in the hands of a
Supreme Executive Commission — a body especially
created to cope with the situation and whose head. Count
Loris-Melikofif, was invested with all but the powers of a
regent. Count Melikofif was neither a Slav nor of noble
birth. He was the son of an Armenian merchant. He
was a new figure in St. Petersburg, and when his carriage
passed along the Neva Prospect his swarthy face with its
striking Oriental features were pointed out with expres-
sions of perplexity. Although one of the two principal
heroes of the late war with Turkey and recently a governor-
general of Kharkofif, he was looked upon as an upstart.
The extraordinary powers so suddenly vested in him took
the country by surprise.

He was known for the conciliatory policy toward the
Nihilists at which he had aimed while he was governor-
general of Kharkofif. Accordingly, his promotion to what
virtually amounted to dictatorship was universally inter-
preted as a sign of weakening on the part of Alexandre
II. Indeed, Melikofif^s first pronimciamento from the
lofty altitude of his new office struck a note of startling
novelty. He spoke of the Czar as showing '^increased
confidence in his people ^^ and of "public cooperation^'
as "the main force capable of assisting the government
in its efifort to restore a normal flow of ofl5cial life'' —
utterances that were construed into a pledge of public
participation in afifairs of state, into an unequivocal hint
at representative legislation.

Loris-Melikofif was one of the ablest statesmen Eussia
had ever produced. He was certainly the only high of-

Digitized

by Google

96 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ficial of his time who did not try to prove his de-
votion to the throne by following in the trodden path
of repression. He knew that Russia could not be kept
from joining in the march of Western civilisation and
he was not going to serve his personal interests by pre-
tending that it could. Instead, he hoped to strengtiien
his position by winning the Czar over to his own mod-
erate liberalism, by reconciling him to the logic of his-
tory. But the logic of history could best have been served
by prompt and vigorous action, while the chief of the
Supreme Executive Commission was rather slow to move.
Nor, indeed, was he free from interference. The Czar
was still susceptible to the influence of his unthinking
relatives and of his own vindictive nature.

Chaos marked the situation. Loris-Melikoff^s first week
in oflBce was signalised by the most cruel act in the
entire history of the government's struggle against Nihil-
ism. A gymnasium boy, seventeen years old (a Jew), was
hanged in Kieff for carrying a revolutionary proclamation.
The dictator's professions of liberalism were branded as
hypocrisy.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XI.

A MYSTERIOUS ARKEST.

A YOUNG man had been seized with seditious publica-
tions. It was the first political arrest in Miroslav,
and the report was spreading in a maze of shifting
versions. This much seemed certain: the prisoner pre-
tended to be a deaf-mute and so far the gendarmes and the
procureur had failed to disclose his identity. The local
newspaper dared not publish the remotest allusion to the
matter.

Countess Anna Nicolayevna Varova (Varofif) first heard
the news from her brother-in-law, the governor, and
although the two belonged to that exceptional minority
which usually discussed topics of this character in their
normal voices, yet it was in subdued tones that the satrap
broached the subject. Anna Nicolayevna offered to send
for Pavel, who had recently arrived from St. Petersburg,
after an absence of three years, but the governor checked
her.

"Never mind, Annette,^^ he said, impatiently, "Tve
dropped in for a minute or two, in passing, don^t you
know. He called on me yesterday^ Pasha. Quite a man.
Tell him he must look in again and let me see how clever
he is. Quite a man. How time does fiy ! ^' Then sinking
his voice, he asked: "Have you heard of the fellow

Digitized

by Google

98 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

they've bagged ? One of those youngsters who are scaring
St. Petersburg out of its wits, you know.^^

He gave a laugh and fell to blinking gravely.

"What do you mean, George? Did the gendarmes
catch a Nihilist?^' she asked, in dismay. "Did they?
Bless me ! That's all that's wanted. If there is one there
must be a whole nest of them/' She made a gesture of
horror — " But who is he, what is he? ''

" That I know no more than you do.''

"Well, ifs too bad, it's really too bad. I thought
Miroslav was immune from that plague at least." And
seeing his worried look she added: "I hope ifs nothing
serious, George."

Governor BoulatoflE shook his head. " I don't think it
is. Although you never can tell nowadays. You never
can tell," he repeated, blinking absently. " The Armenian
doesn't seem to be cleaning those fellows out quite so
rapidly as one thought he would, does he? They are play-
ing the devil vrith things, thaf s what they are doing."
"One" and "they" referred to the Emperor and his
advisers.

" Pooh, they'll weary of that parvenu, it's only a matter
of time," she consoled him.

The old man proceeded to quote from Loris-MelikoflPs
recent declarations, which the countess had heard him
satirise several times before. " * In the cooperation of the
public,' " he declaimed theatrically, " * lies the main force
capable of assisting the government in its effort to restore
a normal flow of oflScial life.' Do you understand what
all this jugglery means? That we are knuckling down to
a lot of ragamuffins. It means an official confession that
the ^flow of official life' has been checked by a gang of
rascally college boys. *The public is the main force ca-

Digitized

by Google

A MYSTERIOUS ARREST. 99

pable of assisting the government I ' Chaxming^ isn't it?
Might as well invite ' the public ' to be so kind and elect
representatives, deputies, or what you may call 'em, start a
parliament and have it over with."

Anna Nicolayevna made another attempt io bring the
conversation back to the political prisoner, but her visitor
was evidently fighting shy of the topic.

"Birch-rods, a good, smart flogging, thafs what the
public needs," he resumed, passionately gnashing his teeth,
in response to his own thoughts.

'* Oh, don't say that, George. After all, one lives in the
nineteenth century."

But this only spurred him on.

The arrest having been ordered f rojn St. Petersburg, the
implication was that the presence of the revolutionist in
town had escaped the attention of the local authorities.
So Governor Boulatoff, who had had no experience in cases
of this kind, wondered whether the affair was not likely to
affect his own standing. Besides, the governor of Khar-
koff had recently been killed, and Boulatoff was asking
himself whether the arrest of the unknown man augured
the end of his own peace of mind. This he kept to him-
self, however, and having found some relief in animadvert-
ing upon the policy of Loris-Melikoff he took leave.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The countess was left with a pang of sympathy for her
brother-in-law. Not that she had any clear idea of the
political situation at which he was forever scoflSng and
carping. She felt sure that his low spirits were traceable
to loneliness, and her compassion for him revived heart-
wringing memories of his dead wife, her sister.

The young prince was out in the garden romping about
with Kostia, his half-brother, now a ten-year-old cadet on

Digitized

by Google

100 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

sick leave. Anna Nicolayevna went to take a look at them
through the open window of a rear room. The garden
was so jammed with fresh-tinted lilacs^ so flooded with
their scent^ that it seemed like an explosion of color and
fragrance. Two Germans were at work with picks and
spades. From an invisible spot where a new summer house
was being constructed came sounds of sawing and hammer-
ing, while the air near the window rang with a multi-
tudinous twitter of sparrows. Pavel was trying to force
Kostia into a wheelbarrow, the boy kicking and struggling
silently, and a huge shaggy dog barking at Pavel fero-
ciously.

^ Come in, Pasha. I want to speak to you,'* said Anna
Nicolayevna.

The return indoors was a race, in which the gigantic
dog took part. The convalescent little cadet was beaten.

*'Wait till I get well,*' he said.

^'Wait nothing. Your excellency will be rolling along
like a water-melon all the same. Good-bye, Monsieur le
Water-melon ! '*

Presently Pavel stood before his mother, mopping his
flushed, laughing face.

*' Do you remember his * express trains ' in the garden ? *'
he said. '' Now it is beneath his dignity, to be sure.*' He
was always trjdng to prove to himself that the present
Kostia and the five-year-old boy he used to fondle five
years ago were one and the same person.

*'He*8 right,** said the countess. "He*s a baby no
longer. It's you who are acting like one. Uncle has been
here. He was in a hurry, so I didn*t send for you.** Her
serious-minded, intellectual son inspired her with a certain
feeling of timidity. She had not the courage to bring up
the subject of the political arrest. Her mind was so vague

Digitized

by Google

A MYSTERIOUS ARREST. 101

on matters of this kind, while Pavel was apparently so well
informed and so profound, she was sure of making a poor
showing. So she told herself that it was not a proper
topic to discuss in a well-ordered family and kept her own
counsel.

" I didn't know he was here/' he said.

^' Poor man I he seems to be feeling lonely.''

Pavel made no reply.

''Why, don't you think he does?"

'' What matters it whether I do or not," he said, lightly.

*' You haven't a bit of heart. Pasha."

He would not be drawn into conversation, treating
everything she said with an inscrutable, somewhat patronis-
ing flippancy that nettled her. At lafit he said he was
going out.

"'Looking up old chums' again?" she asked. "And
does it mean that you are going to dine out once more ? "

"I'll try not to, mother," he answered, with a fond
smile in his bright, aggressive eyes.

His small slender figure, beautifully erect, and his up-
ward-taiding, frank features haunted her long after he
left. She felt like a jealous bride. Otherwise he kept
her thoughts tinged with sunshine. A great attachment
on quite new terms had sprung up between mother and son
since his arrival. At the same time he seemed to belong
to a world which she was at a loss to make out. Nor did
he appear disinclined to talk of his life in St. Petersburg
— a subject upon which she was continually plying him
with questions. The trouble was that the questions that
beset her mind could no more be formulated than a blind
man can formulate his curiosity as to colour. Moreover, all
these questions seemed to come crowding upon her when
Pavel was away and to vanish the moment she set eyes on

Digitized

by Google

102 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

him. She told herself that he belonged to a different
generation from hers, that it was the everlasting ease of
" fathers and sons.^' But this only quickened her jealousy
of the " sons '* and her despair at being classed with the
discarded generation. And the keener her jealousy, the
deeper was her interest in Pasha.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XII.

A BBWILDEBINQ ENOOUNTBB.

WHEN Pavel was in St. Petersburg Anna Nioola-
yevna had missed him only occasionally. Now
that he was with her his absences were a ccm-
tinnons torture to her. On the present occasion she souj^t
diversion in a visit to Princess ChertogoflE where she ex-
pected to hear something about the mysterious prisoner.
Princess ChertogofE was a lame, impoverished noblewoman
whose daughter was married to the assistant-procureur.
In higher circles she was looked down upon as a social out-
cast, so that Anna Nicolayevna's visits to her had a sur-
reptitious character and something of the charm of for-
bidden fruit. Pavel's mother was fond of the stir her
appearance produced in houses of this kind. The curious
part of it was that the impecunious princess was one of the
very few persons in the world whose presence irritated her.
It seemed as though this irritation had a peculiar attrac*
tion for her.

It was an early hour in the afternoon. She was received
in the vestibule by H616ne, the assistant-procureur's wife,
with an outburst of kisses and caresses which had some-
thing to do with the young woman's expecting to become a
mother. Rising in the backgroimd was the hostess, Lydia
Grigorievna Chertogova (Chertogoff) and her gorgeous
crutches. She was large, dark, and in spite of her made-

103

Digitized

by Google

104 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

over gowns, imposingly handsome. Aware of the fantastic
majesty which these crutches gave her stalwart form, she
paraded her defect as she did her beautiful dark eyes. At
this moment it seemed as though the high-polished ebony
crutches joined her in beaming at sight of the distin-
guished visitor. H616ne, a small woman of twenty-four,
usually compact as a billiard ball, was beginning to re*
semble an over-ripe apple.

When the three women found themselves in the drawing
room Lydia Grigorievna lost no time in turning the cos-
versation on the arrested Nihilist. Her son-in-law had
carefully abstained from opening his mouth on the subject,
yet she talked about it authoritatively, with an implication
of reserved knowledge of still graver import, but H616ne
gave her away.

*' Woldemar would not speak about it,*' she complained,
reverently. "*An afEair of state,' he said. You can't
get a single word out of him." She exulted in the part
he was playing as an exterminator of the enemies of the
Czar, and in the air-castles she was building as to the pro-
motion to which the present case was to pave his way.

*'But what do they want, those scamps?" Lydia Grig-
orievna resumed, in soft, pampered accents. " Would they
have us live without a Czar? I should have them cut to
pieces, the rogues. Is it possible that the government
should be powerless to get rid of them? To think of a
handful of striplings keeping cabinet ministers in a per-
petual state of terror."

'* Oh, nobody is really afraid of them," H61tee retorted,
holding her face to the breeze which came in through an
open window.

" But your husband is not yet a cabinet minister, dear,"
her mother said with a smile toward the countess.

Digitized

by Google

A BEWILDERING ENCOUNTER. 105

^Oh, you're always suspecting me of something or
other, mammon. I was not thinking of Woldemar at all/'

The charm of her presence^ the appealing charm of a
pretty young woman about to become a mother, added
itself to the tenderness and mystery of spring. Lydia
Qrigorievna addressed another smile to the countess^ but
Anna Nicolayevna dropped her glance. The princess went
on raging at the revolutionists. In reality, however, that
handful of striplings who ^^kept cabinet ministers in a
perpetual state of terror'' had stirred up a curiosity in
her that sprang from anything but indignation or con-
tempt. She was hankering for a specimen of their literal
ture, of those publications the very handling of which was
apt to bring death. Her thirst in this direction was all
the keener because she felt sure that some of the Nihilist
papers that had been confiscated at the arrest of the un-
known man were upstairs in her son-in-law's desk.

"A constitution may be all very well in Germany or
France," she said. '*This is Bussia, not Germany or
France or England, thank God. Yet those wretches will
go around stirring up discontent. On my way home from
Moscow last winter I heard a passenger say that if we
had less bribery and more liberty and popular education
we would be as good as any nation in Western Europe.
I knew at once he was a Nihilist. You can tell one by
the first word he utters. I confess I was afraid to sit near
him. He had grey side-whiskers, but maybe they were just
stuck on. Oh, I should show them no mercy."

She was all flushed and ill at ease. She received no
encouragement. Her sugared enunciation and the false
ring of what she said grated on her hearer's nerves. Anna
Nicolayevna listened in silence. The lame princess was a
sincere woman coated with a layer of in^cerity. But

Digitized

by Google

106 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the countess thought her the embodiment of affectation
and hated her, bizarre beauty, enunciation, altered gowns,
crutches and all.

Lydia Grigorievna was interrupted by the appearance
of the assistant-procureur himself. He was tall and frail
with a long straight straw-coloured mane and pontifical ges-
tures. His figure made one think of length in the abstract.
As you looked at him he seemed to be continually growing
in height. H61tee had fallen in love with him because he
resembled the baron in a play she had seen in Moscow.

** I^ve just looked in to bid you good afternoon, countess,^^
he said. " I saw your carriage through the window. But
unfortunately — business before pleasure/^ It was one of
two or three English phrases which he kept for occasions
of this character and which he mispronounced with great
self-confidence.

When Anna Nicolayevna got into the street she felt as
though she had emerged from the suffocating atmosphere
of some criminal den. In the May breeze, however, and
at sight of the river her spirits rose. She dismissed her
carriage. When she reached the macadamised bank and
caught the smell of the water it was borne in upon her
afresh that it was spring. She had passed this very spot,
, in a sleigh only a short while ago, it seemed. Lawns and
trees had been covered with snow then; all had been stiff
with the stiflEness of death; whereas now all was tenderly
alive with verdure and bloom, and wild-flowers smiled
upon her at every turn. Here it struck her as though
spring had just been bom; bom in full attire overnight.
Flushed and radiant, with her msty chin in the air and
her flat chest slightly thrown out, spinning her parasol,
she was briskly marching along, a broad streak of water
to the right of her^ a row of orchards to the left. The

Digitized

by Google

A BEWILDERING ENCOUNTER. 107

river beamed. From somewhere underneath she heard the
clanking of chains of lumber-horses, accompanied by the
yell of boys. The greased wooden screws of a receding
cable-ferry were squirming in the air like two erect snakes
of silver; the brass buttons of a soldier-passenger burned
like a column of flames. All this and the lilac-laden breeze
and Anna Nicolayevna's soul were part of something vast,
swelling with light and joy. But the breath of spring is
not all joy. Nature's season of love is a season of yearn-
ing. One feels like frisking and weeping at once. Spring
was with us a year ago, but the interval seems many years.
It is like revisiting one's home after a long absence: the
scenes of childhood are a source of delight and depression
at once. It is like hearing a long forgotten song: the
melody, however gay, has a dismal note in it. Anna Nic-
olayevna had not been out many minutes when she began
to feel encompassed by an immense melancholy to which
her heart readily responded. There was a vague longing
in the clear blue sky, in the gleaming water, in the patches
of grass on either side of the public promenade, in the
distant outlines across the river, but above all in the over-
powering freshness of the afternoon air. The travail of
an unhappy soul seemed to be somewhere nearby. A look
of loneliness came into her eyes. She was burning to see
Pavel, to lay bare her soul to him.

When a passing artisan in top-boots and with glass but-
tons in his waistcoat reverently took oflE his flat cap she
returned the salute with motherly fervour and slackened
her pace to a more dignified gait. *'Fm respected and
loved by the people,'' she mentally boasted to Pavel.

Arrived at the bridge, she paused to hand a twenty-
copeck piece to a blind beggar who sat on the ground by
the tollman's booth. He apparently recognised her by the

Digitized

by Google

108 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

way her gloved hand put the com in his hand. She had
given him alms as long as she could remember^ and usually
he made no more impression on her than the lamp-posts
she passed. This time, however, it came back to her how
her mother used to send her out of their carriage with
some money for him. She paused to look at him and to
listen to his song. She recalled him as a man of thirty or
forty with thick flaxen hair. Now he was gray and bald.
*' Great heavens ! how time does fly ! '^ she exclaimed in her
heart, feeling herself an old woman. The blind man
seemed to be absorbed in his song. All blind beggars look
alike and they all seem to be singing the same doleful
religious tune, yet this man, as he sat with his eyes sealed
and his head leaned against the parapet, gave her a novel
sensation. He was listening to his own tones, as if they
came from an invisible world, like his own, but one located
somewhere far away.

Anna Nicolayevna gave him a ruble and passed on.
Followed by the beggar's benedictions, she made to turn
into the street which formed the continuation of the
bridge, when an approaching flour truck brought her to a
halt. Besides several sacks of meal the waggon carried a
cheap old trunk, and seated between the trunk and the
driver was — Pavel ; Pavel uncouthly dressed in the garb
of an artisan. His rudimentary beard was covered with
dust; his legs, encased in coarse grimy topboots, were
dangling in the air. The visor of his flat cap was pushed
down over his eyes, screening them from the red after-
noon sun which sparkled and glowed in the glass buttons
of his vest. It certainly was Pavel. Anna Nicolayevna
was panic-stricken. She dared not utter his name.

The toll paid, the truck moved on. The countees fol-*
lowed her sou with her eyes, until a cab shut him oat of

Digitized

by Google

A BEWILDERING ENCOUNTER. 109

view, and then she remained standing for some time, star-
ing at the cab. '^What does it all mean?'' she asked
herself with sickening curiosity. Finally her eye went
to the water below. She gazed at its rippling stretches
of black and masses of shattered silver; at a woman slap-
ping a heap of wash with a wash-beater, at a long raft
slowly gliding toward the bridge. "Is he disguised?
What does it all mean? Was it really Pasha?'*

Doubt dawned in her mind. In her eagerness to take
another look at the man on the truck she raised her eyes.
After waiting for some moments she saw the waggon with
the two men as it appeared and forthwith disappeared at
the other end of the bridge. The thought of the arrested
man stunned her. Was Pavel a Nihilist? The image of
her son had assumed a new, a forbidding expression.

The revolutionists moved about on the verge of martyr-
dom^ and as the mere acquaintance with one of their num-
ber meant destruction, the imagination painted them as
something akin to living shadows, as beings whose very
touch brought silence and darkness. People dared not
utter the word "Nihilist" or "revolutionist" aloud.
Anna Nicolayevna belonged to the privileged few, but at
this moment she dreaded so much as to think of her son by
these ghastly names. It now appeared to Anna Nico-
layevna that all through her call at Lydia Grigorievna's
she had had a presentiment of an approaching calamity.
She took the first cab that came along.

" As fast as you can drive," she said.

The moment Anna Nicolayevna got home she inquired
whether Pavel was in his room, and when the porter said
that his Highness had not been back since he had left, in the
morning, a fresh gust of terror smote her heart and btain.
She stole into his room. On the table lay a Qerman

Digitized

by Google

110 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

pamphlet on Kant and a fresh number of the Russian MeS"
senger, the ultra-consefvative magazine published in Mos-
cow. In several places the leaves were cut. A Nihilist
was the last person in the world one would expect to read
this organ of Panslavists. What Anna Nicolayevna did
not know was that the cut pages of the conservative maga-
zine, which Pavel had received from St. Petersburg the
day before, contained a hidden revolutionary message.
Here and there a phrase, word, or a single letter, was
marked, by means of an inkstain, abrasion or what looked
like the idle penciling of a reader, these forming half a
dozen consecutive sentences.

Anna Nicolayevna was perplexed and her perplexity gave
her a new thrill of hope. She was in a quiver of impa-
tience to see her son and have it all out.

The dinner hour came round and Pavel was not there.
She could not eat. Every little while she paused to listen
for a ring of the door bell. She sent a servant to his room
to see if he had not arrived unheard. He had not.

The other people at table were Kostia, in huge red
shoulder-straps which made his well-fitting uniform look
too large for him; Kostia^s old tutor, a powerful looking
German with a bashful florid face, and the countess' own
old governess, an aged Frenchwoman with a congealed
smile on her bloodless lips. This restlessness of the
countess when Pavel was slow in coming was no news to
them, but this time she seemed to feel particularly imeasy.
Silence hung over them. The Frenchwoman's dried-up
smile turned to a gleam of compassion. The German ate
timidly. This man's services had practically ceased when
Kostia entered the cadet corps, but Anna Nicolayevna
retained him in tiie house for his quiet piety. She had a
feeling that so far as the intelligent classes were concerned

Digitized

by Google

A BEWILDERING ENCOUNTER. Ill

the simple forms of Protestantism were more compatible
with religious sincerity than were the iron-bound formali-
ties of her native church. So, with her heart thirsting
for spiritual interest, she found intense pleasure in her
theological conversations with this well-read, narrow-
minded, honest Lutheran, whose religious convictions she
envied.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XIIL
A gendarme's sister.

WHEN" Pavel told his mother that he was going out
he expected to meet Makar, who had been in
Miroslav for the past four days. Once again he
was going to plead with him to give up his scheme. The
affair kept Pavel in bad humour, but that morning his mind
was occupied by the thought that there was an interesting
meeting in store for him. In the evening he was to make
the acquaintance of Clara Yavner, the heroine of the Piev-
aMn " demonstration.'*

On his way down the spacious corridor he was stopped
by Onuf ri, his cheeks still hollower and his drooping mous-
tache still longer and considerably greyer than of yore.
Pavel had once tried to make a convert of him, but found
him **too stupid for abstract reasoning.'' Onufri was
polishing the floor. As Pavel came past he faced half
way about and gave him a stem look from under his bushy
eyebrows.

*^ They've pinched a gentleman, the blood-guzzlers."
Saying which he fell to dancing on his foot-cushions again.

*^ What do you mean? " Pavel asked, turning white as he
paused.

"You know what I mean, sir. You know you do,"
answered Onufri, going on with his work.

"Is it true? Who made the arrest? Gendarmea?"

112

Digitized

by Google

A GENDARME'S SISTER. 113

^ThsifB it I wouldn't bother your Highness if the
police 'd nabbed a common crook, would I ? ''

The servant bent on his young master a long look of
sympathetic reproach, adding under his breath :

"You had better give it all up, sir. Better let it go
to the devil.*'

** Give up what? What on earth are you prating about,
Onufri?''

A few minutes later, while Pavel was destroying some
papers in his room, the door swung open and in came
Onufri. The old man burst into tears and dropped to his
knees.

"Take pity, sir,'* he wailed, kissing Pavel's fingers.
"You've played with fire long enough, sir. If they put
you in prison, the murderers, and sent you away it would
kill her Highness, your mother."

"Get up, Onufri. I have no patience with you just
now, really I haven't."

" If s bad enough when your Highness takes chances in
another town, but if you're mixed up in this here thing,
sir ''

" I'm not mixed up ' in this here thing.' Don't bother
me. Come, get up. Up with you, now. There is a good
fellow!"

The old hussar obeyed distressedly.

Instead of going to the place where he expected to see
Makar, Pavel went to the house of Major Safonoff, the
gendarme officer, an uncomfortable-looking frame building
across the river. As he approached it, Masha, the major's
sister, who stood at a second story window at that moment,
apparently waiting for somebody, burst out beckoning to
him and stamping her feet. Her excited gesticulations
drew the attention of a knife-grinder and two little girls.

Digitized

by Google

114 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Pavel dropped his eyes. '' She is a perfect idiot/' he said
to himself in a rage, " and I am another one. The idea
pf taking np with such a creature ! '*

** Didn't you torture me I '' she greeted him on the stair-
case. *' I thought my heart was going to snap. Don't be
uneasy. I have dismissed our servant. There is nobody
around." When they reached the low-ceiled parlor, she
sank her voice and said solemnly, yet with a certain note
of triimiph: *'He was arrested at four o'clock yesterday
on the railway tracks. The gendarme oflSce had informa-
tion that he was in the habit of taking walks there. I
happened to be away — think of it! At a time like that
I was away. Else I should have let you know at once, of
course. Anyhow, he's there."

'' You say it as if it was something to rejoice in," Pavel
remarked, disguising his rage. " If s quite a serious mat-
ter, Maria Gavrilovna."

Mile. Saf onoff stared. ** But we'll get him out. Why,
are you afraid we mayn't? I see you're depressed and
that makes me miserable, too. Eeally it does."

*^Do I look depressed? Well, I must confess I rather
am. It's no laughing matter, Maria Gavrilovna," he said,
flushing.

'^ Oh, well, if you are going to talk like that. That is
I myself haven't the slightest doubt about it. Only you
frighten me so. If this thing is going to last another
week it will drive me mad." Her childish eyes shone with
tears. "Why should you take such a gloomy view of it?
I must say it's cruel of you, Pavel Vassilyevitch. Every-
thing is just as I expected. He is as good as free, I assure
you."

Pavel answered, by way of consoling himself as well as
her: *'Well, maybe I do take it too hard. Our chances

Digitized

by Google

A GENDARME'S SISTER. 116

seem to be good, and — well, we must get him out. That's
all there is to if

" Of course we must. Now I like you, BoulatofE. We
must and we will, and when the story is published — oh,
I do wish we could get out special proclamations 1 — any-
how, won't it make a stirl" She paused and then re-
sumed, in a new burst of frankness, ^^ I know what makes
you uneasy about me. The great trouble with me is my
lack of tact, isn't it? If I had that I would be all right.
Thaf s what worries you about me in this affair, isn't it,
now? You're afraid I may make a mess of the whole
business. I know you are. Well, and I don't blame you,
either. The Safonoffs have never been distinguished for
their heads. When it happens to be a matter of hearts,
we hold our own, but brains, well — ." She gave a laugh.
" I tell you what, Boulatoff, I'm afraid of you, and I don't
care to bear the brunt of this important affair. Anyhow,
I want you to keep an eye on me. I'll do all you want
me to, but you must take the responsibility off my shoul-
ders, else I'll go crazy. What makes you smile? You
think I'm crazy already, don't you?"

"I wasn't smiling at all. So far you have managed
things beautifully. I confess I'm getting impatient.
Well, I do feel wretched, Maria Gavrilovna."

She grasped his hand, shook it silently and whispered:
'* Don't be uneasy. We shall win."

When Safonoff came home at the lunch hour he told
of the excitement at the gendarme ofiBce. His manner
toward Boulatoff was a non-committal mixture which
seemed to say: ''You and I understand each other per-
fectly, don't we? Still, if you think you can get me to
call a spade a spade or to help you you are mistaken."

His compact, well-fed figure had the shape of a plum.

Digitized

by Google

116 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

He was perpetually mimicking somebody or chuckling and
his speech was full of gaps^ many of his sentences being
rendered in dumb show.

"My chief may get in trouble for having ordered the
arrest too soon/^ he said. "We were to let the pris-
oner — ^^ (he brandished his hand to represent a man going
aroimd at large) "for some time^ so as to let him show
us with whom he is acquainted. But my chief — *' (he
struck an attitude meant to caricature a decrepit, cough-
ing, old fellow) " was all of a tremble for fear the canary-
bird might take wing. You see he had never arrested a
political before. You should have seen our men when
we took that chap on the railroad track. They were more
frightened than he, I assure you, prince. They thought
he was going to — ^^ (he hurled an imaginary bomb at
Pavel and burst into laughter). "Monsieur Unknown is
certainly no coward whatever else he may be. You should
have seen the look of surprise and contempt he gave me 1 '*

Pavel beamed while Masha's face wore a pained expres-
sion. " It^s time you had left this nasty business of yours,
Andrusha,'* she said.

When Andrusha reached the assistant procureur's part
in the case he sketched off a pompous imbecile. There
was no love lost between the public attorney and the
gendarme oflScers, so Saf onoff described, with many a gur-
gle of merriment, how, during the attempted examination
of the prisoner Zendorf, the assistant procureur (he bur-
lesqued an obeisance as the epitome of snobbishness) had
tried to impress his uniformed rivals with his intellectual
and social superiority.

"You see, my chief is a rough and ready sort of cus-
tomer. Whatever else he may be, frills and fakes are not
in his line. So he went right at it. 'Speak up/ he

Digitized

by Google

A GENDARME'S SISTER. 117

squeaked at the prisoner, * speak up, or TU have your
mouth opened for you/ So Zendorf called him gently to
order and fixed his dignified peepers at the prisoner. He
expected to cast some sort of spell over him, I suppose, but
it was no go. As to me, I was just choking. As bad luck
would have it I took it into my head at that moment that
the best way to make that fellow talk would be to have
his armpits tickled till he roared. Well, I had to leave the
room to have my giggle out.'*

Safonoflf was indiflEerent to his sister's revolutionary
ventures because he never vividly realised the danger she
incurred. His mind retained the most lifelike impres-
sions, but its sensitiveness was of the photographic kind;
it was confined to actual experiences. He had no imag-
ination for the future. He was an easy-going man, in-
capable of fear. People often arrived at the conclusion
that he was " a fool after all.'' But then there are fools
who are endowed with a keen perception and a lively sense
of character.

Speaking of the warden of the jail, Safonoflf imperson-
ated a cringing, hand-kissing, crafty time-server. He had
never met a convert Jew or convert Pole who was not an
adventurer and an all-round knave, he said, and Eodke-
vitch was the most typical convert Pole he had ever come
across. The sight of money took his breath away, gave
him the vertigo, made his eyes start from their sockets.
Eustle a crisp paper ruble in his ear and he will faint away.

''He's a candidate for Siberia anyhow and he needs
money to pull him out of some of the roguish schemes he
is tangled up in. The contractors who furnish his pris-
oners sand for flour and garbage for potatoes are his part-
ners in some of his outside swindles also. Do you under-
stand, prince?" The question was put with special

Digitized

by Google

118 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

emphasis, which Pavel interpreted as a direct hint at the
possibility of bribing the warden.

It occurred to Boulatoflf that Makar's luggage was quite
likely to contain some incriminating papers or other things
that might aggravate the case. To fear this in view of
Makar's notorious absent-mindedness was quite reasonable.
But this was not all. He had been bent upon making his
arrest as important in the eyes of the Third Section as
possible, and Pavel was almost certain he had left some-
thing in his lodgings on purpose. " You never know what
you are at with a crazy, obstinate bull-dog like that,^' he
thought in a qualm of anxiety.

When SafonoflE had gone Pavel wrote a note to his im-
prisoned friend asking for the address of his lodgings.

"Can you get this to him, and an answer brought
back?'^ he demanded of Mile. Safonoflf in a peremptory
tone.

*^ I think so. My aunt will probably get it through. I
am almost sure of it, in fact.''

" There you are. You're almost sure. Was this enough
to let a man put himself in the hands of the Third Sec-
tion?"

Mile. Saf onoff hurried out of the house in dumb dismay.
After an interval of less than an hour, which to Pavel
seemed a year, she burst into the parlour, accompanied by
an older woman, whom she introduced as her aunt,
Daria Stepanovna Shubeyko. Both were breathless with
excitement. They had the desired address, the sum Ma-
kar owed his landlady and another note to the landlady.
Pavel's heart swelled with joy and gratitude, but he did
not show it.

" Very well," he said, with a preoccupied scowl. *' And
now for that trunk of his."

Digitized

by Google

A GENDARME'S SISTER. 119

The two women went on to describe, continually inter-
rupting each other, their plans for setting Makar free, but
Pavel checked them.

"Well discuss it all afterwards,^^ he said. *'What we
need at this minute is a coarse suit of clothes, something
to make a fellow look like a workman or porter. We must
clear his room before his landlady has notified the police
of his disappearance.^^ The costume was brought by
Masha. When Pavel emerged from the major's bedroom
transformed into a laborer, Masha's aunt applauded so
violently that he could not resist gnashing his teeth at her.

" Excuse me, but I've never seen a real man of action
before,'' she pleaded. " Now I feel newly bom, really I
do. I tell you what, Boulatoff, I'll go with you. In case
of trouble I may be of some use, you know. We can't
aflford to let an active man like you perish."

" But then if you perish," Pavel answered gayly, " there
won't be anybody to arrange that escape."

" That's true," she replied forlornly. She was a healthy,
good-looking woman with a smile so exultantly silly that
Pavel could not bear to look at it. Every time that smile
of hers brightened her full-blooded face, he dropped his

There was the risk of his being recognised by somebody
in the street. Then, too, Makar's lodgings might have
been discovered by the police and made a trap of. The
errand was full of risks, but this only stimulated a feeling
in which Pavel's passion for this sort of adventure was
coupled with a desire to vindicate himself before his own
conscience by sharing in Makar's dangers.

The trip was devoid of all adventure, however. Even
his meeting with his mother was lost on him. He was

Digitized

by Google

120 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

sincerely contemplating the blind beggar at that moment.

Maker's landlady was a garrulous Jewess. When she
learned that her lodger had been taken ill at the house
of a friend and that the workingman had been sent for
his things and to pay the bill, she launched out into an
effusion of bad Russian that taxed PayeFs patience sorely.
She exacted the address of Makar's friend, so as to send the
patient some of her marvellous preserves. The prince left
with the trunk on his shoulder — an excellent contrivance
for screening his face from view — but it proved too
heavy, and when he came across a truckman who agreed
to take him and his load part of the way to his destination
he was glad to be relieved of the burden.

While he was in the next room, shedding his disguise,
Masha's aunt bombarded him with impatient shouts and
jgiggles. When he had opened the trunk at last she insisted
upon helping him examine its contents, whereupon she
handled each article she lifted out as she might a holy
relic; and when the trunk proved to contain nothing of
a compromising quality even Pavel felt disappointed.
Mme. Shubeyko overwhelmed him with questions, one of
which was:

"Look here, Boulatoff, why shouldn't the people rise
and put an end to the rule of despotism at once? What
on earth are we waiting for? '*

*' If the people were all like you they would have done
so long ago,*' he answered, with a hearty laugh. He
warmed to her in an amused way and felt like calling her
auntie; only that smile of hers continued to annoy him.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XIV.

UNDESOROUND MIRCNSLAY.

PAVEL dined at the major^s house. He was in high
spirits^ but the hour of his expected meeting with
the girl of the Pievakin demonstration was drawing
near^ and his impatience was getting keener every minute.
He reached the place, a little house occupied by a govern-
ment clerk named Orlovsky and his mother, ahead of time.

'*Your name is Boulatoflf, is it not?'* asked the host,
his square Slavic nose curling up with the joy of his wel-
come. Then, crouching before the absurdest looking sam-
ovar Pavel had ever seen, he explained that his mother had
gone to his sister's for the night, as she did very often
to avoid the noise of his gatherings. In the centre of a
bare round table lay an enormous loaf of rye bread and
a great wedge of sugar, near which stood an empty candy
box, apparently used as a sugar bowl. Pavel divined that
at least one-half of Orlovsky's salary was spent on the tea,
bread and butter on which his guests regaled themselves
while they talked liberty.

**Fm only a private of the revolution,'' Orlovsky said,
trying to blow two charcoals into flame until his face
glowed like the coals and his eyes looked bleared. " But
if there is anything I can do command me." At his in-
stance the two addressed each other in the familiar diminu-
tives of their Christian names — "Pasha" and *'Alio-

121

Digitized

by Google

122 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

sha.** While Aliosha was struggling with his stnoking
samovar. Pasha set to work cutting up the sugar.

"Wait till you have seen our crowd," said Aliosha,
flicking the open side of an old top-boot at the samovar
by way of bellows. "I tell you Miroslav is destined to
play a prominent part in the liberation of Russia. We
have some tip-top fellows and girls. Of course, we^re
mere privates in the ranks of the revolution."

But PaveFs mind was on the speaker's sackcoat of
checkered grey, which was so tight on him that his promi-
nent thighs were bulging out and the garment seemed on
the point of bursting. The sight of it annoyed Pavel m
the same way as Mme. Shubeyko's smile had done, and
he asked Orlovsky why he should not unbutton himself,
to which the other answered, half in jest, half in earnest,
that he was getting so fat that he was beginning to look
" like a veritable bourgeois, deuce take it.'*

** But it makes a fellow uncomfortable to look at you,'*
Pavel shouted, irascibly.

''Ah, but that's a question of personal liberty, old
man,'' Orlovsky returned in all seriousness. " What right
have you, for instance, to impose upon me rules as to how
I am to wear my coat? "

" That right which limits the liberty of one man by the
liberty of other men. But this is all foolishness, Aliosha.
Upon my word it is. The days of hair-splitting are dead
and buried. There is plenty of work to do — living, prac-
tical work."

Orlovsky leaped up from his samovar, a fishy look in his
eye, and grasping Pavel's hand he pressed it hard and
long. Pavel felt in the presence of the most provincial
Nihilism he had ever come across.

Other members of the Circle came. They all knew

Digitized

by Google

UNDERGROUND MIROSLAV. 128

the governor's nephew by sight Also that he was ^b,
sympathiser/' yet his presence here was a stirring surprise
to most of them^ although they strove to conceal it. One
man, Orlovsky's immediate superior in oflBce, shook Pa-
vel's hand with a grimace which seemed to say : *' You're
Prince Boulatoff and I am only an ordinary government
official, but then all titles and ranks will soon go to
smash." A Jewish gymnasium boy with two bubbling
beads for eyes made Pavel's acquaintance with a preoccu-
pied air, as if in a hurry to get down to more important
business. His small, deep-seated eyes spurted either mer-
riment or gloom. Elkin had said there was not enough
of them to make one decent-sized eye, and dubbed him
*' Cyclops," which had since been the boy's revolutionary
nickname.

Orlovsk/s superior had a vast snow-white forehead that
gave his face a luminous, aureole-lit effect, but he was an
incurable liar. He was one of the most devoted members
of the Circle, however, and recently he had sold all his
real estate, turning over the proceeds to the party. As he
seated himself a telegraph operator in a dazzling uniform
sat down by his side, saying, in a whisper:

'' That was an affected look of yours a moment ago."

'^ When? What are you talking about? " the man with
the sainted forehead asked, colouring.

''You know what. You made a face as if you were
not glad to see Boulatoff. You know you were, weren*t
you, now?"

"I confess I was."

'' Now I like you, old boy. All that is necessary is to
take one's self in hand. Nothing like self-chastisement.''

''Cyclops" bent over to an army captain with a pair
of grandiose side-whiskers and said something in order

Digitized

by Google

124 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

to hear himself address a Qentile and an army oflBcer in
the familiar "thou/' Another yoimg Jew, a red-headed
gymnasium boy named Oinsburg, sat close to the lamp,
reading a book with near-sighted eyes, the yellow light
playing on his short-clipped red hair. His father was a
notorious usurer and the chief go-between in the gover-
nor's bribe-taking and money-lending transactions. Young
Ginsburg robbed his father industriously, dedicating the

spoils to the socialist movement.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The expectation that that hazy, featureless image which
had resided in his mind for the past five years would soon
stand forth in the flesh and with the mist lifted made
Pavel restless. When a girl with short hair and very
sparse teeth told him that Clara Yavner was sure to be
around in less than fifteen minutes, his heart began to
throb. The girl's name was Olga Alexandrovna Andro-
nova (Andronoff). She was accompanied by her fianc^,
a local judge — a middle-aged man with a mass of fluffy
hair. The judge was perceptibly near-sighted, like Gins-
burg, only when he screwed up his eyes he looked angry,
whereas the short-sightedness of the red-headed young
man had a beseeching effect. The two girls were great
friends, and Olga spoke of her chum in terms of persua-
sive enthusiasm. That Boulatoff had special reasons to be
interested in Clara Yavner she was not aware.

*' What has become of her ? " she said, looking at the door
impatiently.

'^You are adding fuel to my curiosity, Olga Alexan-
drovna," Pavel said. '' I am beginning to feel somewhat
as I once did in the opera, when I was waiting to see Patti
for the first time.''

^'And when she came out you were not disappointed.

Digitized

by Google

UNDERGROUND MIROSLAV. 125

were you?^' Olga asked, exposing her sparse teeth in a
broad, honest smile.

**No/' he laughed.

" Well, neither will you be this time.*'

Pavel said to himself humorously: ^ I am so excited

I am afraid I shall fall in love with that girl. But then

predictions seldom come true.*' Then he added: *'And

now that I predict it won% it will.''

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

When she came at last he said inwardly : ** That's what
she looks like, then I She certainly does not seem to be a
fool whatever else she may be." That was what people
usually said upon their first meeting with her: *'She
seems to be no fool." She was a f air-complexioned Jew-
ish girl of good height. To those imf amiliar with the
many types of her race she might have looked Teutonic.
To her own people her face was characteristically Jewish,
of the blond, hazel-eyed variety. It was a rather small
face, round and with a slightly flattened effect between
eyes and mouth that aroused interest. Her good looks
were due to a peculiar impression of intelligence and
character to which this eflfect contributed and to the pic-
turesqueness of her colouring — healthy white flesh, clear
and firm, set off by an ample crown of fair hair and
illuminated by the brown light of intense hazel eyes.
She had with her a two-year-old little girl, her sister's,
and accompanying the two was Elkin, from whose manner
as he entered the crowded room it was easy to see, first,
that he had told Mile. Yavner of the revolutionary '* gen-
eral" he was going to introduce her to; second, that he
was the leader of the Circle and the connecting link be-
tween it and revolutionary generals.

'^I tried to steal away from her," she said to Olga,

Digitized

by Google

126 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

meaning the little girl, ''but she ran after us and filled
the streets with her cries/' She smiled — an embarrassed
smile which made her intelligent face look still more in-
telligent.

When Boulatoff was introduced to her, by Elkin, she
blushed slightly. He watched her with keen curiosity.
At the same time the judge's fiancee was watching him, in
the fond hope that he would indorse her opinion of her
friend. When Clara averted her face, while speaking to
somebody, her features became blurred in PavePs mind,
and he sought another look at her. Whether EUdn had
told her of the effect her ''speech*' during the Pievakin
scene had had on him he had no knowledge.

Some of the men in the gathering made a point of ig-
noring the little privileges of the sex, treating the girls
"as human beings, not as dolls," but Clara and Olga
made a joke of it. When Orlovsky offered the judge's
fianc^ a chair next to Clara's she thanked him much as an
" unemancipated " girl would have done; whereupon Mile.
Yavner shook her finger at her, saying merrily:

"You're getting conservative, Olga. You had better
look out."

The Circle was a loose, informal organisation. There
were no fixed rules or ceremonies for the admission of
members nor anything like regularly elected oflBcers. Nor,
indeed, did the members practise formal communism
among themselves, although the property of one was to a
considerable extent the property of all.

The gathering to-night was naturally larger than usual,
owing to the great news of the day. No one except Pavel
knew anything about the arrested man, each wondering
whether the others did. To betray inquisitiveness, how-
ever, would have been unconspiratorlike, so as tiiey sat

Digitized

by Google

UNDERGROUND MIROSLAV. 127

about, whispering, in twos or threes, they were at once
trying to suppress their curiosity and to draw each other
out

The telegraph operator and Orlovsky^s superior left
early in the evening, but there soon came two other mem-
bers, a sergeant of the captain's command and a gawky
seminarist with a trick of drawing in his neck and throw-
ing out his Adam's apple when he laughed.

The sergeant took a seat beside his officer and the two
fell into conversation about their regiment, while the
theological student at once set to plying Pavel with ques-
tions. Blkin, in an embroidered Little-Eussian shirt, sat
smoking a pipe and smiling non-committally. Every lit-
tle while he would remove the pipe from his mouth, take
a grave look at the theologian and resume his pipe and
his smile.

The little girl sat on the captain's lap, quietly playing
with his sword until she fell asleep. When Clara beheld
the officer struggling to keep his luxurious side-whiskers
from waking the child, she took her niece in her arms and
carried her, with noiseless kisses, toward the door.

"FU soon be back. It isn't far," she whispered to
Orlovsky, declining his assistance.

The men followed her out of the room with fond glances.
More than half of them were in love with her.

When she got back, somewhat short of breath, BoulatoflP
was describing the general feeling in the universities and
among working people. His talk was vague. His rolling
baritone rang dry. And now his grip on the subject was
weakened still further by the reappearance of the girl in
whom, during the first few minutes, he instinctively felt
a rival centre of interest. No sooner, however, had the
seininarist attacked the party press than the prince became

Digitized

by Google

128 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

furious and made a favourable impression. Once or twice
he fell into Zachar^s manner and even used several of his
arguments. The seminarist urged his objections chiefly
because he wanted to prove to himself and to the others
that he was a man of convictions and not one to quail
before a revolutionary "general.^' But Pavel took him
seriously. Once when the seminarist attempted to inter-
rupt him, Clara said, forlornly :

" He^s bound to be right. He^s just bound to be right/^
*^ Don^t cry/' said Cyclops. Several of the men laughed,
and when Clara joined them their eyes betrayed her power
over them. Nothing betrays your feelings toward another
person more surely than the way you take his merriment.
The most important topic of the evening was a circular
letter from the Executive Committee of the Will of the
People, as PaveFs party was called, as to the *^ preparatory
work '^ that was to pave the way to a final uprising. The
discussion was left to the judge, Elkin and Pavel. The
gawky seminarist was silent, with an angry air which im-
plied that the arguments one was compelled to follow here
were exasperatingly beneath one's criticism. The others
listened spellbound, though some of them scarcely felt
convinced. Ingrained in the consciousness of these was
the idea of an abstract elemental giant, tremendous and
immutable as the northern winter, of which the blind
forces of the army were only a personified detail. That
this giant should some day, in the near future, cease to be
did not clearly appeal to their imagination. The boldness,
therefore, with which the judge and Pavel spoke of these
things greatly enhanced the fascination of their speeches.
Cyclops, a huge slice of rye bread in his hand, evidently
had something to say, but did not know how. He was
quoting history, blushing, sputtering, swallowing his own

Digitized

by Google

UNDERGROUND MIROSLAV. 129

tongue^ and finally he lost himself in a jumble of words.
EUdn was just the reverse. He was so calm^ so glib and so
lucid of phrase that as long as his speech lasted one was
involuntarily nodding assent; yet when it was over one
did not seem to know exactly what he had said or whether
he had had anything to say at all. At one point he and
the judge locked horns and fought long and hard without
clearly understanding each other, until they proved to be
arguing on the same side of the issue. Orlovsky, who took
it for granted that the theoretical discussion was beyond
his mental powers, looked on with stupid admiration.
*' Here is a bunch of cracks for you ! *' his beaming face
seemed to say.

In the course of a pause Clara whispered something to
Olga.

'^Why don't you ask it then?'* the short-haired girl
answered, aloud.

Clara turned pale, as she began to speak. She went
straight to the i)oint, however, and presently cast off all
restraint.

^^ All this is very well,*' she said, referring to a certain
passage in the circular letter, ^^ provided the local authori-
ties really desert the throne. But suppose they don't,
suppose they prove to be hardened conservatives, devoted
slaves of the crown? It seems to me as if we were in-
clined to take things for granted — counting without the
host, as it were."

"Devoted to the crown!" said the gawky theologian.
*' The fact is that the high oflBcials are a mere lot of self-
seeking curs."

*' Exactly," Pavel thundered, bringing his hands to-
gether enthusiastically.

Elkin removed the pipe from his mouth and bawled

Digitized

by Google

130 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

out: *^Eats rather than curs, I should say; rats that are
sure to forsake the ship of state the moment it shows
signs of danger/^

The seminarist was annoyed at this attempt to steal the
applause from him, but BoulatofE did not like Bikings man-
ner and offered him no encouragement. This disarmed
the seminarist's opposition. From this moment on he
listened to Pavel with friendly nods, as who should say:
" Now you are hitting it; now you are talking sense I ''

" Of course/' Pavel resumed, " the pamphlet means we
should keep agitating until we are sure of our ground.
There is a large liberal-minded class that does not stir
merely because it is made up of a lot of cowards. These
fellows will rally around our banner the moment the gov-
ernment begins to totter. As to the bureaucracy, it is so
decayed, so worm-eaten, that all it knows at present is how
to bend double for an increase of salary or promotion in
rank. A lot of back-boneless flunkeys, that's what they
are. You don't actually think they serve the Czar from
principle?" he asked, addressing himself to Mile. Yavner.

"The only principle they care for," Elkin interposed,
" is, ' To the devil with all principles ! ' "

"Exactly," Paval assented, with some irritation.

" Yes," the seminarist chimed in, " and when they hear
the tocsin of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity — "

" Liberty, Equality and Fiddlesticks ! " Clara mimicked
him, mildly, signing to him not to interrupt the speaker.

Pavel went on. He spoke at length, looking mostly at
her. He was making an effort to convince her that in the
event of a revolution the high oflBcials would turn cowards,
and her face seemed to be sajdng : " He's the nephew of a
governor, so he ought to know."
, When the yard windows were thrown open the bewhisk-

Digitized

by Google

UNDERGROUND MIROSLAY. 131

ered captain sat down to the piano and struck up an old
national tune^ to the accompaniment of two male voices.
The others continued their talk under cover of the music.
Pavel made up his mind that the judge and Clara were
the most level-headed members of the Circle^ and decided
to seek their cooperation in the business which had brought
him to Miroslav. Only the judge was the more reposeful
of the two, as well as incomparably the better informed.
As a rule he was absorbed in his own logic^ while Mile.
Yavner was jarred by every false note in others, nervously
sensitive to all that went on about her, so that when
Cyclops, for example, got tangled in his own verbosity
her eyes would cloud up with vexation and she would
come to his rescue, summing up his argument in a few
clear, unobtrusive sentences. There was a glow of enthu-
siasm in her look which she was apparently struggling to
suppress. Indeed, she was struggling to suppress some
feeling or other most of the time. Her outward calm
seemed to cover an interior of restlessness.

PavePs unbounded faith in the party instilled new faith
into her. The great point wa^ that he was a member of
the aristocracy. If a man like him had his whole heart
in the struggle, the movement was certainly not without
foundation. Moreover, BoulatofP was close to the revolu-
tionary centre, and he obviously spoke from personal
knowledge. All sorts of questions worried her, many of
which were answered at the present gathering, partly by
herself, partly by others. The new era, when there would
be neither poverty nor oppression, the enchanted era which
had won her heart, loomed clearer than ever. At one
moment as she sat listening, her blond hair gleaming
golden in the lamplight, her face lit up by a look of keen
intelligence, Pavel said to himself: *'And this Jewish

Digitized

by Google

132 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

girl is the one who had the feeling and the courage to make
that rumpus over Pievakinl If I became a revolutionist
it was the result of gradual development, through the help
of conditions, books, people; whereas this girl acted like
one, and in the teeth of grave danger, too, purely on the
spur of the moment and long before she knew there was any
such thing as a revolutionary movement; acted like one
while I was still a blind, hard-hearted milksop of a drone/^
In the capital he knew a number of girls who were con-
tinually taking their lives in their hands and several of
whom were like so many saints to him, but then Mile.
Yavner belonged to the realm of his home and his boyhood.
What he regarded as an act of heroism on her part was
hallowed by that sense of special familiarity and compre-
hensibility which clings to things like the old well that
witnessed our childish games.

She made a very favourable impression on him. If he
had been a formal candidate for her hand, come " bride-
seeing,'^ he could not have studied her more closely than
Jie did now. Indeed, so absorbed was he in her that once
while she was speaking to him laughingly her words fell on
a deaf ear because at that moment he was remarking to
himself: '^She laughs in a little rising scale, breaking
off in a rocket.'^

''There must be something in her, then,*' he thought
''which was the source of that noble feeling and of that
courage.** He took to scanning her afresh, as though
looking for a reflection of that something in her face, and
as he looked at her and thought of the Pievakin " demon-
stration** it gave him pleasure to exaggerate her instru-
mentality in his own political regeneration.

Olga had relieved her fianc6 at the piano, and later on
when she, too, rose from the keyboard, Clara eagerly took

Digitized

by Google

UNDERGROUND MffiOSLAV. 133

her place. There was no life in MUe. Yavner^s tones, but
the impassioned sway of her head and form as she played
told of a soul touched with ecstasy; told of the music
which her fingers failed to evoke from the instrument.
And the eyes of half a dozen love-stricken men added their
rapture to the sounds.

Pavel listened to her melody and breathed the scented
night air that came in from the little garden in the yard.
He reflected that Clara might visit the warden^s house as
a piano teacher. At this it came home to him that Makar
was in prison, and that unless he escaped he was a lost
man. He was seized with terror. The piano sang of a
lonely ship, blue waves, and a starlit night, but to Pavel it
spoke of his imprisoned friend and his own anguish. He
joined in the chorus with ferocious ardour. His heart was
crying for Makar^s liberation and for a thousand other
things. When she left the piano stool he leaped up to her.

** Allow me to grasp your hand, Clara Eodionovna,^^ he
said, as though thanking her for the merit of her playing.
And then, all unmindful of comment, he drew her into a
secluded comer and said vehemently :

*' I wish also to tell you, Clara Eodionovna, that I have
a special reason to be glad of knowing you; for if I have
a right to be among good people it is you whom I have to
thank for it.^' A thick splash of crimson came into her
face; but before she had time to put her surprise into
words, he poured forth the story of his awakening and
how he had all these five years been looking forward to a
meeting with her. As he spoke his face bore an expression
of ecstatic, almost amorous grimness. The girl was taken
by storm. She was literally dazed. An overwhelming,
unspoken intimacy established itself between them on the
spot.

Digitized

by Google

134 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Olga^s face was a blend of beaming triumph and tense
perplexity. The men were making an effort to treat
Boulatoff^s sally with discretion, as if it were a bit of revo-
lutionary conspiracy and they knew enough to mind their
own business.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XV.

A WASNIKQ.

IT was one o'clock when the assemblage broke up. They
scattered over various sections of the town, Pavel go-
ing to his home in the Palace, while Clara, accompa-
nied by BUdn and Orlovsky, set off in the direction of Para-
dise Town. But whatever the character of the district
one was bound for, in their hearts there was the same
feeling that they belonged to a higher life than did those
who slept behind the closed shutters they were passing.
This feeling made them think of their group as a world
within a world. Their Circle was a magic one. Somewhere
in St. Petersburg, Moscow, KiefP, Odessa, Siberia, men and
women were being slowly tortured, dying on the gallows;
a group of brave people still at large — the mysterious
Executive Committee — was doing things that thrilled
the empire; and they, members of the Miroslav Circle, were
the kin of those heroes. As they dispersed through the
sleeping town each unconsciously remembered the organ-
isation as so many superior beings dotting a population of
human prose.

" He must be quite close to the Centre,'* Orlovsky said.

The other two made no answer. It struck Clara as sac-
rilege to talk of BoulatofP, whose fervent face was vivid
before her at this minute. Particularly imbearable was
the allusion to the prince to her because it was Orlovsky

135

Digitized

by Google

136 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

who made it. The stout government clerk was one of the
men in love with her, while she often disliked him to abhor-
rence. She felt a sincere friendship for him, yet some-
times when he spoke she would be tempted to shut her
ears and to gnash her teeth as people do when they hear
a window pane scratched. This was one of her causeless
hatreds witii which she was perpetually struggling.

Orlovsky construed their irresponsiveness as a rebuke
for his speaking of the revolutionary ^* centre^' in the
street; so he started to tell them about his mother. With
Clara by his side his tongue would not rest. Not so El-
kin, who nursed his love in morose silence. When they
heard the whistle of a distant policeman and the answer
of a watchman's rattle by way of showing that he had not
fallen asleep on his post, Orlovsky raised his voice.

^^She is getting more pious every day,'* he said, as
though defying the invisible policeman to find anything
seditious in his words.

Clara's mind was on Boulatoff. The strange avowal of
the man whom she had never seen before save through the
window of a princely carriage tingled through her veins
in a medley of new-bom exaltations. BoulatofP did seem
to be close to the Executive Committee, and the senti-
ments of that wonderful body, voiced by this high-bom
young man, the nephew of the governor of Miroslav, had
lit stirring images in her consciousness. Pavel stood out
amid the other revolutionists of her acquaintance even as
the whole Miroslav Circle did in the midst of the rest of
her native town.

The interchange of signals between policeman and
watchman which now and then sounded through the still-
ness of the night reminded her of the unknown man the
gendarmes had arrested, of the hard glint of chains,

Digitized

by Google

A WARNING, 137

of gallows. She wondered whether Elkin or Boolatoff
knew anything about that man. She saw herself rapidly
marching toward something at once terrible and divine.
She was not the only one who followed this course — that
was the great point. The kindest and best people in
Miroslav^ the best and the wisest in the land^ and among
them children of governors, of noblemen, were consecrated
to that same something which was both terrible and lur-
ing. Her heart went out to her comrades known and un-
known, and as she beheld a sleepy watchman curled up in
the recess of his gateway, she exclaimed without words:
"Tm going to die for you — for you and all the other
poor and oppressed people in the world.^'

Here and there they passed an illuminated window or
an open street door, through which they saw Jewish arti-
sans at work. They saw the bent forms of Jewish tailors,
they heard the hammer sounds of Jewish carpenters, tin-
smiths, blacksmiths, silversmiths; yet all these made no
impression upon her. There were about 50,000 Jews in
Miroslav and as many as three fourths of them were
pinched, half-starved mechanics, working fourteen hours
a day, and once or twice a week all night, to live on rye
bread and oatmeal soup; yet they made no appeal to her
sympathies, while the Gentiles who were huddled up in
front of the gates she was passing did. The great Eus-
sian writers whose stories and songs had laid the founda-
tion to her love of the masses dealt in Qentiles, not in
Jews. NekrasofP bewailed the misery of the Eussian mou-
jik, not of the common people of her own race. Turge-
neflPs sketches breathe forth the poetry of suffering in a
Great-Eussian village, not the tragedy and spiritual beauty
of life among the toiling men and women of her own
blood. She had never been in Great Sussia, in fact; she

Digitized

by Google

138 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

had never seen those moujiks in the flesh. Those she had
seen were the Little-Eussian peasants, who came to Miro-
slav from the neighbouring villages. Her peasants, there-
fore, were so many literary images, each with the glamour
which radiates from the pages of an adored author. This
was the kind of '* people^' she had in mind when she
thought of the Will of the People. The Jewish realities
of which her own home was a part had nothing to do with

this imaginary world of hers.

*****

Clara's home was on a small square which was partly
used as a cart-stand and in one comer of which, a short
distance from Cucumber Market, squatted a police-
man's hut. This was the district of a certain class of
artisans and small tradesmen; of harness-makers, trunk-
makers, wheelwrights ; of dealers in tar, salt, herring, leaf
tobacco, pipes, accordions, cheap finery. The air was pun-
gent with a thousand strong odours. The peasants who
brought their produce to market were here supplied with
necessaries and trinkets. The name of the big market-
place extended to the entire locality, and Paradise Town
was just beyond the confines of that locality.

The square for which Clara was bound was called Little
Market. A gate in the centre of one of its four sides,
flanked by goose-yards on one side and by a row of feed-
shops and harness-shops on the other, led into a deep and
narrow court, known as Boyko's. At this moment the
gate was closed, its wicket, held ajar by a chain, showing
black amid the grey gloom of the square.

As Clara and her two escorts came in sight of the spot
they saw a man sitting on a low wooden bench near the
gate.

^ Somebody is waiting for me/' she said gravely. She

Digitized

by Google

A WARNING. 139

thanked ihem and bade them good-bye and they went their
several ways.

The man on the bench rose and went to meet her. As
he walked toward her he leaned heavily on his stout,
knotty cane — a pose which she knew to be the result of
embarrassment He was a tall, athletic fellow in a long
spring overcoat, a broad-brimmed felt hat sloping back-
ward on his head. He bore striking resemblance to Clara;
the same picturesque flatness in the middle part of the
face, the same expression. Only his hair was dark, and
his eyes and mouth were milder than hers. They looked
like brother and sister and, indeed, had been brought up
ahnost as such, but they were only cousins. His name
was Vladimir Vigdoroff. His family was the better-to-do
and the worldlier of the two. When he was a boy of four
and he envied certain other two boys because each of them
had a little sister, and he had not, he had made one of his
cousin. It was his father who subsequently paid for
Clara's education.

"You here?'* Clara said quietly.

He nodded, to say yes, with playful chivalry. They
reached the bench in silence, and then he said in a de-
cisive, business-like voice which she knew to be studied :

"I expected to have a talk with you, Clara. Thafs
why I waited so long. But if s too late. Can I see you
to-morrow?*^

" Certainly. Will you drop in in the afternoon? *'

He had evidently expected to be detained. He lingered
in silence, and she had not the heart to say good-bye.
From a neighbouring lane came the buzz-buzz of a candle-
stick-maker's lathe. They were both agitated. She had
been looking forward to this explanation for some time.
They divined each other perfectly. As they now stood

Digitized

by Google

140 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

awkwardly without being able either to speak or to part,
their minds were in reality saying a good deal to each
other.

Until recently she had made her home in her tmcle^s
house more than she had in her f ather^s. Her piano stood
there, her uncle's gift, for which there was no room in
the basement occupied by her parents. She had kept her
books there, received her girl friends and often slept there.
But since her initiation into the secret society she had
gradually removed her headquarters to her parents' house,
and her visits at Vladimir's home had become few and
far between. Clara had once offered him an underground
leaflet, whereupon he had nearly fainted with fright at
sight of it. He had burned the paper in terror and indig-
nation, and then, speaking partly like an older brother and
partly like the master of the house which she was compro-
mising, he had commanded her never again lo go near
people who handled literature of that sort. Accustomed
to look up to him as her intellectual guide and authority,
as the most brilliant man within her horizon, she had
listened to his attack upon Nihilism and Nihilists with
meek reserve, but the new influences she had fallen under
had proven far stronger than his power over her. To
relieve him from the hazards of her presence in the house
she had little by little removed her books and practically
discontinued her visits. In the event of her getting into
trouble with the gendarmes her own family was too old-
fashioned and imeducated, in a modem sense, to be sus-
pected of complicity. As to Vladimir, he missed her
keenly, as did everybody else in the house, but her estrange-
ment had a special sting to it, too, one unconnected with
their mutual attachment as cousins who had grown up
together. Clara's consideration for his safety, implying

Digitized

by Google

A WARNING. 141

as it did that lie was too timid and too jealous for his per-
sonal security to work for the revolution, an inferior being
uninitiated into the world of pluck and self-sacrifice to
which she, until recently his pupil, belonged, galled him
inordinately.

At last he lost control over himself.

^^You are playing with fire, Clara,*' he said, lingering
by the bench.

" I suppose that's what you want to speak to me about,'*
she answered with calm earnestness, '^but this is hardly
the place for a discussion of this sort, Volodia.'* *

" If you want me to go home you had better say so in
so many words. The high-minded interests you are culti-
vating are scarcely compatible with shyness or lack of
frankness, Clara.**

" Don*t be foolish, Vdodia. You know you will make
fun of yourself for having spoken like that.**

" I didn*t mean to say anything harsh, Clara. But this
tiling is scarcely ever out of my mind. It*8 a terrible fate
you have chosen.**

*' How do you know I have ? ** she asked in a meditative
tone that implied assent.

^' How do I know ? Can*t we have a frank, honest talk
for once, Clara ? Let us go somewhere.**

" We can talk here. To be on the safe side of it, let us
talk in Yiddish.**

He made a grimace of repugnance, and seating himself
on the bench he went on in nervous Eussian.

*^You have fallen into company that will do you no
good, Clara. If you are arrested it will break the heart of
two families. Is there no soul left in you ? **

'*What put it into your mind that I should be ar-

* A£fectionate diminutive of Vladimir.

Digitized

by Google

142 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

rested ?^^ she returned, lugubriously. ^^And is that all
one ought to be concerned about ? All Russia is in prison/^

"I expected something of that sort. Alluring phrases
have made you deaf and blind. It is my duty to try to
save you before it is too late.^'

He had come for friendly remonstrance, for an open-
hearted explanation, but that mood had been shattered the
moment he saw her approaching with two of her new
friends. He persisted in using the didactic tone he had
been in the habit of taking with her, and he could not
help feeling how ridiculously out of place it had become.
He chafed under a sense of his lost authority, and the im-
potent superiority of his own manner impelled him to bit-
terness.

"Is that what you have come for — to rescue me from
empty phrases and bad company? '*

'^Yes, to rescue you from tiie intoxication of bombast
and dangerous company, whether you are in a sarcastic
mood or nof

"And how are you going to do it, pray?*' she asked
with rather good-natured gaiety.

" Laugh away. Laugh away. Since you took up with
those scamps '*

" Scamps ! I can't let you speak like that, Volodia. I
don't know what you mean by ' taking ' up with them, but
if by * scamps ' you mean people who are sacrificing them-
selves ^"

" You misunderstand me ^*

" If by scamps you mean people who will be tortured or
hanged for opposing the tyranny that is crushing us all
rather than feather their own nests^ then it is useless for
us to continue this talk.''

**Be calm, Clara. You don't wish to misjudge me^ do

Digitized

by Google

A WARNING. 143

you? Of course, I needn*t tell you that what you say
about sacrificing one's self and bH that sort of business
is no news to me. Some other time, when you are not
excited, I may have something to say about these
things ''

" That everlasting * something to say ! * People are be-
ing throttled, butchered and you — you have 'something
to say/ We are speaking in two different languages, Vo-
lodia/'

" Maybe we are. And I must say you have picked up
that new language of yours rather quickly. I am not
going to enter into a lengthy discussion with you to-night.
All I will say now is this: You know that four Jewish
revolutionists have been hanged within the last few
months — in Odessa, Nicolayeff, Kieff and St. Peters-
burg. If you think that does the Jewish people any good
I am very sorry.**

'^ What else would you have Jews do ? Eoll on feather-
beds and collect usury? Would that do 'tiie Jewish peo-
ple' good?"

" You talk like an anti-Semite, Clara.*'

*' There is no accounting for tastes. You may call it
anti-Semitism. You may be ashamed of four men who
die bravely in a terrible struggle against despotism."

He cast an uneasy look in the direction of the police
booth, but his courage failed him to urge her to lower her
voice.

''As for me," she went on, ''I certainly am proud of
them. I hold their names sacred, yes, sacred, sacred,
sacred, do you understand ? And if you intend to continue
calling such people scamps then there is nothing left for us
to say to each other. And, by the way, since when have
you been a champion of 'the Jewish people' — you who

Digitized

by Google

144 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

have taught me to keep away from everything Jewish; you
who are shocked by the very sound of Yiddish, by the very
sight of a wig or a pair of side-locks; you who are con-
tinually boasting of the Gentiles you are chumming with ;
you who would give all the Jews in the world for one
handshake of a Christian ? ^^

^^ Well, I am prepared to take abuse, too, to-night. As
to my hatred of Yiddish and side-locks, that does no harm
to anybody. If all Jews dropped their antediluvian ways
and became assimilated with the Russian population half
of the unfortunate Jewish question would be solved/'

"Oh, this kind of talk is really enough to drive one
mad. The whole country is choking for breath, and here
you are worrying over the Jewish question. But then —
since when have you been interested in the Jews and their
' question ?'*'

" Whether I have or not, I never helped to aggravate it
as those 'heroes' of yours do. If there are some few
rights which the Jew still enjoys, they, too, will be taken
away from him on account of that new-fangled heroism
which has turned your head.''

"Nobody has any 'rights.' Everybody is trampled
upon, everybody. That's what those 'scamps' are strug-
gling to do away with."

"Everybody has to die for that matter, yet who
cares to die an unnatural death? If the Jews were op-
pressed like all others and no more, it would be another
matter, but they are not. Theirs is an unnatural oppres-
sion."

"Well, thafs what those 'scamps' are struggling for:
to do away with every sort of oppression. Woidd you
have the Jews keep out of that struggle ? Would you have
them take care of their own precious skins, and later on.

Digitized

by Google

A WARNING, 146

when life becomes possible in Bussia^ to come in for a
share of the fruit of a terrible fight that they carefully
stayed away from?**

"Those are dreams, Clara. Dreams and phrases^
phrases and dreams. Thaf s all you have learned of your
new friends. Do you deny the existence of a Jewish ques*
tion?**

She scrutinised his face in the grey half-tones of the
gathering dawn and said calmly:

" Look here, Volodia, you loiow you are seizing at this
^Jewish question* as a drowning man does at a straw.
You know you have no more interest in it than I have.*'

"I am certainly not delighted to see it exist, if that's
what you mean.**

**May I be frank with you, Volodia? All the Jews of
the world might cease to exist, for all you care.**

" It i8n*t true. All I want is that they should become
Eussians, cultured Eussians.**

"Well, as for me there is only one question — the
question of plain common justice and plain elementary
liberty. When this has been achieved there won*t be any
such thing as a Jewish, Polish or Hottentot question.
Yes, those 'scamps* are the only real friends the Jews
have.**

"But one cannot live on the golden mist of that glo-
rious future of yours, Clara. It takes a saint to do that.
Every-day mortals cannot help thinking of equal rights
before tiie law in the sordid present.**

"Think away! Much good will it do the Jews. The
only kind of equal rights possible to-day is for Jew and
(Jentile to die on the same gallows for liberiy. That's
the 'scamps** view of it. At this the word struck her
in conjunction with the images of Boulato£F^ Olga^ the

Digitized

by Google

146 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Judge, and the other members of the Circle, whereupon
she burst out, with a stifled sob in her voice: *^How
dare you abuse those people?"

Not only had she broken loose from his tutelage, but
he had found himself on the defensive. They had changed
rdles. The pugnacious tone of conviction, almost of in-
spiration, with which she parried his jibes nonplussed
him. Usually a bright talker, he was now colourless and
floundering. And the more he tried to work himself
back to his old-time mastery the more helplessly at a
disadvantage he appeared.

'*I don^t recognise you, Clara," he said. "They have
mesmerised you, those phrase-makers."

She leaped to her feet **I don^t intend to hear any
more of this abuse," she said. "And the idea of you
finding fault with phrase-makers f you of all men, you to
whom a well-turned phrase is dearer than all else in the
world! If they make phrases they are willing to suffer
for them at least."

" Oh well, they have made a perfect savage of you," he
retorted under his breath. "Good night."

She was left with a sharp twinge of compunction, but
she had barely dived under the wicket chain when her
thoughts reverted to Boidatoff and what he had said to
her.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XVI.

OLARA AT HOKB.

AT Boyko's Court the chilly dawn lit up a barricade
of wheels^ axles, and bodies of peasant waggons.
Through wide cracks of a fence came the shifting
light of a lantern and the sleepy cackling of geese. At the
far end of the deep narrow court hung the pulley chains
and bucket of a roofed well. Clara went through a spa-
cious subterranean passage, dark as a pocket and filled
with the odour of paint. It was crowded with stacks of
trunks, finished and unfinished, but she steered clear of
them without having to feel her way.

A door swung open, revealing a dimly lighted low-
ceiled interior. The odour of sleep mingled with the
odours of paint and putty.

" Is that you, Tamara ? '^ asked a tall, erect, half -naked
old woman in Yiddish, Tamara being the Jewish name
which had been arbitrarily transformed, at Vladimir^s
instance, into Clara.

*'Yes, mamma darling,^^ Clara replied.

" Master of the universe ! You get no sleep at all.**

The girl kissed her mother gayly. '^You know what
papa says,** she rejoined, " ^ sleep is one sixtieth of death.*
Life is better, mamma dear.**

"I have not studied any of your Gentile books, yet
I know enough to understand that to be alive is better

147

Digitized

by Google

148 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

than to be dead/^ the tall, erect old woman said without
smiling. "But if you want to be alive you must sleep.
Go to bed, go to bed.^^

There were between Ihem relations of quizzical com-
radeship, implying that each treated the interests of the
other with patronising levity, with the reservation of a
common ground upon which they met on terms of equality
and ardent friendship.

" By the way,^^ the old woman added, yawning, " Volo-
dia was here. He wants to see you.^^

" I know. I found him at the gate.^^

" Very well, then, go to bed, go to bed.^*

"Is father asleep?''

At this a red-bearded little man in yellow drawers
and a white shirt open at the neck and exposing a hairy
breast, burst from an open side door.

"How can one sleep when one is not allowed to?'* he
fired out. "May she sink into the earth, her ungodly
books and all. I'll break every unclean bone in you.
Who ever heard of a girl roaming around as late as that? "

" Hush," his wife said with a faint smile, as she urged
him back to their bed-room, much as she would a child.

The family occupied one large basement room, the
better part of which was used as a trunk-maker's shop
and a kitchen, two narrow strips of its space having been
partitioned off for bed-rooms. It was Hannah, Clara's
mother, who conducted the trunk business. The bare
wooden boxes came from a carpenter's shop and she had
them transformed into trunks at her house. Clara's
father spent his days and evenings in a synagogue, study-
ing the Talmud "for its own sake." There were other
such scholars in Miroslav, the wife in each case support-
ing the family by engaging in earthly business, while

Digitized

by Google

CLARA AT HOME. 149

her husband was looking after their common spiritual
welfare in the house of God. Clara's mother was gen-
erally known as "Hannah the trunk-maker/* or "Han-
nah the Devil.^* In her very humble way she was a
shrewd business woman, tireless, scheming, and not over-
scrupulous, but her nickname had originated long before
she was old enough to be a devil on Cucumber Market. She
was a little girl when there appeared in tiie neighbour-
hood what Anglo-Saxons would call "Jack the Window-
Smasher.*^ Window-pane after window-pane was cracked
without there being the remotest clue to the source of the
mischief. The bewigged old women said it was an evil
spirit, and engaged a "master of the name'* to exorcise
it from the community; but the number of broken win-
dows continued to grow. The devil proved to be Hannah,
and the most startling thing about the matter, according
to the bewigged women of the neighbourhood, was this,
that when caught in the act, she did not even cry, but
just lowered her eyes and frowned saucily.

Eabbi Eachmiel, as Clara's father was addressed by
strangers, was innocent of "things of the world'* as an
infant — a hot-tempered, simple-minded scholar, with the
eyes and manner of a tiger and the heart of a dove.
His wife tied his shirt-strings, helped him on with his
socks and boots, and generally took care of him as she
might of a baby. When he spoke of worldly things to
her, she paid no heed to his talk. When he happened to
drop a saying from the Talmud she would listen rever-
ently for more, without understanding a word of what
he said.

Had Clara been a boy her father would have sooner
allowed her to be burned alive than to be taught " Gentile
wisdom." But woman is out of the count in the Jewish

Digitized

by Google

150 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

church, so he neither interfered nor tried to understand
the effect that Gentile education was having on her.

Father, mother and daughter represented three dis-
tinct worlds, Clara being as deeply engrossed in her
*' Gtentile wisdom ^' as Rabbi Eachmiel was in his Talmud,
or as her mother in her trunks. That the girl belonged
to a society that was plotting against the Czar the old
people had not the remotest idea, of course.

Besides Clara and her married sister the old couple
had two sons, one of them a rabbi in a small town and
the other a merchant in the same place.

Clara put out the smoky light of a crude chinmeyless
little lamp (with a piece of wire to work the wick up
and down), which had been left burning for her. A
few streaks of raw daylight crept in through the shutters,
falling on a pair of big rusty shears fastened to the top
of a wooden block, on a heap of sheet-iron, and on
several rows of old Talmudic folios which lined the
stretch of wall between Clara^s partition and one of the
two windows.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XVn.

THE OOUNTBSS' DISGOYEBT.

AS Pavel mounted the majestic staircase of his
mother's residence he became aware that an ab-
stract facial expression was all his memory re-
tained of Mile. Yavner's likeness. He coveted another
glance at her much as a man covets to hear again a new
song that seems to be singing itself in his mind without
his being able to reproduce it.

He found his mother sitting up for him, on the verge
of a nervous collapse. She took him to a large, secluded
room, the best in the vast house for Ute-a^tete purposes.
It was filled with mementoes, the trophies of her father's
diplomatic career, with his proud collection of rare and
costly inkstands, and with odds and ends of ancient furni-
ture, each with a proud history as clear-cut as the pedigree
of a high-bom race-horse.

Anna Nicolayevna had planned to lead up to the main
question diplomatically, but she was scarcely seated on
a huge, venerable couch (which made her look smaller tiian
ever) than she turned pale and blurted out in a whisper:
''Did you cross the bridge this afternoon?*'
''No. Why?*' He said this with fatigued curiosily
and looking her full in the face.
She dropped her glance. " I thought I saw you there.*'
" You were mistaken, then, but what makes you look so

151

Digitized

by Google

152 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

uneasy ? I did not go in that direction at all, but suppose
I did. Why, what has happened?"

She cowed before the insistence of his interrogations and
beat a retreat.

" I am not uneasy at all. I must have been mistaken,
then. It is about Kostia I have been wanting to speak
to you. It is quite a serious matter. You see he is too
delicate for the military schools. So I was thinking of
putting him in the gymnasium, but then many of the boys
there are children of undesirable people. One can^t be
too careful these days." She was now speaking according
to her carefully considered program, and growing pale
once more, she fixed him with a searching glance, as she
asked : *^ You must have heard of the man the gendarmes
caught, haven^t you?"

"Oh, you mean the fellow who would not open his
mouth," he said with a smile. " Quite a sensation for a
town like this. In St. Petersburg or Moscow they catch
them so often it has ceased to be news."

She went on to speak of the evil of Nihilism, Pavel
listening with growing interest, like a man who had given
the matter some consideration. Poor Anna Nicolayevna !
She was no match for him.

Finally he got up. *^Well, I don't really know," he
said. " It seems to me the trouble lies much deeper than
that, mamma/n. Those fellows, the Nihilists, don't amount
to anything in themselves. If it were not for that ever-
lasting Russian helplessness of ours they could do no more
harm than a group of flies. Our factories and successful
farms are all run by Germans ; we simply can't take care
of the least thing."

*'But what have factories and farms to do with the
pranks of demoralised boys? "

Digitized

by Google

THE COUNTESS' DISCOVERY. 153

He smiled, *^But if we were not a helpless, shiftless
nation a handful of boys eouldn^t frighten us, could they ? ^'

" Very well. Let us suppose you are a minister. What
would you do ? "

" What would I do ? I shouldnH let things come to such
a pass, to begin with.^'

He was tempted to cast circumspection to the winds and
to thunder out his real impeachment of existing conditions.
This, however, he could not afford; so he felt like a boat
that is being rowed across stream with a strong current to
tempt her downward. He was sailing in a diagonal di-
rection. Every now and tiien he would let himself drift
along, only presently to take up his oars and strike out
for the bank again. He spoke in his loud rapid way.
Every now and again he would break off, fall to pacing
the floor silently and listening to the sound of his own
voice which continued to ring in his ears, as though his
words remained suspended in the air.

Anna Nicolayevna — a curled-up little heap capped by
an enormous pile of glossy auburn hair, in the comer of
a huge couch — followed him intently. Once or twice she
nodded approval to a severe attack upon the government,
without realising that he was speaking against the Czar.
She was at a loss to infer whether he was opposed to the
new advisers of the Emperor in the same way in which
her brother-in-law and the ultra-conservative Slavophiles
were opposed to them or whether he was some kind of
liberal. He certainly seemed to tend toward the Slavo-
philes in his apparent hatred of foreigners.

" TheyTl kill him, those murderous youngsters, they are
sure to kill him,^^ he shouted at one point, speaking of
the Czar. "And who is to blame? Is such a state of
things possible anywhere in Western Europe ?'*

Digitized

by Google

154 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Anna Nicolayevna's eyes grow icd and then filled with

tears, as she shrank deeper into the corner of the couch.
*****

She was left in a frame of mind that was a novel ex-
perience to her. Her pity was lingering about a stalwart
military figure with the gloom and glint of martyrdom on
his face — the face of Alexander II. Quite apart from
this was the sense of having been initiated into a strange
ecstasy of thought and feeling — of bold ideas and broad
human sympathies. She was in an unwonted state of
mental excitement. Pavel seemed to be a weightier per-
sonage than ever. The haze that enveloped him was thick-
ening. Nevertheless his strictures upon Bussia's inca-
pacity left her rankling with a desire to refute them. That
national self-conceit which breeds in every child the con-
viction that his is the greatest country in the world and
that its superiorily i^ cheerfully conceded by all other na-
tions, reasserted itself in the countess with resentful em-
phasis. To be sure, all the skill, ingenuity and taste of
the refined world came from abroad, but this did not lessen
her contempt for foreigners any more than did the fact
that all acrobats and hair-dressers were Germans or French-
men. Her childhood had been spent in foreign countries
and she knew their languages as well as she did her own ;
nevertheless her abstraction of a foreigner was a man who
spoke broken Bussian — a lisping, stammering, cringing
imbecile. She revolted to think of Bussia as being inferior
to wretches of this sort, and when the bridge incident swept
back upon her in all the clearness of fact, her blood ran
chill again. " He is the man I saw in the waggon after
all,'* she said to herself, in dismay.

She went to bed, but tossed about in an agony of rest-
lessnesr. When the darkness of her room began to thin

Digitized

by Google

THE COUNTESS' DISCOVERY. 155

and the brighter objects loomed into view^ she slipped on
a wrapper and -seated herself at a window, courting com-
posure in the blossom-scented air that came up from the
garden; but all to no purpose. Ever and anon, after a
respite of tranquillity she would be seized with a new rush
of consternation. Pasha was the man she had seen on the

bridge, disguised as an artisan; he was a Nihilist
♦ * * ♦ ♦

While Anna Nicolayevna was thus harrowed with doubt,
Pavel was pacing his room, his heart on the point of burst-
ing with a desire to see his mother again and to make a
clean breast of it. The notion of her being outwitted and
made sport of touched him with pity. Come what might,
his poor noble-hearted mother must be kept in the dark
no longer. She would appreciate his feelings. He would
plead with her, with tears in his eyes he would implore
her to open her eyes to the appalling inhumanity of the
prevailing adjustment of things. And as he visioned him-
self making this plea to her, his own sense of the barbarity
of the existing regime set his blood simmering in him,
and quickened his desire to lay it all before his mother.

Presently somebody rapped on his door. It was Anna
Nicolayevna.

*'I must speak to you, Pasha; I can^t get any sleep,'*
she said.

They went into a newly-built summer house. The
jumble of colour and redolence was invaded with light that
asserted its presence like a great living spirit. The or-
chard seemed to be worlds away from itself.

As a precaution, they spoke in French.

'* Pasha, you are the man I saw on the bridge,'* she said.
« You are a Nihilist.**

** Sh-h, don't be agitated, mother dear, I beg of you,'*

Digitized

by Google

156 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

he replied with tender emphasis. " I am going to tell you
alL Only first compose yourself, mamma darling, and hear
me out Yes, I^m what you call a Nihilist, but I am not
the man you saw/^

*' You a Nihilist, Pasha ! *^ she whispered, staring at him,
as though a great physical change had suddenly come over
him. " Anyhow, you have nothing to do with the man they
have arrested?^*

He shook his head and she felt relieved. His avowal of
being a Nihilist was so startling a confession to make, that
she believed all he said. He was a Nihilist, then — a Ni-
hilist in the abstract; something shocking, no doubt, but
remote, indefinite, vague. The concrete Nihilism con-
tained in the picture of a man disguised as a laborer and
having some thing to do with the fellow under arrest — that
would have been quite another matter. He told her ihe
story of his conversion in simple, heart-felt eloquence; he
pictured the reign of police terror, the slow massacre of
school-children in the political dungeons, the brutal fleec-
ing and maltreatment of a starving peasantry.

*' I found myself in a new world, mother,'' he said. *^ It
was a world in which the children of refined, well-bred
families fervently believed that he who did not work for
the good of the common people was not a man of real
honour. Indeed, of what use has the nobility been to the
world ? They are a lot of idlers, mamman, a lot of good-
for-nothings. For centuries we have been living on the fat
of the earth, luxuriating in the toil, misery and ignorance
of the peasants. It is to their drudgery and squalor that
we owe our material and mental well-being. We ought to
feel ashamed for living at the expense of these degraded,
literally starving creatures ; yet we go on living oflE their
wretchedness and even pride ourselves upon doing so. Let

Digitized

by Google

THE COUNTESS' DISCOVERY. 157

US repay our debt to them by working for their real eman-
cipation. We have grown fat on serfdom, so we must give
our blood to undo it, to bring about the reign of liberty.
This is the sum and substance of our creed, mother. This
is the faith that has taken hold of me. It is my religion
and will be as long as I live.^'

In his entire experience as a revolutionary speaker he
had never felt as he did at the present moment.

A host of sparrows burst into song and activity, all
together, as though at the stroke of a conductor's baton;
and at this it seemed as if the flood of perfume had taken
a spurt and the sunlight had begun to smile and speak.
He went on in the same strain, and she listened as she
would to a magic tale that had no bearing upon the per-
sonality of her son. His voice, sharp and irascible as it
often sounded, was yet melodious in its undercurrent tone
of filial devotion. The vital point, indeed, was that at last
he was uncovering his soul to her. She was not shocked
by what she heard. Eather, she was proud of his readiness
to sacrifice himself for an ideal, and what is more, she felt
that his world lured her heart also.

"But the Emperor is a noble sold. Pasha,'' she said.
'* He has emancipated the serfs. If there ever was a friend
of the common people the present Czar is one."

Her objections found him ready. He had gone over
these questions hundreds of times before, and he gave
her the benefit of all his former discussions and reading.
At times he would borrow a point or two from Zachar's
speeches. Touching upon the emancipation of the serfs, he
contended that Alexander II. had been forced to the meas-
ure by the disastrous results of the Crimean War; and
that the peasants, having been defrauded of their land,
were now worse off than ever.

Digitized

by Google

158 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

^^Oh, mother/' he suddenly exclaimed, "whenever you
think of the abolition of serfdom think also of the row
of gallows he had erected about that very time for noble-
minded Polish patriots. Do you remember Mme. Oginska,
that unfortunate Polish woman we met at the health-
resort? Gallows, gallows, nothing but gallows in his
reign/'

When she referred to the late war *^in behalf of the
oppressed Slavonic races of the Balkans,'' Pavel asked her
why the Czar had not first thought of his own oppressed
Russians, and whether it was not hypocrisy to send one's
slaves to die for somebody else's freedom. The Emperor
had secured a constitution for Bulgaria, had he? Why,
then, was he hanging those who were striving for one in
his own land? A war of emancipation indeed! It was
the old Romanoff greed for territory, for conquest, for
bloodshed.

He literally bore her down by a gush of arguments,
facts, images. Now and again he would pause, sit looking
at the grass in grim silence, and then, burst into another
torrent of oratory. It was said of Zachar that a single
speech of his was enough to make a convert of the most
hopeless conservative. Pavel was far from possessing any
such powers of pleading eloquence, when his audience was
made up of strangers, but he certainly scored a similar vic-
tory by the appeal which he was now addressing to his
mother.

He went to order coffee. When he returned, reveille
was sounding in the barracks.

** There you have it I " he said. " Do you know what
that sound means? It means that the youngest, the best
forces of the country are turned into weapons of human
butchery."

Digitized

by Google

THE COUNTESS' DISCOVERY. 159

The brass notes continued^ somewhat cracked at times^

but loud and vibrant with imperious solemnity.

" It means, too, that people are forced to keep themselves

in chains at the point of their own bayonets,^^ he added.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The next few days were spent by the countess in read-
ing '^ underground " literature. She was devouring paper
after paper and pamphlet after pamphlet with tremulous
absorption. The little pile before her included scientific
treatises, poetry and articles of a polemical nature, and she
read it all; but she was chiefly interested in the hair-
breadth escapes, pluck and martyrdom of the revolution-
ists. The effect this reading had on her was something
like the thrilling experience she had gone through many
years ago when she was engrossed in the Lives of Saints.

"It makes one feel twenty years younger,^' she said to
iPavel, bashfully, as she laid down a revolutionary print and
took the glasses off her tired eyes one forenoon.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XVIII.

PAVEL AT BOYKO'S COURT.

CLAEA was introduced to Mme. Shubeyko, the war-
den's sister-in-law, and to her niece, the gendarme
oflBcer's sister. At first communication with Makar
was held by means of notes concealed in cigarettes and
carried to and fro by one of the warders, who received half
a ruble per errand; but Clara was soon installed in the
warden's house. Once or twice Pavel spoke with Makar di-
rectly, by means of handkerchief signals based on the same
code as the telegraph language which political prisoners rap
out to each other through their cell walls. These signals
Pavel sent from the top of a hill across the river from Ma-
kai^s cell window. To allay suspicion he would wave his
handkerchief toward Masha or Clara, who stood for the pur-
pose on a neighbouring hill, giving the whole proceeding
the appearance of a flirtation. As to Makar, his cell was in
an isolated part of the prison, facing the outer wall. Still,
this mode of communication was exasperatingly slow and
attended by some risks after aU, and Pavel had recourse
to it only in case of extreme necessity, although to the
prisoner it was a welcome diversion.

One day, when Clara, Masha and Pavel were together,
he said to the gendarme oflBcer's sister, with mystifying
gaiety:
^* Well, have you discovered the heroine of the Pievakin

160

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL AT BOYKO'S COURT. 161

demonstration? '^ He regretted the question before it had
left his lips. Clara was annoyed.

** No, why ? '' Masha asked, looking from him to her.

" I have the honour to introduce — '' he said, colouring.
For some reason Masha did not seem to be agreeably im-
pressed by the announcement, and Clara did not fail to
notice it.

As it was rather inconvenient for the son of Countess
Yaroff to be seen at the house of a major of gendarmes,
Clara was to report to him at the residence of her parents.
In the depth of the markets and the Jewish quarter his
identity was unlikely to be known. Clara had lived at
the warden's house about a fortnight when PaveFs first visit
at the trunk shop took place. She offered him a rude
chair in the small space between the partition of her bed-
room and the window by^ the wall that was lined with
the worn folios of her f atiier's meagre library. The room
was pervaded by odours of freshly planed wood, putty and
rusiy tin which the breath of spring seemed to intensify
rather than to abate.

Motl, Hannah's sole employe, was hammering away at
his bindings and courting attention by all sorts of vocal
quirks and trills. During the Days of Awe, the solemn
festivals of autumn, he sang in a synagogue choir; so he
never ceased asserting his musical talents. As Clara's
visitor took no heed of his flourishes he proceeded to imi-
tate domestic animals, church bells, a street organ
playing a selection from II Trovatore, and a portly captain
drilling his men, but all to no purpose. As the noise
he was making was a good cover for their talk, she did
not stop him. At any rate, Motl scarcely understood any
Bussian.

^^I have only seen him at a distance," Clara said,

Digitized

by Google

162 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

meaning the prisoner. "But I know that he eats and
sleeps well, and looks comfortable."

"He would look comfortable if you tied him up in a
sack. Ishestiirdumb^?^"

She portrayed the warden's bed-ridden and voiceless wife
who suffered from a disease of the spinal and vocal
chords, and the disorder at his house and in the prison.
She had always wondered at the frequent cases of political
gaol-breaking, but if every gaol were conducted as this one
was the number would be much larger, she thought. That
vodka was quite openly sold and bought in every common
gaol in the empire was no news to her, but this was a trifle
compared to what she had heard of Eodkevich's administra-
tion. One of his gaolers had told her of imprisoned thieves
whom he would give leave of absence in order that he
might confiscate part of their booty when they came back.

" Yes, I think he is a man who would go into any kind
of scheme that offered money, or — excitement,'* she said,
gravely ; and she added with a smile : " He might even be-
come a man of principle if there were money in if

" He won't give ' a political ' ' leave of absence,' though,
will he?" Pavel joked. "Still, upon the whole, it looks
rather encouraging."

"I think it does."

"Do you?" And his eyes implored her for a more
enthusiastic prediction of success.

"Indeed I do," she answered soberly. "But whether
I do or not, we must go to work and get him out."

"This damsel is certainly not without backbone," he
said to himself.

He had familiarised himself with the details in the case
of almost every revolutionist who bad escaped or attempted
to escape from prison. Some of these had made their

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL AT BOYKO'S COURT. 163

way through an underground passage; others had passed
the gateman in the disguise of a soldier or policeman; still
others had been wrenched from their convoy, while being
taken to the gendarme office or a photograph gallery.
Prince Kropotkin had simply made a desperate break for
liberty while the gates of the prison hospital in which he
was confined stood open, a cab outside bearing him off to
a place of safety. Another political prisoner regained his
freedom by knocking down a sentinel with brass knuckles,
while still another, who was awaiting death in Odessa,
would have made his escape by means of planks laid from
his cell window to the top of the prison fence, had not these
planks proved to be too flimsy. In one place an impris-
oned army officer, slipped away under cover of a flirtation
in which a girl prisoner had engaged the warden. A revo-
lutionist named Myshkin had tried to liberate Ghemishev-
sky, the celebrated critic, by appearing at the place of his
banishment, in far-away Siberia, in the guise of a gen-
darme officer with an order for the distinguished exile,
and a similar scheme had been tried on the warden of a
prison in European Bussia. Both these attempts had failed,
but then in the case in hand there was the hope of Eod-
kevich, the warden, acting as a willing victim. Pavel
said he would impersonate one of the gendarmes.

" Some of the gaolers may know you,'* Mile. Yavner ob-
jected.

**That^s quite unlikely, I was away so long. Besides,
the thing would have to be done in the evening anyhow.
I must be on hand. It will be necessary.''

^* You might be recognised after all,'' she insisted, shyly.

Another project was to have a rope thrown over the
prison fence, in a secluded comer of the yard. This was
to be done at a signal from within, while Makar was out

Digitized

by Google

164 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

for exercise, in the charge of a bribed guard. The guard
was to raise an alarm when it was too late, telling how his
prisoner knocked him down and was hoisted out of sight.
Or Makar might be smuggled out in a barrel on some pro-
vision waggon, the prescribed examination of the vehicle
being performed by a friendly gaoler. Whatever plan they
took up, Pavel insisted on playing the leading part in it.
He was for taking Makar away in a closed carriage, if need
be under cover of pistol shots. Clara urged that in the
event the equipage had to wait for some time, its presence
about the prison was sure to arouse dangerous curiosity.
Altogether she was in favour of a quiet and simple proceed-
ing. SafonofiE's house was within easy distance from the
prison, so if Masha could imdertake to keep her brother
away from home, Clara would prefer to have Makar walk
quietly to that place, as a first resort, thence to be taken,
thoroughly disguised, to the ^* conspiracy house'* of the
Circle. But Pavel picked the proposition to pieces.

Since her initiation into the warden's house Clara had
been in a peculiarly elevated state of mind, her whole at-
tention being absorbed in her mission in which she took
great pride. This uplifted mood of hers she strove to sup-
press, and the clear-headed, matter-of-fact way in which
she faced the grave dangers of her task animated Pavel
with a feeling of intimate comradeship as well as admira-
tion.

As they now sat in the cleanest and brightest comer of
the trunk shop he was vaguely sensible of a change in her
appearance. Then he noticed that instead of the dark
woolen dress she had worn at the time of their previous
meetings she had on a fresh blouse of a light-coloured
fabric. To be seen in a new colour is in itself becoming
to a woman, but this blouse of Clara's was evidently a

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL AT BOYKO'S COURT. 165

tribute to spring. Her face seemed to be suffused with
the freshness of the month.

While they sat talking, her mother came in, an elderly
Jewess, tall and stately, with a shrewd, careworn look, her
hair carefully hidden beneath a strip of black satin.

"Is that 3'ou, Tamara?^' she asked without taking
notice of the stranger. She said something to Motl, made
for the door, but suddenly returned, addressing herself to
her daughter again. She wanted to know something about
the law of chattel-mortgages, but neither Clara nor her vis-
itor could furnish her the desired information.

" Always at those books of theirs, yet when it comes to
the point they don^t know anything,'^ she said, with a smile,
as she bustled out of the room.

"Are these Talmud books?*' Pavel asked, pointing at
Babbi EachmieFs library.

" Yes,*' Clara nodded with an implied smile in her voice.

" Can you read them? **

" Oh, no,*' she answered, smiling.

He told her that Makar was a deep Talmudic scholar
and talked of the Jewish religion, but she offered him no
encouragement. She was brimful of questions herself.
Her inquiries were concerned with the future destinies of
the human race. With all her practical common sense,
she had a notion that the era of imdinmied equality and
universal love would dawn almost immediately after the
overthrow of Russian tyranny. This, as she had been
taught by revolutionary publications, was to come as the
logical continuation of Russia's village communes, once
the development of this survival of prehistoric communism
received free scope. What she wanted was a clear and
detailed account of life in Future Society.

Her questions and his answers had the character of a

Digitized

by Google

166 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

theoretical discussion. Gradually, however, he mounted
to a more animated tone, portraying the future with quiet
fervour. She listened gravely, her eyes full upon his, and
this absorbed look spurred him on. But presently her
mother came in again, this time with a peasant customer,
and they went out to continue their talk in the open air.
There were plenty of deserted lanes and bits of open coun-
try a short distance ofiE. There was a vague gentle under-
standing between them that it was the golden idealism
of their talk which had set them yearning for the imhidden
sky and the aromatic breezes of spring. This upheld their
lofty mood while they silently trudged through the out-
skirts of the market place. They could not as yet continue
their interrupted conversation, and to speak of something
else would have seemed profanation. At last they emerged
on a lonely square, formed by an orchard, some houses
and bams and the ruin of an old barrack. The air was
excellent and there was nobody to overhear them. Never-
theless when Pavel was about to resume he felt that he
was not in the mood for it. Nor did she urge him on with
any further questions.

Prom the old barracks they passed into a dusty side
lane and thence into a country road which led to a suburb
and ran parallel to the railway tracks.

The sun was burning by fits and starts, as it were.
In those spots where masses of lilacs and fruit blossoms
gave way to a broader outlook, the road was so flooded
with light that Clara had to shield her eyes with her hand.
Now and again a clump of trees in the distance would fall
apart to show the snow-crested top of a distant hill and the
blueish haze of the horizon-line.

Their immediate surrounding were a scrawny, frowzy
landscape. The lawns in front of the huts they passed.

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL AT BOYKO'S COURT, 167

the homes of washerwomen, were overspread with drying
linen.

"Delightful, isn't it?'' Pavel said, inhaling a long
draught of the rich, animating air and glancing down a
ravine choked with nettle. The remark was merely a
spoken sigh of joy. She made no reply.

They were both hungry, and presently they began to
feel tired as well. Yet neither of them was disposed to
halt or to break silence except by an occasional word or
two that meant nothing.

At last he said :

" You must be quite fatigued. It's cruel of me."

" I am, but it isn't cruel of you," she answered, stopping
shorty and drawing a deep, smiling breath.

He ran into a washerwoman's hovel, startling a brood
of ducklings on his way, and soon came back with the
information that milk was to be had in a trackman's
hut beyond a sparse grove to the right.

A few minutes later they sat at a rude table in a
minature garden between the shining steel rails of the
track and a red-painted cabin. It was the fourth track-
house from the Miroslav railroad station and was generally
known as the Fourth Hut. Besides milk and eggs and
coarse rye bread they found sour soup. They ate heartily,
but an echo of their exalted dream was still on them. To
Pavel this feeling was embodied in an atmosphere of fem-
ininity that pervaded his consciousness at this moment.
He was sensible of sitting in front of a pretty, healthy
girl full of modest courage and imdemonstrative inspira-
tion. The lingering solemnity of his mood seemed to have
something to do with the shimmering little hairs which
the breeze was stirring on Clara's neck, as she bent over
her earthen bowl, with the warm colouring of her ear,

Digitized

by Google

168 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

with the elastic firmness of her cheek, with the airiness
of her blouse.

A desire stirred in him to speak once more of the part
she had unconsciously played in his conversion, and at this
he felt that if he told her the story he would find a pe-
culiar pleasure in exaggerating the importance of the effect
which her " speech ^^ had produced on his mind. But it
came over him that Makar was still behind the prison
gate and that this was not the time to enjoy one^s self.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XIX.

STRAWBERBIES.

THAT walk to the trackman's hut had kindled a new
light in Pavers soul. He often found himself crav-
ing for a repetition of the experience — not merely
for Clara's companionship, but for another occasion to walk
through the fields with her, to sit by her side in the breeze,
and, above all, for the intimacy of seeing her fatigued and
eating heartily. She dwelt in his mind as a girl comrade,
self-possessed and plucky, gifted with grit, tact and spirit;
at the same time she lingered in his consciousness as a
responsive pupil, glowing with restrained enthusiasm over
his talk, eagerly following him through an ecstasy of
lofty dreams. These two aspects of her were merged in
the sight and odour of healthy, magnificently complex-
ioned girlhood between the glint of steel rails and the dusty
geranium in a trackman's window.

They had another appointment. When he called at the
trunkmaker's shop Clara greeted him with a hearty hand-
shake. He blushed. His love seemed to be gaining on
him by leaps and bounds.

** How are things ? " he asked.

*' First rate, Pavel Vassilyevich. The vegetable man will
do it. He's a trump, I tell you." She went into details.
She was in unusually good spirits. They talked business
and of the adjustment of things under socialism. Pavel^

169

Digitized

by Google

170 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED,

too, was in good humour, yet floating in his mind was the
same old question: And what if all fails and Makar is
removed to St. Petersburg?

They met again and again. One day, after they had
arrived at certain conclusions regarding Makar, Pavel said :

^^Shallwetakeawalk?^'

She nodded assent.

'*I am again full of questions.'*

*' Again worrying about the future fate of humanity?"

*'Yes, I seem to have no end of questions about it. I
wonder whether I shall remember all those that have oc-
curred to me since I last saw you. I ought to have jotted
them down.*'

" You don't want to pump me dry in one day, do you? "

** Well, if the truth must be told, I rather do. You will
soon be leaving us, I suppose, so I am anxious to strike the
iron while it is hot."

The personal question as to the length of his stay
sent a little wave of warmth through his blood. They
set out in the direction of the trackman's hut as a matter
of course. Instead of following their former route, how-
ever, they chose, upon a motion from Clara, who was
more familiar with these suburbs than Pavel, a meandering,
hilly course that offered them a far better view as well
as greater privacy. A stretch of rising ground took them
to the Beak, a promontory so called for the shape of a
cliff growing out of its breast. The common people had
some pretty stories to tell of a gigantic bird of which
the rocky beak was a part and whose petrified body was
now asleep in the bosom of the hill that had once been
its nest.

Pavel and Clara sat down to rest on the freshly carpeted
slope. The town clustered before them in a huddle of red,

Digitized

by Google

STRAWBERRIES. 171

white, green and grey, shot with the glitter of a golden-
domed cathedral, the river flashing at one end like the
fragment of an immense sabre. It was warm and quiet.
There was not a human soul for a considerable distance
around. Now and again the breeze would gently stir the
weeds and the wild-flowers, lingering just long enough to
scent the hillside with pine odours and then withdrawing,
on tiptoe, as it were, like a thoughtful friend taking care
that the two young people were kept supplied with the
bracing aroma without being disturbed more than was
necessary. Once or twice Clara held out her chin, sniffing
the enchanted air.

" Isn't it delightful ! '' she said.

^'Ifs a specimen of what life under Socieiy of the
Future will feel like,** Pavel jested, with a wistful smile.

At one point when she addressed him as Pavel Vassilye-
vich, as she usually did, he was tempted to ask her to
dispense with his patronymic. In the light of the hearty
simplicity of manners which prevailed in the revolutionary
movement they were well enough acquainted to address
each other by their first names only. Yet when he was
about to propose the change the courage failed him to do
so. Whereupon he said to himself, with a deep inward
blushing, that the cause of this hesitancy and confusion of
his was no secret to him.

*' Hello there I A strawberry ! *' she called out, with a
childish glee which he had not yet seen in her. And
flinging herself forward she reached out her white girlish
hand toward a spot of vivid red. The berry, of that tiny
oblong delicious variety one saucerful of which would
be enough to fill a fair-sized room with fragrance, lay
ensconced in a bed of sun-lit leaves — a pearl of succulent,
flaming colour in a setting of green gold.

Digitized

by Google

172 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" Oh, I haven't the heart to pick it/^ she said, staying
her hand and cooing to the strawberry as she would to a
baby: "Won't touch you, berry darling. Won^t touch
you, sweetie/'

" Spare its life then," he answered, " I'll see if I can't
find others."

And sure enough, after some seeking and peeping and
climbing, Pavel came upon a spot that was fairly jewelled
with strawberries.

" Quite a haul," he shouted down.

She joined him and they went on picking together, each
with a thistle leaf for a saucer.

"Why, it's literally teeming with them," she said, in
a preoccupied voice, deeply absorbed in her work. " One,
two, three, and four, and — seven; why, bless me, — and
eight and nine. What a pity we have nothing with us.
We could get enough to treat the crowd at Orlovsk/s."

Pavel made no reply. Whenever he came across a berry
that looked particularly tempting he would offer it to her
silently and resume his work. He was oppressively aware
of his embarrassment in her presence and the consciousness
of it made him feel aU the more so. He was distinctly
conscious of a sensation of unrest, both stimidating and
numbing, which had settled in him since he made her
acquaintance. It was at once torture and joy, yet when
he asked himself which of the two it was, it seemed to be
neither the one nor the other. Her absence was darkness ;
her presence was light, but pain and pleasure mingled
in both. It made him feel like a wounded bird, like a
mutely suffering child. At this moment it blent with
the flavour and ruddiness of the berries they were both pick-
ing, with the pine-breeze that was waiting on them, with
the subdued lyrics of spring.

Digitized

by Google

STRAWBERRIES. 173

And he knew that he was in love.

He had never been touched by more than a first
timid whisper of that feeling before. It was Sophia, the
daughter of the former governor of Si Petersburg, whose
image had formerly — quite recently, in fact — invaded
his soul. He had learned immediately that she belonged
to Zachar and his dawning love had been frightened away.
Otherwise his life during these five years had been one
continuous infatuation of quite another kind — the infatu-
ation of moral awakening, of a political religion, of the
battlefield.

From the Beak they proceeded by the railroad track,
now walking over the cross-ties, now balancing along the
polished top of one rail. She was mostly ahead of him,
he following her with melting heart By the time they
reached the trackman's place, the shadows had grown long
and solemn. Pavel had no appetite. He ate because Clara
did. ''Here I am watching her eat again,'' he thought.
But the spectacle was devoid of the interest he had expected
to find in it.

Nevertheless the next morning, upon waking, it burst
upon him once more that seated within him was something
which had not been there about a month ago. When he
reflected that he had no appointment with Clara for these
two days, that disquieting force which was both delicious
and tantalising, the force which enlivened and palsied
at once, swelled in his throat like a malady. But no, far
from having such a bodily quality, it had spiritualised his
whole being. He seemed unreal to himself, while the out-
side world appeared to him strangely remote, agonisingly
beautiful, and agonisingly sad — a heart-rending elegy on
an unknown theme. The disquieting feeling clamoured for
the girl's presence — for a visit to the scene of their

Digitized

by Google

174: THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

yesterday's berry-picking, at least. He struggled, but he
had to submit.

To the Beak, then, he betook himself, and for an hour
he lay on the grass, brooding. Everything around him
was in a subdued agitation of longing. The welter of
gold-cups and clover; the breeze, the fragrance and the
droning of a nearby grasshopper; the sky overhead and
the town at his feet — all was dreaming of Clara, yearning
for Clara, sighing for Clara. Seen in profile the grass
and the wild-flowers acquired a new charm. When he
lay at full length gazing up, the sky seemed perfectly flat,
like a vast blue ceiling, and the light thin wisps of pearl
looked like painted cloudlets upon that ceiling. There
were moments in this reverie of his when the Will of the
People was an echo from a dim past, when the world's
whole struggle, whether for good or for evil, was an odd,
incomprehensible performance. But then there were
others when everything was listening for the sound of a
heavenly bugle-call ; when all nature was thirsting for noble
deeds and the very stridulation of the grasshopper was part
of a vast ecstasy.

" That won't do,'' he said in his heart. " I am making
a perfect fool of myself, and it may cost us Makar's free-
dom." As he pictured the Janitor, Zachar and his other
comrades, and what they would say, if they knew of his
present frame of mind, he sprang to his feet in a fury of
determination. ^'I must get that idiot out of the con-
founded hole he put himself into and get back to work
in St. Petersburg. This girl is not going to stand in my
way any longer." He felt like smashing palaces and for-
tresses. But whatever he was going to do in his freedom
from Clara, Clara was invariably a looker-on. When he
staked his life to liberate Makar she was going to be pres-

Digitized

by Google

STRAWBERRIES. 175

ent; after the final blow had been struck at despotism, she
would read in the newspapers of his prominent part in the
fight.

The next time he saw her he felt completely in her
power,

Clara was in a hurry, but an hour after they had parted
he found an honest excuse for seeing her again that very
day. The appointment was made through Mme. Shubeyko,
and in the afternoon he called at the trunk shop once
more.

" We have been ignoring a very important point, Clara
Eodionovna,'' he said solicitously. " Since the explosion at
the Winter Palace the spies have been turning St. Peters-
burg upside down. They literally don^t leave a stone
unturned. Now, Makar went away before the examina-
tions at the Medical Academy and he disappeared from
his lodgings without filing notice of removal at the police
station.^*

*^ And if they become curious about his whereabouts the
name of the Miroslav Province in his papers may put the
authorities in mind of their Miroslav prisoner,'' Clara put
in, with quick intelligence.

He nodded gloomily and both grew thoughtful.

*^ They would first send word to Zorki, his native town,
though,'' Pavel then said, " to have his people questioned,
and I shouldn't be surprised if they brought his father over
here to be confronted with him."

" That would be the end of it," Clara remarked, in dis-
may.

The next day Pavel telegraphed it all over to Makar,
by means of his handkerchief, from the hill which com-
manded the prisoner's window.

*'I have a scheme," Makar's handkerchief flashed back.

Digitized

by Google

176 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

^^For God^s sake don^t run away with yourself/^ Pavel
returned. "It's a serious matter. Consider it ma-
turely/'

" Do you know anybody in Paris or any other foreign
city you could write to at once ? ''

"I do. Why?'' Pavel replied.

^^ Get me some foreign paper. I shall write two letters,
one to my father and one to my wife, both dated at that
place. If these letters were sent there and that man then
sent them to my people at Zorki, it would mean I am in
Paris. Understand?"

" I do. You are crazy."

"Why? Father will let bygones be bygones. I should
tell him the whole truth. He is all right."

" He won't fool the gendarmes."

*^ He will I " the white speck behind the iron bars flicked
out vehemently. "He'll do it. Provided he is prepared
for it."

"You are impossible. If an order came from St.
Petersburg your Zorki gendarmes would not dare think
for themselves. They would just hustle him oflf to Miro-
slav."

" Then get father away from there."

" They would take your wife, anybody who could identify
you."

" Father is better after aU. He would look me in the
face and say he does not know me. He could do it."

*^And later go to Siberia for it?"

" You are right. But I don't think the order will be to
take him here at once. They'll first examine him there.
He'll have a chance to fool them."

Clara offered to go to Zorki at once, but Makar was for
a postponement of her "conspiracy trip." Saturday of

Digitized

by Google

STRAWBERRIES. 177

Comfort was near at hand^ and then the little Jewish town
wonld be crowded with strangers, so that Mile. Yavner
nught come and go without attracting attention even in the
event the local gendarmes had already been put on the case.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XX.

ZOEKI waa in a state of joyous excitement. The
" Good Jew '^ of Gornovo, accompanied by a retinue
of headles, secretaries, *^ reciters/' attendants, scribes
and hangers on, was pleased to grace the little community
with his usual visit; so the Pietists had left their workshops
and places of business to drink in religious ecstasy and to
scramble for advice, miracles and the blessed leavings from
the holy man's table. The population of the little town
was rapidly increasing by an influx of Pietists from neigh-
bouring hamlets.

Clara, with a kerchief round her head, which gave her
the appearance of an uneducated "daughter of Israel,'*
was watching a group of men and boys who stood chatter-
ing and joking in front of one of the best houses in town,
at the edge of the market place. It was in this house
where the Good Jew made his headquarters every time he
came to Zorki and where he was now resting from his
journey. The sun stood high. A peasant woman was
nursing her baby in a waggon, patiently waiting for her
husband. Two elderly peasants in coarse, broad-brimmed
straw-hats, one of them with an interminable drooping
moustache, were leaning against the weight-house, smoking
silently. For the rest, the market place, enclosed by four
broken rows of shops, dwellings and two or three govem-

178

Digitized

by Google

A " CONSPIRACY TRIP.*' 179

ment oflBces — squatting one-story frame structures — was
almost deserted ; but one of the two streets bounding it^ the
one on which we find Clara at this minute, was quite alive
with people. An opening at one side of the square showed
a sloping stretch of road and a rectangular section of the
river, the same as that which gleamed in Miroslav. The
knot of men which Clara was watching all wore broad
flat-topped caps, and, most of them, long-skirted coats. A
man of fifty-five, short and stocky, with massive head and
swarthy face, the image of Makar, was the centre of the
crowd.

**If you were a Pietist and a decent man,*' he said,
in subdued accents, to a red-bearded ^* oppositionist^^ with
gloomy features, "you would not wear that long face o£
yours. Come, cheer up and don't be a kill-joy 1 '* And he
slapped him on the back with all his might.

"Stopl*' the Oppositionist said, reddening from the
blow. '* What's got into you? What reason have you to
be so jolly anyhow?'' And addressing himself to the
bystanders : '* He has not had a drop of vodka, yet he will
make believe he's in his cups."

*'Whafs that?" the swarthy man protested in a &ott,
mellow basso, ** Can't a fellow be jolly without filling him-
self full of vodka? If you were a respectable man and a
Pietist and not a confounded seek-sorrow of an Opposi-
tionist you would not think so. Drink ! Why, open the
Pentateuch, and wherever your eye falls there is drink to
make you happy. ' In the beginning God created heaven
and earth 1 ' Isn't that reason enough for a fellow to be
jolly?"

The bystanders smiled, some in partisan approbation,
others with amused superiority, still others with diplomatic
ambiguily.

Digitized

by Google

180 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

The heavy-set, swarthy man was Makar's father, Yossl
Pannet. He bore striking resemblance to his son. Clara
stood aghast. If he were confronted with the Miroslav
prisoner, the identity of the Nihilist would be betrayed,
whether the old man admitted the relationship or not. The
only way out of it was to avoid such a confrontation by get^
ting Yossl away for a few months. But then, once the
Miroslav gendarmerie learned that a man named Parmet
whose home was at Zorki was missing, the secret could not
last for any length of time. In compliance with Makar's
wish, Clara decided to take him into her secret. Accord-
ingly, she mingled with the men, took part in the joking,
and by the time the crowd dispersed she and Yossl were
talking on terms of partial familiarity. Finding an oppor-
tune moment, she said to him, with intentional mysterious-
ness:

*^ There is something I want to speak to you about, Eeb
Yossl. I have seen your son.''

The old man gave her a startled, scrutinising glance.
Then, his face hardening into a preoccupied business-like
expression, he said aloud :

** Where are you stopping? '*

She named her inn, and the two started thither together.
There were so many strangers in town, each in quest of an
audience with the ** Good Jew,'' and Yossl was so dose to
the holy man, or to those near him, that their conversation
attracted scarcely any notice.

**Ifs a very serious matter, Eeb Yossl," she said, as
they crossed the market place. ** Nobody is to know any-
thing about it, or it may be bad for your son."

'*Go ahead," he snarled, turning pale. "Never mind
spending time on a woman's prefaces. What is up ? "

" You know how the educated young people of these days

Digitized

by Google

A "CONSPIRACY TRIP.'* 181

are. There is nothing, in fact, the matter. If 11 soon be
over. But for the present it would do him good if the
gendarmes knew he was in Paris.'*

''Why, isnH he in Paris ?** Yossl asked morosely. ''I
received a letter from him from there.**

''Of course he is. Only, the gendarmes, in case they
look for him, and they may do so sooner or later, you know,
the gendarmes may not believe he is there. So it would be
a good thing if you could convince them of it. Your son
would be benefited by it very much.**

Yossl took fire.

" On my part let him go to all the black ghosts ! ** he
burst out. " ' The educated people of these days,* indeed !
Pirst he will play with fire and then he wants me to fight
his battles ! Would he have his old father go to prison on
account of him? He is not in Paris, then? I am as
clever as you, young woman. I, too, understand a thing
or two, though I am not of ' the educated people of these
days ! * It is not enough that he has got in trouble him-
self ; he wants to drag me in, too. Is that the kind of
' education * he has got? Is that what he has broken with
his wife and father for? The ghost take him!**

" Don*t be excited, Reb Yossl,** Clara pleaded, earnestly.
" It*s a treasure of a son you have and you know it. As
to the education he has acquired, it is the kind that
teaches one to struggle against injustice and oppres-
sion, things which I know you hate as deeply as your son
does.** A tremour came into her voice, and a slight
blush into her cheeks, as she added: "Your son is one
of those remarkable men who are willing to die for the
suffering people.**

" But who are you ? ** he asked with a frown, " How did
you get here ? If you, too, are one of those people you had

Digitized

by Google

182 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

better leave this town at once. I don't want to get in
trouble on account of you/^

They reached the inn, and he paused in front of it,
leaning against a waggon.

** Never mind who I am,^' she returned.

^^ But where is he? Has he been arrested? Good God,
what has he been doing to himself? What does he want
of my old bones? Is he sorry his father is still alive? ^'

" You don^t want your son to perish, do you? '^ she said
rather pugnaciously. "If you don% you had better get
the gendarmes oflf his track.'*

She went on arguing with renewed ardour. As he lis-
tened, a questioning look came into his face. Instead of
following her plea he scrutinised her suspiciously.

"But why should you pray for him so fervently,'' he
asked significantly. "Why should you run risks for his
sake? What do you get out of it?"

"Must one get something *out of it' to do what is
right?"

" Ah, may the ghost take the whole lot of you 1 " Yossl
said, with a wave of his hand, and walked away. He felt
sure that this young woman and his son were in love, and
he was shocked for the sake of Miriam, Makar's divorced
wife, as well as for his own.

He made for a slushy narrow lane, but turned back,

retracing his steps in the direction of the house which was

the Good Jew's headquarters, as also the home of Miriam.

It was the house of her uncle, Arye Weinstein, the richest

Pietist in Zorki.

« ♦ ♦ « «

The Good Jew occupied two expensively furnished rooms
which were always kept sacred to his use. They were
known as "the rabbi's chambers" and although the

Digitized

by Google

A " CONSPIRACY TRIP.'' 183

Righteous Man visited Zorki only once a year^ nobody was
ever allowed so much as to sit down in his easy chair.
One day, when Weinstein caught his little girl playing in
the "rabbits bed room" with a skull*cap which the holy
man had left there, he flew into one of the savage fits of
temper for which he was dreaded, and slapped the child's
face till it bled. The rabbi's chambers were never swept
or dusted until a day or two before his arrival, and then
half a dozen people worked day and night to make things
worthy of the exalted guest. The " rabbi's parlour " opened
into a vast room, by far the largest in the house, which
on Saturdays was usually turned into a synagogue, and was
known in town as "Weinstein's salon."

Miriam was a very bright, quick-witted little woman,
but she was not pretty — a pale, sickly, defenceless-looking
creature of the kind who have no enemies even among their
own sex. Her separation from Makar was only a nominal
affair, in fact, the divorce having been brought about
against the will of the yoimg couple by her iron-willed
uncle, who had succeeded in embroiling Yossl with his son
as well as with himself soon after the true character of
Makar's visits to Pani Oginska's house had been discov-
ered; but Makar and Miriam had become reconciled,
through a letter from him, and they had been in secret
correspondence ever since. Yossl never lost hope of seeing
them remarried, and, in order to keep the memory of his
son fresh in Miriam's mind, he had obeyed the (Jood Jew
and made peace with the wealthy Pietist.

Yossl was in charge of the town's weight-house and was
commonly known as '* Yossl the weight-house man."
When Peivish (Maker's real first name) was old enough
to be started on the Talmud, he left the weight-house to
hh wif e^ devoting himself to the spiritual education of the

Digitized

by Google

184 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

boy. Every time they sat down to the huge book he would
pin the edge of Feivish's shirt to his collar, leaving the
child's back bare to the strap in his hand. Whenever his
wife protested he would bring her to terms by threatening
to tell the Gtood Jew that she would have her son brought
up as a dunce. He was going to make a ^'fattened
scholar*' of him. He was going to fatten him on
divine Law by main force, even as his wife fattened her
geese for Passover. He was going to show those fish-
blooded, sneering Oppositionists that they had no monopoly
of the Talmud. Often during his lesson a distracted look
would come into Feivish's dark little eyes, and Yossl's
words fell on deaf ears. Then it was that the thong would
descend on the bare back. Feivish never cried. As the
blow fell, he would curl himself up with a startled look,
that haunted Yossl for hours after. Feivish turned out
to be a most ardent Pietist. Once, for example, in a very
cold wintry night, after the Good Jew had crossed a snow-
covered lawn, Feivish, in a burst of devotion, took ofiE his
boots and ** followed in the foot-steps of the man of
righteousness'' barefoot.

For four years the young couple lived happily, their
only woe being the death of both children that had been
bom to them. But the (Jood Jew said '*God will have
mercy," and Feivish "served his Lord with gladness."
But this did not last. Feivish was initiated into the world
of free thought, and gradually the fervent Pietist was
transformed into a fervent atheist. It was during that
period that he first met Pavel and that his wife's despotic

uncle extorted a divorce from him.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

While Yossl was twitting the red-headed Oppositionist
in front of Weinstein's house, Bathsheba, a daughter-in-

Digitized

by Google

A " CONSPIRACY TRIP.'* 186

law of fhe man of substance, a plump, black-eyed beaniy
of fhe kind one's mind associates with a Turkish harem,
beckoned Miriam aside, in one of the rooms within, offer-
ing her a piece of cake.

^^ If s from a chunk the Oood Jew has tasted,'^ she said,
triumphantly. "Eat it, and your heart will be lighter.'*

" It will help me as much as blood-letting helps a dead
man/' Miriam answered with a smile.

"Eat it, I say. You'll get letters more often if you
do." For a woman to exchange love letters with the man
from whom she has been divorced is quite a grave sin for
a daughter of Israel to commit. The remedy Bathsheba
recommended was therefore something like the prayer of
a thief that the Lord may bless his business. But then
Miriam questioned the power of the rabbi's " leavings " to
bring a blessing upon any business. She smiled.

"How do you know it is nonsense? Maybe it isn't,
after all," Bathsheba urged.

"You're a foolish little dear."

" If I were you I should eat it. What can you lose by
it?"

Maria, a (Jentile servant who had been longer in the
house than Bathsheba, came in. She spoke Yiddish excel-
lently and was almost like a member of the family.

"Take a bite and you will be blessed, Maria," Miriam
joked, holding out the cake to her. " It's from a piece the
Good Jew has tasted."

" If I was a Jewess I would," Maria retorted reproach-
fully. " If s a sin to make mock of a Good Jew."

The other two burst into a laugh.

Left alone, Miriam was about to throw the cake away,
but had not the heart to do so. She sat eyeing it for some
minutes and then, making fun of herself, she bit off a

Digitized

by Google

186 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

morsel. She acted like the Jewess of the anecdote, who^

to be on the safe side, would kiss the cross and the Hebrew

prayer book at once.

« « « « «

An hour later Yossl was flaunting his son^s Paris letter
and cursing him to a new crowd in front of the Good
Jew's headquarters.

'* The ghost take him ! '^ he said. " Indeed, the ghost is
a well-travelled fellow He can get to Paris just as read-
ily as he does to Zorki.^'

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XXI.
hakab's father.

ON Saturday morning Weinstein's salon was crowded
with worshippers, all married men in their pray-
ing shawls and skull-caps. A Good Jew is exempt
from praying with the congregation, his transports of re-
ligious fervour being too sacred a proceeding for common
mortals to intrude upon. Accordingly, the Man of Right-
eousness was making his devotions in the seclusion of the
adjoining parlour.

To a stranger unfamiliar with Pietist prayer meetings
the crowd here gathered would have looked for all the
world like the inmates of the violent ward in an insane
asyltmi. Most of the worshippers were snapping their
fingers; the others were clapping their hands, clenching
their fists with all their might or otherwise gesticulating
savagely. They were running or jimiping about, shriek-
ing, sighing or intoning merrily, while here and there a
man seemed to be straining every bit of his strength to
shut his eyes as tightly as possible or to distort his face
into some painful or grotesque expression. The (Jentiles
of the province called the Pietists Jimiping Jacks.

Some of the worshippers gesticulated merely because
it was ^'correct form'*; others did so from force of habit,
or by way of fighting off the intrusion of worldly thoughts;
still others for the same reason for which one yawns when

187

Digitized

by Google

188 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

others do. But all these formed a small minority. The
bulk of the Pietists present, including several people of
questionable honesty in business matters, were honestly
convulsed with a contagion of religious rapture. The in-
visible proximity of the Man of Righteousness, the sight
of the door that concealed his holy presence, keyed them
up to the highest pitch of exaltation. Their ears followed
the "master of prayers*^ at the Stand, but their minds
beheld the Good Jew of Gomovo. All hearts converged
at the mysterious spot behind that door. That which*
sounded and looked like a pandemonium of voices and
gestures was in reality a chorus of uplifted souls with the
soul of the concealed man of God for a " master of pray-
ers.^^

Weinstein was slapping the wall with both hands. His
large figure wad enveloped in the costliest praying-shawl
in the room. All that was seen of him were two wrists
overgrown with red hair. Now and then he would face
about and fall to striding up and down meditatively. He
was a well-fed, ruddy-necked Jew of fifty with a sharp
hooked nose sandwiched in between two plump florid
cheeks, and a small red beard. His imbuttoned coat of a
rich broadcloth reached down to his heels; his trousers
were tucked into the tops of well-polished boots. Once
or twice an unkempt, underfed little man in a tattered
shawl and with a figure and gait which left no doubt that
he was a tailor by trade, barred Weinstein^s way, snapping
his fingers at him ; then the two took to pacing the room
together, shouting and chuckling in rapturous duet as
they moved along, as is written : ** Serve the Lord with
gladness, come before His presence with singing,^' or *' Be-
cause thou servedst not thy God with joyfulness and with
gladness of hearty, for the abundance of all things; there-

Digitized

by Google

MAKAR'S FATHER. 189

fore shalt thou serve thine enemies/* That the little
tailor did not enjoy an ^^ abundance of all things*' was
evident from his pinched face and broken shoes. He did
not rank high enough in his trade to have even Weinstein's
clerk for a customer^ yet at the Pietist gatherings he
addressed Weinstein himself by the familiar diminutive
of his first name and sometimes helped to spank him or
to pelt him with burrs out of his " gladness of heart'*

Yossl Parmet — Makar*s father — was tiptoeing about
the crowded room, smiling and whispering fondly, as
though confiding glad news to himself, but his heart was
not in his prayer. He was thinking of his son and the
young woman who had come to plead for him. Indeed,
Yossl's piety had deserted him long since. He dung to
the Pietists for the sake of the emotional atmosphere that
enveloped it and from his sincere admiratioii of the (Jood
Jew's personality rather than from faith. He was fond
of Miriam and his heart was now torn between jealousy
in her behalf and anxiety about his son.

The services over, silence fell upon the congregation.
The Pietists were folding up their shawls, or eyeing the
floor expectantly. The minutes were passing slowly. The
stillness seemed to be growing in intensity. Presently a
song broke from somebody in a comer. It was a song
without words, a new time especially composed for the
occasion. Like most "Gomovo melodies" it was meant
to be gay, and like all of them it was pervaded by the
mingled sadness of the Exiled People and the brooding,
far-away plaint of their Slavic neighbours. There is a
mingling of fire and tears in the Pietist ^' hop.'' It isn't
without reason that the most rabid Oppositionist of Lithu-
ania will sing them on the Eejoicing of the Law.

The others in the room had never heard tibe song before.

Digitized

by Google

190 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

yet several of them fell to at once, seizing the tune by
intuition. The rest joined in gradually, until the whole
assemblage was united in chorus. The import of this kind
of singing while the Good Jew is in the privacy of his
room is a plea that he may issue forth and grace the crowd
with his presence and *^some law.'' They went through
the tune again and again, gathering zest as they mastered
its few simple bars. The melody seemed to be climbing
up and down, or diving in and out; expostulating with
somebody as it did so, bewailing somebody or something,
appealing in the name of some dear event in the past or
future. Unable to tell definitely what their tune was say-
ing or doing, the singers craved to see the speechless song,
to make out the words it seemed to be uttering, and because
that was impossible their hearts were agitated with object-
less sympathy and longing, and the rabbi was forgotten
for awhile. They pitied the unknown man who seemed
to be climbing or diving all the more because it was in
their own voices that his incomprehensible words were
concealed.

Little by little, however, as the novelty of the air wore
oflf, the consciousness that they were beseeching the Man
of Righteousness to come out to them blent with their
yearning sympathy for their melody. They ardently be-
lieved that the Good Jew's soul had ascended on the wings
of his ecstasy to the Divine Presence. All eyes were on
his door. An indescribable ring of solemnity, of awe, of
love and of prayer came into their voices. Their faces
were transfixed with it. The melody was pouring out its
very heart to the holy man.

Suddenly it all died away. The door flew open and,
preceded by a stout " supervisor," appeared an elderly man
with a flabby-lipped mouth and a hooked little nose. He

Digitized

by Google

MAKAR^S FATHER. 191

wore a long-skirted coat of black silk with a belt of the
same material wound several times round his waist, and
a roimd cap of sable and velvet. The crowd fell apart in
breathless excitement. As he advanced through the lane
thus formed he was flushed and trying to conceal his em-
barrassment in a look of grief. He seated himself at a
long table and shut his eyes. Now and then he heaved a
sigh, swaying his head silently, with absorbed mien. He
was supposed to be in a trance of lofty meditation, aban-
doned to thoughts and feelings which were to bear his
soul to heaven.

The crowd was literally spellbound. Yossl Parmet was
pale with unuttered sobs. He was perhaps the only man
in the room who perceived that the holy man was ill at
ease, and this gave him a sense of the Good Jew^s childlike
purity which threw him into a veritable frenzy of rever-
ence. More than thirty years the master of multitudes
and still blushing ! When Yossl was a young man he had
changed his Good Jews several times. He had adored
them all, but he had not liked them. His soul had found
no rest until he moved to Zorki and met this Good Jew of
Gomovo. Then he felt himself in the presence of abso-
lute sincerity, of unsophisticated warmth of heart. This
Good Jew was a naive man, timid and unassertive. He
had an unfeigned sense of his own supernatural powers,
and was somewhat in awe of them. He felt as though
there was another, a holier being within him and he feared
that being in the same way as one possessed fears the
unholy tenant of his soul.

Finally the Good Jew opened his eyes and began to
speak. It was a simple sermon on a text taken at random
from the Bible before him, but his listeners sought a hid-
den meaning, a mystical allusion, in the plainest of his

Digitized

by Google

192 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

words or gestures. Yossl could have instructed him in
every branch of holy lore, yet he seized upon the exposition
thirstily. In the first place, he had seen Good Jews who
were even less at home in the Law than the Good Jew of
Gomovo was, so that he felt grateful to him for not being
a downright ignoramus. In the second place, he knew
that he actually believed his own words to be inspired.

A few minutes after the sermon the Good Jew beckoned
Yossl to a seat by his side. Makar^s father accepted the
invitation in a quiver of obsequious gratitude.

** How are you, Yossl ? Any news of Feivish ? ^^

" He^s in Paris now,'^ Yossl answered with a gesture of
disrelish and speaking aloud, so that the entire crowd
might hear him. He hated to tell the holy man a lie, yet
he did so readily, the occasion being his best opportunity
for giving the story wide circulation.

''In Paris !^^

*' Yes, he has been there since the beginning of summer.
I have letters from him.'^

" Letters from Feivish ! ''

" He wanted to show off I suppose. Wanted his father
to see he^s in Paris. On my part he may go to perdition.^^

''What is he doing there? Studying medicine in
French?'^

" Thaf s what he says in his letter. Yes, he has quite
broken with Judaism, rabbi, quite a Gentile. All that is
required to make the transformation complete is that he
should extort bribes from Jews for allowing them to
breathe. One Jew he prevents from breathing already'*
— ^pointing at himself.

The rabbi swayed his head sympathetically.

"What a misfortune! What a misfortune! Men like
him could not be had for the picking.''

Digitized

by Google

MAEAR'S FATHER. 193

^^He has left a wound in my heart and it will not heal^
rabbi. If this is the kind of doctor he is going to be, he
won^t make much headway. ' I had a vineyard/ rabbi/*
he went on in a lugubrious sing-song, quoting from Isaiah,
'''I fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and
planted it with the choicest vine. What could have been
done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ? ' **

*^ Don^t grieve, my son, I forbid you, do you hear? '* the
Good Jew said, limply. He was deeply touched. *' Better
give us a song, boys ! **

The song burst forth and was taken up by the glad
crowd on the lawn, some Gentiles, standiag at a respectful
distance, listening reverently.

Yossl had uncovered to the rabbi only part of his heart's
wound. Since his son's compulsory divorce Weinstein had
personified the cruelties and iajustices of the whole world
to him. When a couple applies for a writ of divorcement
it is the duty of the rabbi to persuade them from the step.
God wants no severance of the marriage bond. " When a
man divorces his first wife, the altar weeps,'' says the Tal-
mud. Yet Weinstein, who had so brutally extorted such
a divorce from Feivish, continued to be looked upon as a
pillar of the faith. All this had stirred a novel feeling,
a novel trend of thought in Yossl.

The next morning Weinstein's salon was jammed with
people begging for admission to the (Jood Jew, who was in
the next room.

The scribes were busy writing applications, praying the
rabbi to *' awaken the great mercy of the Master of
Mercies."

** My wife is ill, her name is Sarah, daughter of Tevye,"

Digitized

by Google

194 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

one man besought. ** Do be so kind. If I don't get in at
once it may be too late/*

Another applicant, with a crippled boy in his arms,
sought a blessing for the child and himself. One father,
whose son had been declared a blockhead by his teachers,
wanted the Good Jew to pray that the boy might get ^' a
good head/' A white-haired man was picking a quarrel
with two other Pietists who were trying to get in front
of him. The old man's married daughter was childless
and her husband did not care for her, so he wanted the
rabbi to ''give her children and grace in the eyes of her
spouse.'' Several others wanted dowries for their mar-
riageable daughters. That the Master of Mercies would
grant the Good Jew's prayer in their daughters' behalf was
all the more probable because in cases of this sort either
the Good Jew himself or some of his well-to-do followers
usually came to the poor man's assistance.

Yossl sat at the comer of the table watching the scene
pensively when Clara entered the room. The blood rushed
to his face as he recognised her, and he hastened to take
her out into the road.

''What are you doing in this town so long?" he then
asked, in a rage. "I thought you had left long since.
What do you want of us all? Do you want to get every-
body in trouble?"

" How will I get you in trouble? Am I the only Jew-
ish woman who has come to Zorki these few days? Have
I no right to be here like everybody else ? Besides, ifs to
bid you good-bye that I want to see you now. I am going
away."

Her few words, uttered with simple earnestness, had a
softening eflfect on him.

" You look like a good girl," he said, frowning at her

Digitized

by Google

MAKAR»S FATHER. 196

amicably. '^ Tell me frankly : are you and my son having
a love aflfair?'^

Clara coloured literally to the roots of her brown hair.
She paused to regain her self-possession and then said^
with a smile at once shamefaced and amused:

'* It is not true, Eeb Yossl. What is more, your son and
I are not even acquainted/*

"Can that be possible!'*

" Ifs the absolute truth I am telling you, Eeb Yossl.**

He shrugged his shoulder and proceeded to question her
on his son*s case, on his mode of life before he was arrested,
on the meaning of the struggle to which he had dedicated
himself.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XXII.

PBOK OELLAB TO PALAOE.

MEANWHILE Pavel, Mme. Shubeyko, Masha, MUe.
Andronoflf and her fiane6, the near-sighted judge
with the fluffy hair, went on with their plot. A
considerable sum was needed to bribe the warden, the head
keeper (a bustling little man who was known in the conspir-
acy as the Sparrow), and others. The plotters had five
thousand rubles, and in order to obtain the rest without de-
lay Pavel went so far as to take his mother into the secret.
The countess received his story with a thrill of gratitude
and of a sense of adventure. After a visit to the bank, she
handed him ten thousand rubles in crisp rainbow-coloured
one hundred ruble notes. She was pale with emotion as
she did so. Her heart was deeper in his movement than
he supposed. It was as if every barrier standing between
her and her son had been removed. She was a comrade of
his now.

" The only thing that worries me,*' she said for some-
thing to say, ^' is uncle^s visits. He has not been here for
some time, but if he comes, I shan^t be able to look him
in the face. He is a very good man at heart, Pasha.^^

''Still, you had better make no haste about trying to
convert him,'' Pavel answered, with a smile, struggling
with the pile of notes.

The bulk of the sum — eight thousand rubles — was to

196

Digitized

by Google

FROM CELLAR TO PALACE. 197

be paid by Mme. Shubeyko to the warden, half of it in ad-
vance and the other half upon the carrying out of the
project. Bodkevich pretended to receive the four thousand
rubles as a loan. He barred all frank discussion of the
scheme, hinting that he was scarcely a master in his own
prison and that all he could do was to '^overlook things
under pressure of business at times.'* As a matter of fact,
he scarcely incurred any risks.

Pavel missed Clara keenly. A feverish yearning feeling
had settled in him, often moving him to tears, but he
fought it bravely. Once or twice he went to the Beak
and indulged in a feast of self-torture, but otherwise he
worked literally day and night, seeing people, deliberating,
scheming. The only manifestation of his nervousness was
an exaggerated air of composure, and as this was lost on
his fellow plotters, nothing was farther from their thoughts
than that he experienced a sensation as though his heart
were withering within his breast and that the cause of it
was Clara Yavner.

When he received word of her return he said to himself,
in a turmoil of joy, terror and impatience, that he could
not bear it any longer and that he would tell her all the
next time they were alone.

He saw her the very next day, at the trunk shop. Both
blushed violently. The first minutes of their conversation
were punctuated with nervous pauses, like the first talk
of people who have been reconciled after a long estrange-
ment. He said to himself: "Now is the time,** and
vaguely felt confident of success, yet he was still in awe
of her and all he managed to do was to turn the conversa-
tion upon his mother.

*'I should like you to meet her,** he said. "She has
heard of you.**

Digitized

by Google

198 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

'^Your mother ?^^ she asked in shamefaced astonish-
ment.

^* She is a very good woman/' Pavel observed, gravely.
"She is in sympathy with the movement, yon know,
although it was only the other day I brought her the first
few things to read. If it isn't asking too much I should
like to introduce you to her, Clara Eodionovna. She would
be delighted/'

He paused, but she maintained her air of respectful

curiosity, so he went on. " She is very enthusiastic. She

would like to know some of the Miroslav radicals, and I

took the liberty of telling her about you. I need not tell

you that I spoke in a very, very general way about you."
« « ♦ ♦ «

One afternoon the Palace, which the trunk-dealer's
daughter had known all her life as a mysterious, awe-
inspiring world whose threshold people of her class could
never dream of crossing, the Palace threw open its impos-
ing doors to her, and she was escorted by Pavel up the
immense staircase and into the favorite room of Countess
Anna Nicolayevna VarofiE. As it was an unheard-of thing
for a Jewish girl to visit the Palace, it was agreed, as a
safeguard against the inquisitiveness of the servants, that
she should be known to them by such a typically Russian
name as Daria Ivanovna Morosoff (Morosova).

Barring the two great statues and an ancient cabinet
inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, the room was rather
below her undefined anticipations. Her preconceived no-
tion of the place soon wore ofiE, however, under a growing
sense of venerable solidity, of a quiet magnificence that
was a revelation to her.

"I'm awfully glad to know you, Clara Eodionovna,
awfully/* the countess said when the first formalities of

Digitized

by Google

FROM CELLAR TO PALACE. 199

greeting were over^ and ihey were all seated. This Jewish
girl was the first Nihilist she had ever met (indeed^ Pavel
was only ^^ Pasha ^^ after all)^ and she identified her in
her mind with every revolutionary assassination and plot
she had read about. She was flushed with excitement and
so put out that she was playing with Pavers fingers as she
spoke^ as a mother will do with those of her little boy.
As to Glara^ she had an oppressive feeling as though the
pair of big musty statues, graceful, silent, imposing, were
haughtily frowning on her presence under this roof.
Pavel seemed to be a different young man. She scarcely
seemed to be acquainted with him. Only the sight of
Anna Nicolayevna fondling his fingers warmed her heart
to both. On the other hand, her own smile won the
hostess.

The countess released PavePs hand, moved over to the
other end of the sofa and huddled herself into the comer,
thrusting out her graceful elbows and great pile of auburn
hair. The presence of Pavel kept her ill at ease. Finally
she said : *' I think you had better leave us two women to
ourselves. Pasha. We shall understand each other much
better then, won't we, Clara Eodionovna?'*

^*I hope so,*' Clara answered, awkwardly.

Pavel withdrew. In his absence their embarrassment

only increased.

« * * * «

The next time Clara and Pavel met, in the trunk-shop,
he asked her when she would call on his mother again.

^'Oh, I don't know. The point is I don't know what
to do with my hands there," she said, with a laugh. '* I
can't seem to shake off the feeling that I am in the house
of — in *the Palace,' don't you know."

It was a hot day, but the air in the basement was quite

Digitized

by Google

200 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

cooL Motl was silently painting a trunk, and Pavel was
conscious of the oppressive smell of the paint and of the
impact of the brush against the wood as he answered, with
pained stress in his voice.

" But my mother does not feel like a coimtess. She is
above and beyond all such things/^

** I know she is. Only I somehow don^t manage to feel
at home there.*^

" But if s only a matter of habit I am sure. You^ll get
over it. You won't feel that way next time. You must
promise me to call to-morrow.'^ It was as if Clara's was a
superior position in life and as if that superiority lay in
this, that her home was a squalid trunk-shop, while his was
a palace.

'^If I do, my mind will be in a whirl again,'' she
laughed.

** Oh, it isn't as bad as all that. You must promise me
to call on her."

'^ Can't we put it off — indefinitely?^'

" Clara Rodionovna ! "

His imploring voice threatened to draw from him the
great yearning plea that was waiting to be heard, but this
same entreating voice of his thrilled her so that she has-
tened to yield.

^ Yqtj well," she said.

*^Will you come? Oh, ifs so kind of you. I am ever
80 much obliged to you — but I declare I am raving like a
maniac," he interrupted himself with a queer smile that
forthwith lapsed into an expression of rage. *'What I
really want to say is that I love you."

The lines of her face hardened. Her rich complexion
burst into flame. She looked gravely at nothing, as he
proceeded:

Digitized

by Google

FROM CELLAR TO PALACE. 201

'^It seems to be as though I had felt that way ever
sinoe that Pievakin episode^ Clara Bodionovmu I owe so
much to you. If it had not been for you I mi^t still be
leading ilie life of a knave and an idiot. What you did
on that occasion served to open my eyes and showed me the
difference between light and darkness. And now it seems
to me that if you were mine, it would infuse great energy
and courage into me. I have got so used to seeing you> I
hate to think of being apart from you for a single moment.
Oh, you are so dear to me, I am so happy to sit by your
side, to be allowed to say all this to you/'

^ You are dear to me, too,'' she said in great embarrass-
ment.

He grasped her hand in silence, his face a burning
amorous red.

On their way to the Beak, after another outburst from
him, she spoke in measured accents, firm and sad, like the
voice of fate.

^^ I don't know where this will lead us, for either of us
or both may be arrested at any time, and then this happi-
ness would add so much poison to the horrors of prison
life. Besides, even if we are not arrested, as long as pres-
ent conditions prevail our love would have to remain hid-
den underground, like our dear movement ^

'* My mother will know it. I want her to know it; and
if it is possible to tell your parents, too ^*

^ Oh, it woidd kill them. Theirs is an entirely different
world."

^' Then, for the present, let them be none the wiser for
it. As to my mother, she likes you very, very much
already and when she hears of it she will love you to dis*
traction, Clara Bodionovna. My friends of the party will
know it, too2 of course, and what do we care for the rest

Digitized

by Google

202 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

of this wretched world ? But oh, I do wish you could tell
your mother, or could I speak to her ? ^^

"Oh, thafs absolutely impossible,^' she said in a voice
vibrant with a suggestion of tears and the music of love
at once. "Your mother may understand me. We can
speak in the same language at least, but my poor parents
— one might as well tell them I am dead. Well, when
the Will of the People has scored its great victory and
Eussia is free, then, if we are alive, we shall announce it
to my poor parents.^'

He picked up a stone and flung it with all his might.
He was in a fidget of suppressed exultation. Now that
his suspense was over, they changed parts, as it were.
The gnawing gloom which had tantalised him during the
past few weeks had suddenly burst forth in torrents of
sunshine; whereas in her case, the quiet light-hearted hap-
piness which had been the colour of her love had given

way to an infatuated heart filled with anguish,
♦ « ♦ ♦ ♦

He told his mother the news the very next morning.
The explanation took place in the immense ball-room. It
was a windy morning outside, and they were marching up
and down the parquette of polished light oak, arm in arm.
Presently they paused at one of the windows facing the
garden. They could faintly hear the soughing of the
wind in the trees. They stood gazing at the fluttering
leaves, when he said, musingly:

"I have something to tell you, mother. I told Mile.
Yavner I loved her and I want you to congratulate me.**

^TtfUe. Yavner? ** she asked, with a look of consternation.

"Yes, Mamma dear, I love her and she loves me and
she is the dearest woman in the world and you axe not
going to look upon it in a manner unworthy of yourself.

Digitized

by Google

FROM CELLAR TO PALACE. 203

are you^ dear little mamma mine ? '' He seized her fingers
and fell to kissing them and murmuring: ^^ My dear little
mamma, my dear little mamma/' His endearments were
too much for her.

"Pasha, Pasha! What are you doing with yourself/*
she sobbed bitterly.

"Mamma darling! Mamma darling!" he shouted
fiercely. " You are not going to give way to idiotic, brutal,
Asiatic notions that are not really yours. Another year
or two, perhaps less, and all Russia will be free from them
and from all her chains, and then one won't have to be
shocked to hear that a man and a woman who love each
other and belong to each other are going to marry.
Mamma dear, my darling little mamma! You are the
noblest woman to be found. Tou are not going to go back
on your son because he is trying to live like a real human
being and not like a hypocrite and a brute.*'

She dared not cry any more.

When Clara came, the countess, turning pale, clasped
her vehemently, as though pleading for mercy. Clara felt
bewildered and terror-stricken, and after some perfunc-
tory kisses she loosened her arms, but the Gentile
woman detained her in an impetuous embrace, as she said:
"Be good to me, both of you. He is all I have in the
world.'' As she saw an embarrassed smile on Clara's
beautifully coloured face, she bent forward with a sud-
den impulse and drew her to her bosom again, as though
she had just made the discovery that the Jewish girl was
not unlike other girls after aU, that there was nothing
preternatural about her person or speech. Whereupon
Clara kissed her passionately and burst into tears.

The countess caressed her, poured out the innermost
secrets of her heart to her. This Jewish girl whom she

Digitized

by Google

204 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED*

had only seen once before heard from her the story of
her past life, of her childhood, of her two unhappy mar-
riages, of her thirst for comradeship with her son, of her
conversion. The two women became intimate friends,
although Clara spoke comparatively little.

Nevertheless, that night Anna Nicolayevna vainly
courted sleep. Her heart was in her mouth. She wished
she could implore her son to break the engagement, to
sever connection with the movement, to abandon all his
perilous and unconventional pursuits. But she knew that
she would never have the courage to do so.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXni.

AN UNFORESEEN SUGGESTION.

PAVEUS prediction concerning Yossl came true, but
the identity of the province to which the missing
medical student belonged and the one in which the
unknown Nihilist had been arrested escaped the notice of
the secret service, and the Zorki gendarme officer contented
himself with appropriating the Paris letter. Chance, how-
ever, soon solved the riddle for the authorities : a prisoner
from Zorki, a drunkard charged with petty larceny, recog-
nised Makar in the prison yard.
It was Masha who brought the news to Pavel and Clara.
" The general of gendarmes was there, the assistant pro-
cureur, my brother and the warden,^' she said, describing
the scene when Parmet was first addressed by his name in
prison. " It was in the office. When he was brought in,
my brother says his heart — my brother^s heart, I mean —
began to beat fast. The assistant procureur offered him a
chair.'* She paused, with an appealing smile, her hand
to her bosom. " My heart, too, is beating fearfully at this
minute, as I picture the scene. I am too imaginative, I
am afraid. Well, he pulled up a chair, the assistant pro-
cureur and said: 'Be seated, Monsieur Parmet.' The
prisoner started a little, just a little, don't you know, and
then he smiled and began to rub his eyes, as if he had
just been awakened. The general got angry and said now

205

Digitized

by Google

206 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

there was no use for him to make believe and to keep his
mouth shut and the assistant procureur said very politely
he might as well tell them a little more about himself and
the people he knew in Miroslav, as they were well known
to the gendarmes anyhow. They coaxed him and coaxed
him and coaxed him until he shouted : * As to myself I have
the honour of being a member of the Party of the Will of
the People. As to those I know in Miroslav, I assure you
I don't know anybody here.' But didn't he tease them!
'I hoped to form some connections here/ he said, ^but
then you were foolish enough to arrest me without giving
me a chance. The St. Petersburg gendarmes will laugh
at you when they hear of the kind of job you have made
of it.'"

Pavel roared. He thought Makar's taunting answer
would induce the local gendarme oflSce to detain him in
the hope of discovering his prospective " connections."

^' Only why should he have said he was a member of the
Party of the Will of the People? That will aggravate his
case," Clara said.

'^ That was the dream of his life — to say that, and to
say it triumphantly, to some gendarme oflBJeers. At any
rate, we have no time to lose."

That afternoon Pavel had a talk with Makar from the
top of the hill overlooking the prison yard.

"Hurrah!" Makar's handkerchief flashed back in an-
swer to his first " hello." " They know my name. I had
some fun with them."

*' It was all right, only for the sake of everything that
is noble, don't aggravate your case. Otherwise everything
looks bright Answer no more of their questions."

'^ Crazy to wag my tongue. Have not spoken so long.
I am trying to make a convert of my guard. Pastime.^

Digitized

by Google

AN UNFORESEEN SUGGESTION. 207

^* Don't, for God's sake don% or you'll ruin it all.
Promise to keep silent. Do you? "

" Don't get angry. I can see your handkerchief gnash-
ing its teeth. Only one thing more. May I ? "

''Hurry up."

" Here, in prison I am openly a citizen of the Social

Republic, and the Czar is powerless to subdue me. I am

in a cell. What more can he do with me? But here, in

this cell, where his power is most complete, I openly defy

him, all his gendarmes and army notwithstanding."

Pavel went away, cursing and laughing.

*****

Every scheme of the conspirators turned out to be beset
with insurmountable diflBculties. Clara did not tell Pavel
all she knew and made light of those obstacles with which
he was acquainted, but in her own heart she was extremely
uneasy.

One evening Pavel sat on a bench in front of a public
house, smoking a cheap pipe. He had a loaded pistol in
his pocket and a dagger under his vest. The prison was
a short distance round the third comer. When one of the
customers of the public house seated himself by his side
Pavel engaged him in conversation, talking garrulously in
the manner of a humble, careworn government clerk.

At last a way had been found for the provision man to
take Makar out of the prison yard. This was what kept
Pavel in this out-of-the-way spot. In the near vicinity
of the inn stood a droshky. The appearance of the provi-
sion waggon, full of empty sacks and some barrels at a
comer diagonally across the street was to serve as a signal
for Pavel to walk up to a deserted ditch-bridge, where the
runaway was expected to emerge from under the sacks and
to put on a military cap. Then Makar and Boulatofl

Digitized

by Google

208 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

would gain the droshky, mount it, and be driven to the
Palace — the best hiding place one could find in all Miro-
slav.

Pavel was calm, determined, ready to shoot and to be
shot at. By degrees he grew fidgety. Presently Clara
passed along. He rose to his feet and went off in the
opposite direction, the two meeting in the next street.

'^It was a fizzle to-day, but if 11 be all right. Pasha,*'
she said in a cheery, matter-of-fact voice. "As ill luck
would have it, there were some people about.^^

PaveFs brows contracted. " He^ll try again, of course.'*

*' Certainly. He will be there in four days.'*

*^Pour days! Couldn't he make it sooner?"

*ail let you know."

*' Wait, dearest. Are you sure the people in the prison
are not getting suspicious about you?" He had asked
the question and she had answered it more than once
before.

"I don't think they are. Mme. Shubeyko and the
Sparrow are the only ones who know all about it. As to
Eodkevitch, he understands it all, of course, but he pre-
tends not to. The Sparrow has his * bosom friend ' among
the keepers, but that man does not know anything about
me. I am quite sure of it."

''The fewer who know what you are doing there the
better, of course. Don't be foolhardy, my charming one.
Oh, I do wish it was all over. Mother wants you to go to
the country with her, and I should join you two for some
time."

With a passionate handshake they parted, Clara direct-
ing her steps to the prison building. The tremulous solici-
tude of his warning, his tender concern for her safety left
a glow of happiness and devotion in her. She visioned

Digitized

by Google

AN UNFORESEEN SUGGESTION. 209

him with his pistol and dagger and her heart was crushed
witii anxiety. With his hot-blooded temerity he was apt
to act rashly, to use violence and stake his own life and
Makar's before it was necessary. PaveFs mode of taking
away the prisoner had never appealed to her strongly, and
now the idea was growing on her of stealing a march on
Pavel, of bringing about Makar's liberation when her
lover was not on hand. And the more she thought of thus
repaying his loving care for herself the keener became her
joy in the plan.

Still, the general situation looked so discouraging, that
with all her thrills of amorous delight, she was in a state
of black despair. The truth of the matter was that the
provision man, who was eager to earn a few hundred rubles
and to be plucky, had proved to be a most unreliable,
boastful coward. Clara was cudgelling her brain for some
new scheme, for some new line of action, when an impor-
tant suggestion came from an imf oreseen quarter. Mme.
Shubeyko arrived at the prison, all in a flutter with a dis-
covery : Father Michail, the prison priest, bore considerable
resemblance to Makar.

" Thaf s so, but what of it? *' Clara said between irrita-
tion and agreeable surprise.

"What of it! Why,— I have thought it all out, you
may be sure of that. It all occurred to me only an hour
ago. Even less,'' she said with that silly smile of hers
which usually so annoyed Pavel and which at this moment
exasperated Clara even more than it would her quick-tem-
pered lover.

"What did occur to you?** Clara asked, with the least
bit of venom on the " did.'*

Mme. Shubeyko started to explain, but her listener
divined the rest herself: Makar might pass out in the dis-

Digitized

by Google

210 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

guise of a priest^ while Father Michail was with ihe
prisoners.

" It's an exeeUent idea ! '' she murmured gravely. She
could scarcely bring herself to believe that the plan had
emanated from an absurd brain like that of the woman
before her.

*' Someone could detain Father Michail until it was all
safely over/* Mme. Shubeyko went on. "He's awfully
fond of card-playing, and if a pretty young lady like your-
self was his partner he would never have the heart to get
up from the table, I know he wouldn't.*'

The Sparrow, however, overruled the whole plan.
Father Michail had been connected with the prison for
twenty years and the two gatemen knew him as they did
their own wives. What was more, the day gateman and
the priest were particularly fond of each other and often
exchanged jokes.

Clara's hands dropped to her sides. Then she clenched
a fist and said: "Oh, nonsense. He'll never know. If
Father Michail did not speak to him he wouldn't think it
strange, would he?"

"No, but the gateman might speak to him. Besides,
youll have to get up early to fool him, lady." Every
oflScer in the prison building had his nickname, and this
vigilant gateman who was a very fat man was known as
Double Chin. He seemed to be dozing half the time;
but the Sparrow assured Clara that when his little eyes
were q|iut they saw even better than when they were open.

"Nonsense. Your imagination carries you too far.
Anyhow, nothing venture, nothing have. We must get
that man out."

" Beady to serve you, young lady, only if I may say so,
I don't like the plan at all, young lady."

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XXIV.

TLADIMIB FINDS HIS OAUSB.

THE next momingy as Clara walked along Easimir
Street, she saw Yolodia Vigdoroff, her cousin, talk-
ing and laughing exuberantly to two elderly men in
front of the flashy window of a drug store. One of his list-
eners wore a military uniform. It was Dr. Idpnitzky (Jew-
ish physicians had not yet been proscribed from the Bussian
army) — a grey-haired, smooth-shaven, pudgy little man
with three medals across his breast. It was at the Turkish
war that he had won these decorations. Clara could
never look at him without feeling a taste of sickness in
her mouth like the one she had felt one day shortly after
the war, when she was sick in bed and the little doctor,
bending over, shouted to her to open her mouth wider.
The best physician in town, he was the terror of his un-
educated co-religionists. When a Jewish housewife paid
him his fee in copper instead of silver, or neglected to wrap
it up in paper, he would make an ugly scene, asking the
poor woman at the top of his voice when she and others
like her would learn to live like human beings. Some-
times, when a family failed to pay him altogether, plead-
ing poverty, he would call them a lot of prevaricating
knaves with a snug little hoard in the old woman's stocking,
and carry off a copper pan or brass candlestick. In every
case of this sort, however, the pan or the brass candlestick

211

Digitized

by Google

212 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

was sure to come back, sometimes with a ruble or two into
the bargain.

The other man to whom Vigdoroff was speaking was
Paul Zundel, the musical autocrat of the province. He
was as small of stature and as irascible as Dr. Idpnitzky —
a grey-haired dandy with a Mexican complexion and a pair
of long black side whiskers tipped with white. He was a
graduate of a Gterman conservatory and spoke several lan-
guages with illiterate fluency.

They were both bachelors and both were frequent visitors
at the governor's house, where they were liked as much
for the money they usually lost in cards (although in other
houses they were known as sharp players) as for their
professional services. They spent large sums on the edu-
cation of Jewish children and were particularly interested
in the spread of modem culture among their people. In
other words, they advocated and worked for the assimila-
tion of their people with the " deep-rooted '' population.
When a Talmud boy was ambitious to give up his divine
studies for ^'Grentile books'^ and his old-fashioned garb
for a gymnasium uniform, the two eccentric bachelors were
his two stars of hope.

Vigdoroff overtook Clara as she turned the next comer.
They had not met since the night when they quarrelled in
front of Boyko's court.

" I didn't see you until I happened to tum round,*' he
said.

^ He is trying to prove that he is not afraid of being
seen in my company,'' she thought to herself, as she said
aloud : " I saw you talking to Dr. Lipnitzky and Zundel."

They walked in silence a few steps. Then he uttered
with a smile:

'' Have you taken a vow to give us a wide berth ? "

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 213

''NotataU/'

*' Father and mother are always at me for it. They
think I am to blame for your sudden estrangement/^

"Nobody is to blame, and there is no estrangement
Why use such words ?'^

"Is it only a matter of words? They are accustomed
to look upon you and me as brother and sister. Do you
deny that our roads have parted ?^^

"If they have, then, what need is there of writing at
the bottom of the picture: ^This is a lion?^^' she asked
testily. " If if s a lion it^s a lion.^*

"Would it be better to shut one^s eyes to the truth?
As for me, common ordinary mortal that I am, I try to
call a spade a spade.''

He spoke with venom, but it was all perfunctory and
they were both aware of it. Then he described, with
exaggerated ardour, the successes achieved by the Pupils'
Aid Society in which he was now actively interested.

Since their talk on the bench in front of Boyko's Court
he had been longing for some himianitarian cause, for one
unassociated with the hazards of the revolutionary move-
ment. He would prove to Clara that he was no inferior
creature. Her taunt that he had seized upon the Jewish
question, in the course of their debate, merely as a drown-
ing man seizes at a straw, and the implication that no
phase of the problem of human suffering made the slightest
appeal to him had left a cruel sting in his heart. Since
then his thoughts had often turned upon the Jewish ques-
tion, until he found his "cause" in the dissemination
of Kussian culture among his people. Formerly he had
been contented with being "assimilated" himself. Now
he was going to dedicate his best energies to the work
of lessening that distance between Jew and Gentile, which

Digitized

by Google

214 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

was, so he argued, the source of all the woes of his race.
As good luck would have it, there was such a thing as dif-
ference of opinion. " It is not anxiety about my ' precious
skin,'^* he would picture himself saying to Clara, **that
keeps me from reading underground prints. Did I be-
lieve in them I should do as you do. But if you think
I live for myself only you don't know me. I have another
cause, one to which my convictions call me and to which I
am going to give all tiiat is in me.^'

''And you?'* he asked. ^' Still planting a paradise on
earth?''

She smiled.

''Well, as for me, I content myself with working on
such a humble beginning as a little bridge across the gap
between Jew and Gentile."

He consciously led the way past a Gentile of enormous
bulk, who stood in the doorway of a furrier's shop. It
was Easgadayeflf, the landlord of the Vigdoroflfs' residence,
he himself occupying the inner building on the same court-
yard. He was a wealthy merchant with the figure of a
barrel and arms that looked as though they had been
hung up to dry, an impetuous Great-Eussian, illiterate
and good-hearted, shrewd in making money, but with no
sense of its value when it came to spending it. Every
other week he went off on a hideous spree, and then, be-
sides smashing costly mirrors, which is the classical sport
of the drunken Great-Eussian merchant, he would indulge
in such pastimes as offering a prize to every ten-year-old
boy who would drain a tumbler of vodka, setting fire
to live horses or wrecking the furniture in his own
house. On such days his wife often sought shelter
with the Vigdoroflfs for fear of being beaten to death.
Until a few years ago he had stood at the head of the fur

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 215

trade. Since then a Jewish dealer, who went off on no
sprees, had been a formidable competitor to him. Basga-
dayeff now hated Jews in general as he had never done
before. The Vigdoroffs were an exception. He was sin-
cerely fond of the whole family, and entrusted the old man
with some of his most important business secrets.

*^ Our humblest regards to Clara Bodionovna! '^ he said,
with gay suavity, taking off his hat. '^ As also to Vladi-
mir Alexandrovich 1 ''

They returned the salute, and were about to pass on,
but he checked them.

" A* rose of a girl, I tell you that,^' he went on, address-
ing himself to Vladimir, while he looked at the girl with
rather offensive admiration. " Yoimg men are fools now-
adays. If I were one of them I should take no chances
with a lassie like that. A plum, a bouquet, a song-bird of
a mademoiselle. I should propose and get her and waste
no time, or — one, two, three, and the lovey-dovey may
be snapped up by some other fellow.''

Clara, who was accustomed to this sort of pleasantry
from him, scarcely heard what he said. She was smilingly
making ready to bow herself away, when her cousin asked
of the Great-Eussian :

"And how is her lUustriousness? Have you seen her
lately?''

*^ She was here yesterday. Quite stuck on you, Vladi-
mir Alexandrovich. Sends humblest regards. 'When is
your learned yoimg friend going to call,' she says. " You
have a sage of a cousin, Clara Bodionovna, an eagle of a
fellow, a cabinet minister ! "

" All right," Vladimir returned, with an amused smile,
yet reddening with satisfaction.

Clara remarked to herself that her cousin was flaunting

Digitized

by Google

216 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

his successes with Gentiles before her. When they re-
sumed their walk she inquired reluctantly:

*'Who is 'her Illustriousness' ?''

'*0h, thafs that lame tramp of a woman^ Princess
Chertogoff/' he rejoined, with gestures of contempt and
amusement, yet inwardly tingling with vaniiy at his ac-
quaintance with her impecunious *' Illustriousness/' The
wealthy Great-Bussian was a large holder of Princess
ChertogofFs promissory notes, and it was at his house
where Vladimir had met her on several occasions. The
lame noblewoman knew that Basgadayeff was fond of the
Vigdoroflfs. When she saw the young man last she had,
by way of currying favour with her creditor, asked the
educated son of his *' favourite Jew ** to call on her when-
ever he was in the mood for it, and to '* let her hear what
was going on among wise men and authors/'

Vladimir and Clara passed on. He spoke of Basga-
dayefiPs latest escapades and Clara listened with little
bursts of merriment^ but their voices did not ring true.
Presently they exchanged greetings with Ginsburg, the no-
torious money-lender of Miroslav, a small, red-headed man
with crumpled cheeks and big bulging eyes.

''Here is another treat for you!*' Vladimir said, in
high spirits. "Another specimen of moral perfection.
Some gigantic hand must have grabbed him by the head,
squeezing it like a paper ball till the eyes started from
their sockets, and then thrown him into a waste basket.
Thaf 8 the way he looks.*' She smiled awkwardly.

He then called her attention to two bewigged old wo-
men, both of them apparently deaf, who were talking
into each other's ear, and then to the picturesque figure
of a dumpy little shoemaker with a new, carefully-shined
pair of topboots in his hand. Clara had never been inter-

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 317

ested in things of this sort^ but this time^ in her eager*
ness to get away^ added to a growing sense of awkward-
ness^ his observations literally grated on her nerves. At
last, when they reached a crossing, she stopped;^ patting
out her hand.

'^ Somebody is waiting for me/' die said. *^ Bemember
me to uncle and aunt, will you? '^

"I will. Won't you look in at all?*' As she turned
to take the side street, he added : ^* Our roads do part^
then.''

Her appointment was with Orlovsky. She had not at-
tended the gatherings of the Circle at his house for a con-
siderable time. He conjectured that she was engaged in
some revolutionary undertaking of importance. He had
missed her so abjectly that he had finally decided to avow
his love. This was what he had made the appointment
for. When she came, however, he cowed before her rich
complexion and intelligent eyes and talked of the affairs
of the Circle. A similar attempt at a love declaration
was made that evening by Elkin, with similar results. By
way of opening the conversation he indulged in a series
of virulent taunts upon her long absence and the great
revolutionary secrets that he said were written on her
face, after which his efforts to turn the conversation into
romantic channels proved futile. He came away agonised
with jealousy. He was jealous of the girl and he was
jealous of the mysterious conspiracy in which she seemed
to be engaged and into which he, her revolutionary sponsor,

had not been initiated.

* * * * ♦

As to Vigdoroff, he was seized with a desire to avail
himself of Princess Chertogoff's invitation, not merely to
gratify his personal ambition, but also, so he assured him-

Digitized

by Google

218 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

self, as part of his " cause/^ On his way thither he paused
once or twice in front of shop windows to ascertain whether
his face was not strikingly Semitic. " Not offensively so,
anyhow/* he concluded before a mirror at the entrance to a
furniture store. The mirror reflected a well-made, ath-
letic-looking young man one could have told for a college
man through a veil. The picturesque irregularity of his
features, somewhat flat in the middle of the f ace^ drew an
image of culture, of intellectual interest. He felt on his
mettle. He would make a favourable impression, and that
impression was to be another step across the distance not
only between G^entile society and himself, but between all
Jews and all Gtentiles. His visit to the noblewoman was
a mission. He was in an exalted mood.

At the house of Princess ChertogoflE he found a cavalry
officer and an officer of the imperial guards. He was re-
ceived with patronising urbanity. The hostess introduced
the two yoimg officers as her sons, come from St. Peters-
burg to take a glimpse at their old mother, and Vigdoroff
as "one of the brilliant yoimg intellects of our town.'*
This was her excuse before her sons for having invited a
Jew to the house and VigdoroflP was not unaware of it. The
cavalryman's face was round and stem, while his brother's
was oblong and smiling. When they were drunk, which
happened quite often, their faces would swap expressions.
It was chiefly owing to their expensive escapades that
their mother's fortune had passed into the coffers of usur-
ers. The two imiformed men left almost immediately,
pleading a pressing engagement.

The welcome Vladimir found at this house was one ex-
tended by a patroness of the fine arts to a devotee of let-
ters. It was not long before Vigdoroff found himself
fully launched on a favourite subject. Russia's supremacy

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 219

in modem literature and her false modesiy became clearer
to him with every new work of fiction that came from the
foreign masters. The best models of the (Jerman^ French
or English novel were tainted with artificialily. Bussia
alone produced stories that were absolutely free from
powder and rouge. He dwelt on Zola's L'Assomoir and
Daudef s Nabob, both of which had appeared a short time
before^ and each of which was looked upon as its author's
masterpiece. He saw that his hostess neither understood
nor cared for these things; that he was making a fool of
himself; yet, being too ill at ease to stop, he went sliding
down hill. He spoke by heart as it were, the sound of his
own voice increasing his embarrassment.

The princess was listening with an air of pompous
assent, barely following the general drift of his talk. Her
majestic crutches terrified him.

A man servant brought in a silver samovar and a tray
of Little-Eussian cookies. As Vigdoroflf took up his glass
of tea the princess said :

" I did not know you were so much of a Bussian patriot.
Quite an unusual thing in an educated young man these
days. I certainly agree with you that Turgeneflf is a good
writer. He is perfectly charming."

Later on she asked, with lazy curiosity and in her pam-
pered enunciation:

"Do you really think our novelists greater than the
great writers of France?"

*' I certainly do."

" That's interesting," she said, preparing to get rid of
him.

" You see, the average Bussian represents a remarkable
duality. He is simple-hearted and frank, like a child, yet
he is possessed of an intuitive sense of human nature that

Digitized

by Google

220 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

would be considered marvellous in a sage. In addition,
he is the most soulful fellow in the world, and to turn his
soul inside out, to himself as well as to others, is one of
his ruling passions. That accounts for the inimitable
naturalness and the ardent human interest of our litera-
ture, whether Russia knows how to construct machinery or
not, she certainly knows how to write/'

"You do love Russia, and literature, too*' — yawning
demonstratively. "I had an idea Hebrews were only in-
terested in money matters/^ She smiled, an embarrassed
smile in which there was as much malice as apology, and
dismissed him quite unceremoniously.

He got into the street with his face on fire. It was
as if he had been subjected to some brutal physical indig-
nities. " ' I didn^t know you were so much of a Russian
patriot,' '* he recalled in his agony. " Of course, I'm only
a Jew, not a Russian. It mskea no difference how many
centuries my people have lived and suffered here. And I,
idiot that I am, make a display of my love for Gogol, Tur-
geneff, Dostoyevski, as if I, ' a mere Jew,' had a right to
them I She must have thought it was all affectation, Jew-
ish cunning. As if a Jew could care for anything but
' money matters.' The idea of one of my race caring for
books, and for Gentile books, too ! "

He was as innocent of the world of money as was Clara's
father. As to the great Russian writers, they were not
merely favourite authors with him. They were saints, apos-
tles, of a religion of which he was a fervent devotee. This,
in fact, was tiie real " cause " which he had mutely served
for the past six or seven years. Their images, the swing
and rhythm of their sentences, the flavour of their style,
the odour of the pages as he had first read them — all this
was a sanctuary to him. Yet he had always felt as if he

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 221

had no right to this devotion^ as if he were an intruder.
This was the unspoken tragedy of his life.

Since a boy of ten^ when he entered the gymnasiiim^ he
had been crying out to Bussia^ his country, to recognise
a child in him — not a step-child merely. And just be-
cause he was looked upon as a step-child he loved his native
land even more passionately than did his fellow-country-
men of Slavic blood.

*****

Alexander, or Sender, Vigdoroflf, Vladimir's father, was
known among his co-religionists as Sender the Arbitrator.
His chief source of income was petition-writing and sun-
dry legal business, but the Jews of Miroslav often sub-
mitted their differences to him. These he settled by the
force of an imperturbable and magnetic disposition rather
than through any special gift of judgment and insight.
He was full of anecdotes and inaggressive humour. It was
said of him that people who came to his house obdurate
and bitter *' melted like wax '* in his sunny presence. As
a rule, indeed, it was the contending parties themselves
who then found a way to an amicable solution of the point
at issue, but the credit for it was invariably given to
Sender the Arbitrator, and his reputation for wisdom
brought him some Qentile patrons in addition to his Jew-
ish clientele. His iron safe always contained large sums
in cash or valuables entrusted to him by others. When a
young couple were engaged to be married the girl's mar-
riage-portion was usually deposited with Sender the
Arbitrator. When securi^ was agreed upon in connec-
tion with some contract the sum was placed in the hands
of Sender the Arbitrator.

His stalwart figure, blond, curling locks and toothless
smile; his frilled shirt-front^ everlasting brown frock-coat

Digitized

by Google

222 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

and huge meerschaum cigar-holder — all this was as fa-
miliar to the Jews of Miroslav as the public buildings of
their town. The business of petition-writing was grad-
ually passing into the hands of younger and better edu-
cated men, graduated lawyers regularly admitted to the
bar, and his income was dwindling. "I could arbitrate
any misunderstanding imder the sun except the one be-
tween Luck and myself/' he used to say, smiling tooth-
lessly. Still, he made a comfortable income, and money
was spent freely not only on his household but on all sorts
of hangers-on. Vladimir^s education cost him more than
his means warranted. Besides keeping him at the
gymnasium and then at the university he had hired
him private teachers of French, (Jerman and music.
''There are a thousand Gentiles to every Jew,'* was one
of his sayings. "That's why every Jew should possess
as much intelligence as a thousand (Jentiles. Else we
shall be crushed." He was something like a connecting
link between the old world and the new. He had a large
library, mostly made up of .German and Hebrew books.
His house was the haunt of ''men of wisdom," that is,
people who wrote or thought upon modem topics in the
language of Isaiah and Jeremiah, free-thinkers whose
source of inspiration were atheistic ideas expounded in
the Holy Tongue ; yet on Saturday nights his neighbours
would gather in his drawing room to discuss foreign poli-
tics and to chant psalms in the dark. He had the head of
an agnostic and the heart of an orthodox Jew.

It was late in the afternoon when Vladimir reached
home. His father was in the library, which was also his
office, conversing with his copyist — a dapper little man
whom his employer described as " an artistic penman and
an artistic fool." The windows were open. The room

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 223

was filled with twilight and with warm air that seemed to
be growing softer and more genial every minute.

**Is that you, Volodia? '* the old man asked.

Volodia only nodded. It was easy to see that he was
dejected. His father became interested and dismissed the
clerk.

*' Anything the matter, Volodia?'* he asked.

" Nothing is the matter/' An answer of this sort usu-
ally indicated that the young man was burning to unbosom
himself of something or other and that he needed some
coaxing to do so. Intellectually the mutual relations of
father and son were of a rather peculiar nature. Each
looked up to the other and courted his approbation without
the other being aware of it. Their discussions often had
the character of an epigram-match.

When Volodia had told his father of his experience at
the house of the lame princess, the old man said :

''I see you are quite excited over it. As for me, that
penniless spendthrift reminds me of the pig that mistook
the nobleman's backyard for the interior of his mansion.
The backyard was all the pig had seen of the place, and
money-lenders are the only kind of Jews that lame drone
has ever had an occasion to know. That she should mis-
take a handful of usurers for the whole Jewish people is
the most natural thing in the world."

*' Oh, but they are all like that, father. Unfortunately
the Jewish people are just the opposite of women in this
respect. Women have a knack of flaunting all that is pre-
possessing and of concealing that which is unattractive
in them. If the (Jentiles see none but the worst Jews there
are we have ourselves to blame."

*' But they don't care to see any other Jews. As a rule,
the good Jew has no money to lend. They have no use

Digitized

by Google

224 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

for him. More than half of our people are hard-working
mechanics on the verge of starvation. Do yon expect an
ornament like your Princess ChertogofE and her precious
sons to make their acquaintance? Of the rest the great
majority are starving tradesmen, teachers, Talmudists,
dreamers. Would you have a Gentile reprobate go to tiiese
for a loan ? ^^

Vladimir sat silent awhile, gazing through the open win-
dow at the thickening dusk. Then he said, listlessly at
first, but gathering ardour from the relish he took in his
own point:

^'You are as unjust to the good Gentiles as they are
to the good Jews. What is needed is more understanding
between the two. If the dreamers and scholars you refer
to could speak Eussian and looked less antediluvian than
they do the prejudice that every Jew is a money-lender
would gradually disappear. As it is, Jew and Gentile
are like two apples that come in mutual contact at a point
where they are both rotten.'*

" The Jewish apple was originally sound, Volodia. It's
through association with their Gentile neighbours that they
have been demoralised — at the point of contact our faults
are theirs; our virtues are our own.''

** Oh, this is a very one-sided view to take of it, father,"
Volodia rejoined, resentfully. What he coveted was con-
solation, not an attack on everything that he held dear,
that was the soul of his best years and ambitions. His
father's light-hearted derision of the entire Eussian people
irritated him. " If some Jews become demoralised through
contact with Gtentile knaves, other Jews are uplifted, en-
nobled, sanctified by coming under the infiuence of the
great Eussian thinkers, poets, friends of the people," he
went on, emphasising his words with something like a

Digitized

by Google

VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. 226

feeling of spite. *' Yours is an extremely one-eided view
to take^ father/'

The elder VigdorofiE was cowed. He felt himself con-
Ticted of narrow-mindedness^ of retrogression^ of f ogyism,
and by way of disproving the charge he put up a defence
that was disguised in the form of an attack. Vladimir
replied bitterly, venting his misery on his father. The
two found themselves on the verge of one of those feuds
which sometimes divided them for days without either
having the courage to take the first step toward a reconcil-
iation, but their discussion was broken by the appearance
of a servant carrying a lamp. She was followed by Vladi-
mir's mother, a mountain of shapeless, trembling flesh with
a torpid, wide-eyed look. In the yellow light the family
likeness between father and son came pleasingly into view.
Only the face of the one had a touch of oriental quaintness
in it, while the other's was at once mellowed and intensi-
fied by the tinge of modem culture. Clara's mother was
a sister of the elder Vigdoroff, but she resembled him
only slightly. The girl's features suggested her uncle far
more than they did her mother.

" Never mind the lamp," the Arbitrator said somewhat
irately.

"Never mind the lamp!" his wife said, fixing her
torpid eyes on him. "Are you crazy? Don't mind
him" — to the servant girl. The servant girl set the
lamp down on the table and withdrew, her big fleshy mis-
tress taking a seat by her son's side.

"Go about your business," her husband said, good-
naturedly. "You are disturbing our discussion. I was
just getting started when you came in and spoiled the job.
Gk>. There may be some beggar-woman waiting for you in
the kitchen."

Digitized

by Google

226 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

She made a mocking gesture without stirrings and her
husband resumed his argument.

She was one of a very small number of Jewish women
who attended divine serrice on week-days. She was the
game of every woman pedlar and beggar in town, with
whom she usually communed when her husband was out.
When not thus occupied^ buying useless bargains or listen-
ing to some poor woman's tale of woe, she would spend
much of her time in her big easy chair^ dozing over a
portly psalter. Her husband was perpetually quizzing her
on her piety and her surreptitious bargains. On Fridays,
when Jbeggars came in troops for their pennies, the Arbi-
trator would sometimes divert himself by encouraging
some of them to fall into line more than once.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXV.

OLABA BBOOMES '^ILLBQAL.^

LATE the next afternoon Mme. Shubejko called at the
warden's house with a blue silk handkerchief round
her face^ apparently suffering from a swollen cheek
or toothache.

An hour or more later, while she and Bodkevich were
absorbed in a game of cards in the parlour and a solitary
star shone out of the semi-obscurity of a colorless sky,
Makar, clean-shaven and clad as a woman, with a blue hand-
kerchief round his face, advanced toward the gate. Clara
stood in the doorway of the warden's oflBce, watching the
scene. *' Double Chin,*' the gateman, was still on duty,
and as the disguised prisoner approached him the imper-
sonation struck her as absurdly defective. Another second
and all would be lost with a crash. Her heart stood still.
She shut her eyes with a sick feeling, but the next instant
she sprang forward, bonnetless, addressing Makar by Mme.
Shubeyko's name.

" You must not forget to let us know, dear,'' she said
aloud, placing herself between him and the gateman and
shutting the disguised man from view. ^ A swollen gum
is a dangerous thing to neglect, you know. Yes, figs and
milk, m see you down the road, dear."

The heavy key groaned in the lock, the ponderous gate
swung open and Makar and Clara walked out into the twi-

227

Digitized

by Google

228 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

light of the street — he with a rush of joy, she in a tur-
moil of triumph and despair. It seemed as if he had
never vividly hoped to see liberty, and now, suddenly, he
had found himself breathing the very breath of it; while
she who, a minute ago, could have walked freely through
the streets, was now the quarry of that terrible force called
government.

As soon as they reached the ditch, a short distance from
the prison building, Makar pulled ofiE his feminine attire,
threw it under the little foot-bridge, and put on a govern-
ment oflBciaPs cap. Masha, the gendarme officer^s sister,
was to await him round the comer; her house was within
easy reach from here, and Makar was to be taken there
to change his disguise and then to be driven to tiie Palace;
but it had all come about much sooner than they had
expected, and she had not yet arrived.

" Never mind. Hire a cab to Cucumber Market,^' Clara
said. ''There you can cross some streets in the opposite
direction and then take another cab direct for Theatre
Square. A very short walk will bring you to the Palace.
Don't forget the names: First Cucumber Market and
then Theatre Square,*' she repeated, coolly.

He nodded with a reassuring smile, shook her hand

warmly, and they parted.

*****

Double Chin was soon to be relieved. Had he left his
post before the guards missed Makar, the connection exist-
ing between Mme. Shubeyko's toothache and Makar's es-
cape would never have been discovered, and Clara would
have come out uncompromised. But Clara was too slow
in returning, and the fat gateman was an impressionable,
suspicious man, so he presently made inquiry. He found
that Mme. Shubeyko was still in the warden's parlour.

Digitized

by Google

CLARA BECOMES " ILLEGAL." 229

nursing her cheek with one hand and holding her cards
with the other.

In the commotion that followed the discovery Eodke-
vich wept hysterically and beat the gateman, while Mme.
Shubeyko went about invoking imprecations upon the sly
prisoner for stealing her new spring cloak, bonnet and
parasol.

Meanwhile Clara stood at a point of vantage, watching
developments. Had Double Chin left the building at the
usual hour, without the prison betraying any signs of dis-
quiet, she would have returned to her room in the warden's
house at once, and thus saved her legal existence. Other-
wise she would have been forced to escape and join the
army of the " ne-legalny '* (illegal), of political outlaws
like the majority of Pavel's intimate friends in St. Peters-
burg. About twenty minutes had elapsed from the time
she had parted from Makar, when she saw human figures
burst from the prison-gate, accompanied by the violent
trill of a police whistle. Her heart sank at the sound.
Prom this minute on Miroslav would be forbidden ground
to her. A neAegalny is something neither dead nor alive,
the everlasting prey of gendarmes, policemen, spies — of
the Czar himself, it seemed; a ^'cut-oflf slice;'' an outcast
without the right of being either an outcast or a member
of the commxmity, a creature without name, home or iden-
tity. She was appallingly forbidding to herself. But
then in the underground world ne-legainy is a title of
indescribable distinction, and at this moment Clara seemed
to feel in her own person the sanctity which she had been
wont to associate with the word.

By ridding herself of her starched collar and ribbon and
hastily rearranging her hair into a coarse, dishevelled knot
she was sufficiently transformed to look like a young wom-

Digitized

by Google

230 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

an of the masses to strangers. She could not go to the
Palace without a hat, however, and buying one at this
hour would have attracted undesirable attention. So she
first went to the house of Beile, her uneducated sister.
Her f ather^s address or full name being unknown at the
prison, it would be some time before the police came to
look for her at her sister^s.

Beile was a little woman of thirty with glowing dark
eyes and a great capacity for tears and nagging. She
resembled her parents neither in looks nor in character,
and her mother often wondered "whence she came into
the f amily.^^ Her husband, a man learned in the Talmud,
was absorbed day and night in an effort to build up a small
business in hides. As a consequence, the space imder
Belle's bed was usually occupied with raw skins and the
two-room apartment which they shared with a tailor was
never free from odours of putrefaction.

Clara entered the room with a smile. The first thing
she did was to kiss and slap Rachele, her sister's little girl,
and to tickle her baby brother under the chin.

"Why, where is your hat?'' Beile screamed in amaze-
ment.

Her own hat was a matronly bonnet which she never
wore except on Saturdays, when she would put it on over
her wig, tying its two long, broad ribbons under her chin.

" It blew off into the river as I was crossing the bridge,"
Clara replied. "Thafs what brings me here. I want
you to get me a hat, Beile, but you must do it quickly."

"Are you crazy? Whatever is the matter with you,
Clara? .Whoever heard of a girl taking so little care of her
hat that it should drop into the water? You don't think
you are a daughter of Rothschild, do you? Did you
ever ! "

Digitized

by Google

CLARA BECOMES '' ILLEGAL/' 231

''Thafs all right, Beile. We'll talk it all over some
other time. Every minute is of great value to me.^'

Beile thought her sister was in a hurry to attend a les-
son, so she started. As she reached the door, with the
baby in her arms, she couldn't help facing about again.

*' Didn't you go down the bank to look for it?*' she
asked.

^'But I am telling you I have not a moment's time
now."

The more irritation she betrayed, the more the other
was tempted to nag her.

"But somebody must have picked it up. It cost you
five rubles and you've not worn it ten times."

" Beile I Beile I " Clara groaned.

*' Tell me where it is. I'll go and look for it myself.
Maybe it is not yet too late. Lord of the World, five
rubles!"

Clara was left with Bachele, but she changed her mind.

" I think I'll wait at Motl's house," she said, overtaking
her sister, with the child by her side. **It's nearer to
my lesson."

Motl, the trunk-finisher employed by their mother,
lived a considerable distance from here. Beile gave her
a look full of amazement and dawning intelligence.

" At Motl's ! " she whispered, sizing up Clara's dishev-
elled appearance. "Where is your collar? A rend into
my heart! What have you been doing to yourself? Any-
how, go to Motl's. Or, no, go to Feige's. Thaf s much
better. Ill bring you a hat in ten minutes." Feige was

a poor old relative of Belle's by marriage.

*****

When Clara, in a large shepherdess hat and genteel
looking, bade her sister a hurried bood-bye and made for

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the open gate, Eachele ran after her, yelling so that her
mother had to catch her in her arms and carry her gagged
indoors. That was the only adventure Clara encountered
on her way to the Palace.

Makar^ was not there.

She told Pavel of the rescue in general outline, explain-
ing that an unexpected opportunity had presented itself
and that there had been no time for sending word to him.
He flew into a rage. So far from being the central figure
in the affair for which he had been priming himself these
many weeks he had been left out of it altogether, left out
like a ninny caught napping. But this was no time for
wounded pride. Clara had unexpectedly become a ne-
legalny and — what was of more immediate concern —
what had become of Makar?

** I hope he was not taken in the street,** he whispered.

'' Masha might know. Could you send Onuf ri ? **

Pavel disliked to use the old hussar for errands of this
nature, but in the present juncture there seemed to be no
way out of it.

Onuf ri brought back a note in which the words were all
but leaping with excitement.

'^Nol No! No!** Masha wrote. "He has not been
caught. My brother has not yet been home. Everybody
is nearly crazy ! But I can almost see my brother chuck-
ling — in his heart of course ! Hurrah 1 Hurrah I Long
live the revolution ! '*

" Thank God ! ** said Clara, shutting her eyes, in a daze
of relief.

" He's a trump, after all. If they haven't caught him
so far I don't see why he should be caught now. He may
come in at any moment. But where can he be ? "

The next morning, at about ten o'clock, when the conn-

Digitized

by Google

CLARA BECOMES " ILLEGAL." 238

iess heard the doorbell she declared, with intense agitation,
that something told her it was the governor, and so it was.
Clara went into her room.

** Don't leave me for a moment, Pasha,'* Anna Nicolay-
evna entreated her son. ^^ I am afraid to face him alone.
I should be sure to put my foot in it, if I did.**

" Just leave uncle to me,'' said Pavel.

The old man looked wan and haggard, and was blinking
harder than ever. He began by joking Pasha on the rarity
of his visits at the gubernatorial mansion, but the young
man cut him short.

*' By the way, uncle, is it true that that fellow, the Nihi-
list, has escaped?" he asked.

"How did it reach you so soon?*' the governor asked.
*'The town must be full of it."

"I heard it from a cab-driver last night. It's awful.
But how did he get out? Say what you will, they are a
clever set, those Nihilists."

"Clever nothing! . Our gendarmes are the most stupid
lot on God's earth. That's where the trouble comes in.
There was a governess at the warden's house. It was she
who seems to have managed the whole aflPair. Of course,
the warden is a scoundrel, but what does he know of these
things? Ifs for the gendarme oflSce to scent a bird of
that variety, but then the gendarme oflBce is made up of
rogues and blockheads. To clip one's wings thaf s all
they are good for. Wherever one turns, he bumps his head
against the ' independent power * of the gendarmerie. It's
a government within a government, thaf s what it is.
Else one would be able to show St. Petersburg that Miro-
slav was not the kind of place for Nihilists and all sorts
of ragamuffins to play the mischief with. Those swaggering
gendarmes go around poking their noses everywhere, smell-

Digitized

by Google

234 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ing nothing but their own grand epaulets, and yet they are
beyond the control of civil authorities. The consequence
is that when something happens somebody else is held re-
sponsible, because the prisons, forsooth, are under the De-
partment of the Interior ! To set an example of idleness
and stupidity is all they seem to be needed for, the gen-
darmes; thafs all, that's all/'

Pavel agreed with him.

♦ ♦ ♦ « ♦

Another week passed. The police and the gendarmes
were still searching for Makar and the governess, as much
in the dark as ever.

Yossl Farmet, Makar's father, was brought to Miroslav
a prisoner, but he was soon discharged. He was proud
of his son. He now fully realised that his Feivish be-
longed to a secret society made up of educated people who
preached economic equality and imiversal brotherhood as
well as political liberty, and that they were ready to go to
prison for their ideas. This made a strong appeal
to his imagination and sympathies, and the fact that his
Feivish had outwitted the authorities and escaped from
prison inclined him to shouts of triumphant laughter. He
searched the Talmud for similar sentiments, and he found
no stint of passages which lent themselves to favourable
interpretation. A new vista of thought and feeling had
opened itself to Yossl.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXVI.

OK 8A0BED QBOUND.

IN 1648^ when Chmyelnicki's Cossacks slaughtered 40^000
Jews, Miroslav was among the cities that fell into their
blood-dripping hands. It was a small town then;
the Jewish population did not exceed four hundred, but
these unanimously decided to be slain rather than abandon
their faith. Not a man, woman or child was spared. The
scene of the slaughter, a small square in the vicinity of
Cucumber Market, is sacred ground to the Jews of Miro-
slav. The Bloody Spot they call it reverently. A syna-
gogue stands there and ten recluses find shelter under its
roof, so that the Word of God may be heard with imbroken
continuity within its walls. If this house of prayer and
divine study were to fall silent for a single minute, say the
children of the town, the blood of the slain Jews would
burst into a roar of sobbing that could be heard for seven
miles.

But the ten recluses were not the only Talmudists in
the place. The Old Synagogue, as it was generally called,
was the favourite haunt of scholars. It was here where
Eabbi Bachmiel, Clara's father, spent every day and even-
ing in the week except Saturdays and holidays.

It was about eight o'clock of a warm evening, several
days after the disappearance of the political prisoner.
The Old Synagogue was filled with people. The evening

285

Digitized

by Google

236 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

service was over. Candles flickered on gaunt, tallow-
stained reading-desks and blazing oil-lamps dangled from
the ceiling. The recluses were freely gossiping or snooz-
ing; there were so many others to do the holy work — a
medley of voices and melodies — from the enthusiastic so-
prano of the schoolboy to the dignified drone of the
elderly merchant; from the conscious, over-elaborate in-
tonation of the newly-married young man to the absorbed
murmur of the tattered old scholar. As to the Talmudists
themselves, they found stimulating harmony in this chaos.
To them it was as if the synagogue itself were singing in
a hundred voices, an inspired choir that quickened one's
intellectual passions and poured fire into one's gesticula-
tions.

One of the younger men in the crowd was Makar.
Seated in a snug comer, with his reading-desk tilted
against his breast, he was sincerely absorbed in a passage
on the slaying of cattle. The treatise is one of the most
intricate in the Talmud, and he had taken it up as he
might a game of chess. The lower part of his face was
buried in the sloping surface of a huge long book, the
handle of a tin candlestick hooked to the top of the folio.
The flame of a guttering candle threw a stream of light
upon his dusky high forehead and heavy black eyebrows.
Slightly rocking the desk, he intoned the Chaldaic text
and the Yiddish interpretations, listening to his own sing-
song as one listens, at some distance, to a familiar voice.

Rabbi Rachmiel, Clara's father, was studying quietly in
a comer, in peaceful ignorance of the mad hunt that was
going on for his daughter at this moment. That this red-
bearded little man was the father of the Nihilist girl who
had brought about his escape Makar had not the least idea.
After bidding Clara good-bye on the evening of his res-

Digitized

by Google

ON SACRED GROUND. 287

cue^ he had taken the first cab he came across^ getting off
at Cucumber Market^ as directed. After zig-zagging about
for five minutes^ he was going to hail another cab^ but
checked himself because the man proved to be the same
who had brought him to Cucumber Market. A boy stopped
to look at him, whereupon he made up his mind that the
oflBcial cap which he wore (and which had been expected
to give him the appearance of a teacher in a government
school for Jews) scarcely went well with his face, and
that it must be this cap of his which had attracted the
boy's attention. He therefore went to a capmaker's shop
and bought an ordinary cap, such as is worn by the aver-
age old-fashioned Jew, explaining to the artisan that it
was for his father, who had his size. This part of the
town he knew well, for it was in the centre of the Jewish
quarter, not many minutes' walk from his former lodgings.
The Old Synagogue was in the same neighbourhood, and
it flashed upon him to seek temporary refuge in the cele-
brated house of worship and learning. Living in such a
place was like hiding in the depths of the Fourth Cen-
tury — the age of the Talmud, which was still the soul of
the Ghetto, still the fountain-head of the spiritual and in-
tellectual life of the orthodox Jew. He would be in his
native element there, at any rate, and would certainly feel
more comfortable than amid the imposing interiors of a
noblewoman's mansion. On his way to the synagogue he
twisted the hair at his temples till he looked as he used
to, before he left 2iOrki. As to his shave, he prepared an
explanation: he was subject to a species of skin disease
that made shaving unavoidable.

The assistant beadle at the Old Synagogue was a man
with a luxurious white beard. He was not learned in the
Talmud himself, but he had serv/ed in the great *' house

Digitized

by Google

238 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

of study ^^ so long that he was familiar with the titles of
the various volumes and sections in the same way as an
old servant at a medical college is familiar with anatomical
nomenclature. He danced attendance on every diligent
scholar, and was the terror of every boy who romped or
talked "words of daily life'* over his holy book. He
was in charge of the synagogue library and the candle
supply. His salary was no larger than that of a street
labourer, yet he had the appearance of a stem, prosperous
merchant.

When Makar first applied for a book and a candle the
assistant beadle cast a knowing look at his smooth-shaven
face, and then, handing him the volume, said :

" You are in the army, aren^t you ? '*

" How do you know, by my shaved face ? '* Makar asked,
sadly.

The assistant beadle smiled assent. The skin-disease
story proved unnecessary.

" There is many a Talmudist among soldiers nowadays,'*
the old man said. '* To think of a Child of Law having
to live in military bondage, to wear a uniform, to shave
and to handle a gun I '' He regarded Makar as a martyr.
When he saw him reading his book in a pleasing, absorbed
sing-song, he paused and Vatched him with a look of pa-
ternal admiration.

"Do you belong here?'* he asked later.

"No.** He named the first town thai came to his
tongue.

" Have you relatives here ? '*

"No. But I have obtained a furlough and am going
home. I am waiting for a letter and some money. I have
left my uniform with a friend.*'

.The assistant beadle asked Makar for news — whether

Digitized

by Google

ON SACRED GROUND. 239

there were any rumours of some new war, or of some fresh
legislation affecting the condition of Jews. The query
was made on the supposition that Makar^ as a member of
the Czar^s army and one who saw so many officers, could
not be unfamiliar with what was going on "up above ^^;
and Makar appeased the old man^s curiosity with some
suitable bits of information. The assistant beadle was
particularly interested in the story of a certain colonel,
a bitter anti-Semite, who used to beat the Jews in his regi-
ment because a Jewish money-lender had him under his
thumb. Now this "Jews^ enemy '* lay in bed, stricken
with paralysis — a clear case of divine reckoning. Did
Makar know him? Makar said he did.

The discussion was interrupted by the appearance of a
bewigged woman with a pound of candles, in commemora-
tion of the anniversary of a death. She wanted to make
sure that they were going to be used for diligent study
and not to be thrown away on loafers, and the assistant
beadle told her that it would be all right and that she had
better go home and put the children to bed. Another
woman, whose boy was studjdng in a comer, was watching
his gesticulations with beaming reverence. She had an
apple for him and a copper coin for the assistant beadle,
and when she saw Makar looking at her son, she said, nod-
ding her head blissfully :

"Praised be the Master of the World. It is not in
vain that I am toiling. The boy will be an adornment to
my old age/*

Later in the evening a woman burst into the synagogue,
lamenting and wringing her hands. She besought the
recluses to pray for her newly-married daughter, who was
on her death-bed. Makar was deeply touched. He felt
like a foreigner amid these scenes that had once been his

Digitized

by Google

240 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

own world, and the consciousness of it filled him with mel-
ancholy.

He slept at the synagogue. After the service next morn-
ing he sent out a boy for some bread, butter and pot cheese,
and at two o'clock a devout widow brought him, at the as-
sistant beadle's recommendation, a pot of soup and boiled
meat. He ate his dinner with Talmudistic bashfulness,
the woman looking on piously, and mutely praying to
heaven that her dinner might agree with the holy man
and give him strength for the study of God's laws.

Toward evening he ventured out on a stroll through the
spacious courtyard which lay between the Old Synagogue
and several other houses of worship. In this yard was a
great octagonal basin, celebrated for its excellent tea
water, with moss-grown spouts and chained wooden dip-
pers. He watched the water-bearers with their pails and
the girls with their jugs — a scene that seemed to have
sprung to life from certain passages in the Talmud —
until he came within a hair's breadth of being recognised
by his former landlady.

Eabbi Eachmiel was absent from the synagogue that
day. When Makar returned to the house of study he no-
ticed signs of excitement. The recluses and other stu-
dents were absorbed in whispered, panic-stricken conversa-
tion. They dared not discuss the news in groups, some
even pretending to be engrossed in their books, as much
as to say: '^In case it comes to the knowledge of the
police that you people are talking about it, I want you to
remember that I took no part in your gossip/' The mean-
ing of Clara's disappearance was not quite clear to
them. They knew in a very dim way that there were
people, for the most part educated people, who wanted to
do away with czars in general, and now it appeared that

Digitized

by Google

ON SACRED GROUND. 241

Babbi Bachmiel's daughter was one of those mysterious
persons. Those of the Tahnudists who knew Clara were
trying to imagine her as something weirdy preternatural^
and when her familiar face came back to them they uttered
subdued exclamations of amazement.

When the news reached Makar he wondered whether it
would not be advisable for him to decamp at once. But
he was so snugly established in his present berth that he
was loath to abandon it.

Some of the worshippers who dropped in to read a page
or two of an evening would gather in groups, bandying
gossip or talking foreign politics, of which, indeed, they
had the most grotesque conceptions. Here Makar picked
up many a side-splitting story illustrative of the corrup-
tion, intemperance and childlike ineptitude of government
officials. His attention seized with special eagerness
upon a description of the demoralised state of things in
the printing shop connected with the governor's office.
There is not an article of merchandise over which the Bus*
sian authorities maintain a more rigorous control than
they do over type, every pound, almost every letter of it,
used in the empire being registered and supposedly kept
track of; yet the foreman of that shop often oflPered some
of the Czar's own supply for sale, and in default of buyers
(the licensed private printers of the town being too timid
to handle this most dangerous species of stolen goods) he
had once molten a large quantity of new type and sold it
for scrap lead. Makar coidd not help picturing the revolu-
tionists in regular communication with this man. N'or
did his fancy stop there. Gradually all the typesetters
imder that foreman would be supplanted by revolutionists,
and the Czar's printing office would print the Will of fh^
People I

Digitized

by Google

U2 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Two days elapsed before Eabbi Eachmiel returned.
When he did he scarcely spoke to anybody. Naturally a
man of few words^ he now spent every minute reading his
book with ferocious absorption.

The next day was Friday. In the evening the turmoil of
Talmudic accents gave way to an ancient chant, at once
light-hearted and solemn — the song of welcome to Sab-
bath the Bride. The brass chandeliers, brightly burnished,
were filled with blazing candles. About half of the seats
were occupied by worshippers, freshly bathed and most of
them in tiieir Sabbath clothes. Babbi Bachmiel wore a
beaming face, '* in honour of the Sabbath,'^ that was plainly
the result of effort. As Maker watched him chant his Sab-
bath-eve psalms, the heart of the escaped Nihilist was con-
tracted with sympathy and something like a sense of guilt.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Meanwhile Count Loris Melikoff had abolished the Third
Section, transferring the secret service to the Interior De-
partment, and while the change had not displaced the
Dandy from office, yet it materially impaired his useful-
ness to his party.

When Makar returned to St. Petersburg Pavel met him
with kisses and hugs and punches. The Janitor, whom he
saw the next day, shook his hand heartily.

*'Ifs all right,*' he said, looking Makar over with an
amused air.

" What are you smiling at? *' Parmet demanded, colour-
ing.

**At you. I can't get myself to believe it was really
yon who made such a neat job of it."

**!!** Makar protested, exultingly. " Any idiot would
know how to be arrested. If s Clara that carried the
scheme through."

Digitized

by Google

ON SACRED GROUND. 243

^' Stilly there is better stuff in you than I ga^e you credit
for/'

Makar was quivering to know something of the use that
had been made of his arrest, but conspirators ask no ques-
tions. Indeed, to try to know as little as possible, to avoid
information upon anything except that in which one was
personally participating was (or was supposed to be) an
iron law of the movement; and now Makar was more
jealous of his reputation as a conspirator than ever.

^^Well, ifs all right,'' the Janitor said, reading his
thoughts. ^ Something has been done and ifs all right;
only under the new system ifs rather slow work."

Makar did not understand. The abolition of the Third
Section had taken place while he was in prison. When
he heard of the change he said in dismay: ^^Will that
affect my scheme?"

"Your scheme? I don't think it will," the Janitor
answered mysteriously. "Of course, we'll first have to
see how the new system works. We must do some sound-
ing and watching and studying before we know how to go
about things. Can't you wait a month or two? "

Makar was silent^ then his face broke into a roguish
smile.

"I will if you get me into an imderground printing
oflBce for the interval," he returned.

The Janitor took fire. " What has that got to do with
your cursed scheme? " he said with a slight stutter. " Afl
if I had printing jobs to give away I "

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XXVII.

A POSTPONED WEDDING.

IN June of that year, shortly before Makar escaped
from prison, the unhappy Empress of Bussia died after
a long illness that was generally ascribed to her many
years of jealousy and anguish. The Czar signified his inten-
tion to enter into morganatic wedlock with Princess Dolgo-
ruki at once. His sons and brothers remonstrated with him,
pleading for a postponement of the marriage imtil the end
of a yearns mourning; but he was passionately devoted to
the princess, with whom he had been on terms of intimacy
for the past few years; he was determined to have these
relations legitimatised, and, in view of the unrelenting
campaign of the Terrorists, he felt that he could not do so
too soon. Several members of the imperial family then
went on a foreign tour, and the wedding was quietly sol-
emnised on July 31 in Livadia, Crimea, where the Czar
and his bride remained for a long honeymoon.

PavePs and Clara's wedding was to take place in the
early part of October. The relations of the sexes among the
Nihilists were based upon the highest ideals of purity, and
the marriage bond was sacred in the best sense of the word,
but they were not given to celebrating their weddings.
When a couple became man and wife the fact was recog-
nised as tacitly as it was made known, the adoption by the
bride of her husband's name being out of the question in

244

Digitized

by Google

A POSTPONED WEDDING. 245

a world in which pafisports and names were apt to be
changed every day. Still, there were exceptions, and Pavel
insisted upon being one of these. In his overflowing bliss
he often cast the spartanism of the movement to the winds,
and now he was bent upon indulging himself in the " ro-
manticism '^ of having his wedding proclaimed at a gather-
ing of his most intimate friends. This was to be done at
the close of an important revolutionary meeting, at the
same lodgings where we once saw Pavel, Zachar and My
Lord at a gathering of military officers. A high govern-
ment official who occupied the first floor of the same build-
ing was giving an elaborate reception which kept the house
porters busy and the street in front crowded with carriages
and idlers ; so the central organisation of the Party of the
Will of the People took advantage of the occasion and held
one of its general meetings under cover of the excitement.
The assemblage, which was made up of about sixty or sev-
enty persons of both sexes, comprised nearly every member
of the Executive Committee in town, and some candidates
for admission to the Executive who were allowed to par-
ticipate in its deliberations without a vote. Most of the
revolutionists present had taken part in attempts on the
life of the Czar, as also in some of the recent assassina-
tions. One man, a southerner, was the hero of the most
sensational rescue during the past few years, having
snatched from the Kieff prison, in which he had contrived
to obtain the position of head keeper, three leaders of an
extensive revolutionary plot. This man, the Janitor and
Purring Cat now constituted the Governing Board (a sub-
committee clothed with dictatorial powers) of the Terror-
ists* Executive.

The police were hunting for the people here gathered
throughout the empire. Had the present meeting been

Digitized

by Google

246 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

discovered by spies the whole movement would have been
seriously crippled for a considerable time. Indeed, the
complex conspiracies of the Will of the People were an
element of fatal weakness as well as a manifestation of
fascinating strength. The Terror absorbed the best re-
sources of the party, necessitating highly centralised or-
ganisation, with the threads of a scattered national propa-
ganda in the hands of a few " illegals " who were liable to
be seized at any moment.

The street was full of police, but these had all they
could do to salute the distinguished guests of the first
floor and to take care of the carriages and the crowd of
curiosity seekers.

Partly through PaveFs influence and partly because she
was an ^^ illegal ^' and had produced a very favourable im-
pression, Clara had made the acquaintance of many of the
revolutionary leaders and been admitted as a probationary
member of the Executive Committee. The present gath-
ering was the first general meeting of the central body she
had attended.

*' So this is the Executive Committee ! '^ she was saying
to herself. This, then, was the mysterious force that peo-
ple were talking about in timid whispers; that the Czar
dreaded ; that was going to make everybody free and good
and happy. This was it, and she was attending its meet-
ing. She could scarcely believe her senses that she
actually was there. She knew many of the members, but
she had never seen several of them together. The present
meeting almost benumbed her with a feeling of reverence,
awe, and gratitude. Even those she had met often since
her arrival in St. Petersburg seemed diflPerent beings now,
as though spiritualised into that mysterious force that
seemed mightier than the Czar and holier than divinity.

Digitized

by Google

A POSTPONED WEDDING. 247

An overpowering state of exaltation, of something akin
to the ecstasy of a woman upon taking the veil, came over
her. Pavel was dearer than ever to her, but in her present
mood their love impressed her as a jarring note. Self-
sacrifice, not personal happiness, was what appealed to
her, and by degrees she keyed herself up to a frame of
mind in which her prospective married life seemed a gross
profanation of the sanctuary to which she had been ad-
mitted.

"Let us postpone it. Pasha dear,'* she whispered to
him, with a thrilling sense of sacrificing her happiness to
the cause.

*'Why?^^ he demanded in perplexity.

They went into the adjoining room. *^What is the
trouble? Whafs the trouble?^' he demanded, light-
heartedly.

" No trouble at all, dearest,'' she answered affectionately.
''You are dearer than ever to me, but pray let us post-
pone if

''But there must be some reason for it,'' he said with
irritation.

"Don't be vexed, Pashenka. There is really no spe-
cial reason. I simply don't feel like being married — yet.
I want to give my life to the movement. Pasha. I am
enjoying too much happiness as it is." She uttered it in
grave, measured, matter-of-fact accents, but her hazel
eyes reflected the uplifted state of her soul.

" Oh ! " he exclaimed with a mixed sense of relief and
adoration. "If thafs what you mean, all I can say is
that I am not worthy of you, Clara; but of course, the
question of giving our lives to the cause has nothing to
do with the question of our belonging to each other. Or,
yather^ if s piie and the same thing."

Digitized

by Google

248 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

She made no reply. The very discussion of the subject
jarred on her.

"You are in a peciQiar mood now, and you are an
angel, anyhow, but to-morrow you^U see the matter in a
different light.''

" At any rate, let us postpone it, Pashenka.'' And she
led the way back to the meeting room.

Many of the company knew of the expected announce-
ment, and when they heard that it was not to take place
they felt sorely disappointed. When the business of the
meeting had been disposed of, a Terrorist named Sablin
waggishly drank the health of Mile. Yavner and the social
revolution, to the accompaniment of the rapturous band
of the first floor, and then he began to improvise bur-
lesque verses on her as a newcomer, with allusions to her
power over Pavel. This revolutionist was one of the
" twin poets '* of the party, his muse, which had a weak-
ness for satire, being the gayer of the two. The ** grave
bard,'' whose name was Morosoff, was in Switzerland now.
The two were great chums. As always, Sablin was the
great convivial spirit of the company. When he was
not versifying, he was making jokes, telling anecdotes or
trjdng to speak little-Russian to Purring Cat, who, being
from Littlie Russia, answered his questions with smiling
passivity. Some of his rhymes related to Purring Caf s
interminable side-whiskers, Zachar's habit of throwing
out his chest as he walked, the reticence of the tall man
with the Tartarian face, and, above all, the Janitor's
explosions of wrath when one "was not continually leer-
ing around for spies."

The Janitor cursed him good-humouredly, without stut-
tering, and restmied his discussion with a man who looked
like the conventional image of Christ, and with JJrie, the

Digitized

by Google

A POSTPONED WEDDING. 240

tall blond man with typical Oreat-Bussian features who
had introduced Pavel to the Nihilist world and whom he
still called *^ Godfather/' The gay poet then took to
versifying on the " three blond beards *' of this trio.

Zadiar made the most noise^ dancing cossack hops till
the floor shook under his f eet, singing at the top of his
lungs^ filling the large room with deafening guffaws.
Baska, the light complexioned ^^ housewife '* of the dyna-
mite shop, who looked like a peasant woman, was the
greatest giggler of all the women present. Grisha, her
passport husband at that shop, and her real husband —
a thin man with Teutonic features, known among the
revolutionists as " the German '^ — were also there.

Sophia, the daughter of the former governor of St.
Petersburg, sat by Clara's side, smiling her hearty good
wishes upon her. She looked like a happy little girl,
Sophia, her prominent cheeks aglow, and her clear blue
self-possessed eyes full of affection and sweet-spirited pene-
tration. She was engaged to Zachar, and PaveFs court-
ship had enlisted her tender interest. There were several
other women at the gathering, two or three of them de-
cidedly good-looking.

There was an unpublished poem, " Virgin Soil,'' by the
the ''gay bard," which Clara had heard him recite and
which portrayed, among other things, a Nihilist woman
becoming a mother in her isolated cell. Her child is
wrested from her arms to perish, and she goes insane.
The episode, which is part of a bitter satire on a certain
official, is based on fact. As Clara now thought of it and
beheld the demented woman nursing a rag, a shudder
passed through her frame.

"Cheer up, Clara! Cheer up!" Zachar thundered.
'* We don't want any long faces to-night."

Digitized

by Google

260 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Clara smiled^ a sorry smile^ and Zachar went on hop-
ping and laughing. But when Sophia stroked her hand^
smilingly, Clara buried her face in her bosom and gave
way to a quick sob.

^^What does it mean?** Pavel asked.

" Nothing/* Clara answered, gleaming through her t^ars.

There were four or five Jews in the assemblage, but
Makar was not among them. His cherished dream had
been realised at last. He was working in a secret print-
ing office. Establishments of this sort were guarded with
special solicitude, so in view of his absent-mindedness,
Makar never left the place for fear of bringing back some
spy. The other revolutionists who worked in the same
printing shop and who were registered at the police sta-
tion as residents of the house had each his or her day
ofiE. Makar alone was not registered. The porters of
the house had never seen him, and the composing room
was his prison.

The only other Jewess in the room was a dark insig-
nificant looking woman named Hessia Helfman. She was
touchingly bashful, so that at one time Clara had offered
to befriend her. She had soon discovered, however, that
the dark little Jewess was in charge of a most important
conspiracy station. On closer acquaintance Hessia had
proved to be quite talkative and of an extremely affec-
tionate nature. Clara*s attachment to her had become
greater still when she had learned that Purring Cat was
her husband. The great thing was that he was a Qentile
and a nobleman, although not a prince. Clara had told
herself that the equality of Jew and Gentile and their
intermarriage among socialists was a matter of course
and that the circumstance attracted no special attention
on her part^ but she knew that it did.

Digitized

by Google

A POSTPONED WEDDING. 251

As she now looked at Hessia and her husband, she said
to Herself, with a great sense of relief: "She is as good
as I, anyhow. If she coiQd marry the man she loves I
can/'

But her joy in this absolution from her self-imposed
injunction soon faded away. To sacrifice her happiness
seemed to her the highest happiness this evening. She
would surpass Hessia. If there was a world in which
platonic relations were called for theirs was that world.
The image of a demented woman fondling a rag in her
prison cell came back to her.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXVIIL

A SBOOND COURTSHIP.

THE Czar was still in Lavadia with his bride^ abandon-
ing himself to his second youth with a passion that
was tinged with the pathos of imminent tragedy,
when Count Loris-Melikofif telegraphed to him a plea for the
lives of two revolutionists who had been sentenced to death,
one of these being Alexandre, the man in whose lodgings tiie
gendarmes had found a diagram of the Imperial dining
hall. The distinguished Armenian was contemplating re-
forms which he expected to leave no room for terrorism,
and it was for the sake of these measures as well as of
the Emperor himself, that he was averse to having the
bitterness of the revolutionists quickened by new execu-
tions. If they only let the Czar live imtil those projects
had been carried out, he thought, their conspiracies would
lose all reason of existence; at any rate, the surrep-
titious support which they received from men of high
social position would be withdrawn.

But his despatch was followed by one from the Czaro-
witz, who, echoing the views of the anti-MelikoflE party
at court, urged his father not to show signs of weakness,

and the sentence was allowed to stand.

♦ * * * ♦

At about nine o'clock in the morning of a cold autonrn
day, a fortnight after the meeting of the Executive Com-

252

Digitized

by Google

A SECOND COURTSHIP. 253

mittee which Clara attended, Pavel stood on a chair
nailing a clothes rack to the wall. The room was Clara^s.
It was on the fifth floor of a house near a comer, with
windows commanding the two intersecting streets, where
her window signals could be seen at a considerable dis-
tance. She rented it furnished, with samovaT service, but
the curtains and some bits of bric-d,-brac had been bought
by Pavel who took more interest in these things and was
handier about the house than she. He himself lived in
the house of a distant relative, an elderly widow, who took
great pride in him and had no doubt that he led the life
of the average young man of his class, that is to say,
he spent his nights and his mammals rubles on an end-
less crop of wild oats. To Clara^s landlady he was known
as a brother of hers. On the present occasion he had
found his fiancee out, but a mark on the door had told
him that she would soon be back. Presently she came in.
She wore a tall fur cap and her cheeks gleamed, exhaling
the freshness of girlish health and of the cold weather
of the street, but she looked grave. Pavel threw away his
hammer and pounced down upon her with open arms.
She repulsed him gently.

" Stop,'* she whispered, drearily, unbuttoning her cloak
and drawing a newspaper from its inner pocket. " There
is terrible news this morning.*'

The execution of Alexandre and the other revolutionist
had taken place the day before, and the newspapers were
allowed to print a very brief account of it — how they
bade each other good-bye on the scaffold and how, when
Alexandre saw the death-shroud on his friend, his eyes
filled with tears. The two condemned men had been great
chums for several years, Alexandre having once wrested
the other from a convoy. N"ow they died together.

Digitized

by Google

254 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

As Pavel read the account of the double execution,
standing by the window, a flush of overpowering despair
shot into his chest and diffused itself through his legs.

"They have choked them after all/^ he gasped out.

Clara, who sat at a table watching him, dropped her
head on her folded arms, in a paroxysm of quick, bitter
sobbing.

The few details in the newspaper report gave vividness
to the grewsome scene. The two executed men had been
among PaveFs most intimate friends. The image of Alex-
andre, his arms pinioned, looking on with tears while a
white shroud was being slipped over his fellow-prisoner,
was tearing at his heart with cruel insistance.

"Oh, iVs terrible, Clarochka!'' he moaned, dropping
by her side, nestling to her, and bursting into tears in
her bosom. Then, getting up, he took to walking back
and forth, vehemently. "They have choked them, the
blood-drinkers,*' he muttered. " They have done it after
all.'' He fell silent, pacing the floor in despair, and then
burst out once again : " They have choked them, the vam-
pires."

"But war is war," she said, for something to say to
him, her own face distorted with her struggle against a
flow of tears.

" Oh, I don't know. All I do know is that they have
been murdered, that they are no more." A minute or
two later he turned upon her with a look full of ghastly
malice. "War did you say? The government can't have
enough of it, can it? Well, it shall have all the war it
wants. The party has only shown it ihe blossoms; the
berries are still to come."

The world seemed to be divided into those who had
known the two executed men personally and those who

Digitized

by Google

A SECOND COURTSHIP. 255

had not. For the moment there seemed to be little in
common between him and Clara. She strained him to
a seat by her side on the sofa again^ clasping one of his
hands in both of hers, and kissed him on the cheek, wet-
ting his temple with her tears.

"Do you know, dearest, I really had a lurking hope
they would be spared,^^ he said. "I was ashamed to say
so, but I did. But no! they choked them. They choked
them. Idiots that they are. They imagine they can hang
every honest man in the country.^'

" Loris-Melikoff is even worse than the Czar. His lib-
eralism is nothing but hypocrisy. There can no longer
be any question about it.*'

"He is a rogue of the deepest dye. He is a bungling
hypocrite, an abominable liar and a mangy coward, that's
what he is. But to the devil with him ! This is not the
point. Oh, nothing is the point. Nothing except that
they have been murdered.'*

He went to see some of the revolutionists with whom
he had shared the intimacy of the dead men.

Left alone, Clara began to pace the floor slowly. Not
having known either Alexandre or the man who had died
with him, she was exempt from that acute agony of grief
which was her lover's; but there was the image of two men
in death-shrouds, a stirring image of martyrdom, before
her vision. Pity, the hunger of revenge and a loftier
feeling — the thirst of self-sacrifice to the cause of lib-
erty — swelled her heart. Back and forth she walked,
slowly, solemnly, her hands gently clasped behind her,
her soul in a state of excitement that was coupled with
a peculiar state of physical tranquillity, her mind appa-
rently seeing things with a perspicacity the like of which
it had never enjoyed before. Her future, her duties, her

Digitized

by Google

256 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

relation to the rest of the world, her whole life — all was
wonderfully clear to her, and in spite of her anguish
over the death of the two men she felt singularly happy.
It seemed to be a matter of course that her party would
now undertake some new plot, one exceeding in boldness
and magnitude all its predecessors. Many lives woiQd
have to be staked. She would offer hers. Matrimony was
out of the question at a time like this. She conjured that
image of the insane woman clasping a rag to her bosom
in support of her position. She longed to be near Pavel
again. In her mind she embraced him tenderly, argued
with him, opened her soul to him. It was all so clear.
Her mind was so firmly made up. She fondly hoped she
would make Pavel see it all in the same light.

The explanation took place the next time he called on
her, a few days later.

" Oh, we shall all have to offer our lives,** he replied.
^^But for God^s sake love me, Clanya. It will drive me
crazy if you don't.**

'*But I do, I do. I love you with every fibre of my
being. Pasha. What has put it in your head to doubt it? **

" Oh, I don*t know. All I do know is that as long as
my life is mine I cannot exist without you. I am fright-
fully lonely and that stands in the way of my work.
Dash it, I feel just as I did last summer before I took
courage to tell you that I was insanely in love with you.**

She drew him to her, with a smile at once of happiness
and amusement.

''Poor boy! It*8 enough to break one*s heart. Poor
little dear!** she joked affectionately.

''I knew you would be making fun of me,** he said,
yearning upon her. " Love me, Clanya, do love me, with
all your heart. I cannot live apart from you, I cannot.

Digitized

by Google

A SEC»ND COURTSHIP. 257

upon my word I cannoV' he concluded piteously, like
a child.

'^Do you imagine it^s easy for me to be away from
you?*' she retorted earnestly. '^I can't be a single hour
without you without missing you, without feverishly wait-
ing to see you again. As if you did not know it! But
what can we do? Is this the only sacrifice we are ready

to make?''

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

A fortnight had passed. Unknown to her lover, Clara
had spoken to the Janitor, intimating her readiness to
oflfer her life, and asking for one of the most dangerous
assignments the Government Board could give her. She
was waiting for an answer, when the startling news spread
among the revolutionists that the Janitor was in the
hands of the enemy and that the capture of that maniac of
caution had been the result of a most insane piece of
recklessness.

His arrest was one of the heaviest losses the party had
yet sustained. At the same time the government found
a new source of uneasiness in it. A large quantity of
dynamite and some other things confiscated at his lodg-
ings pointed to a vigorous renewal of terroristic activity.
Another plot on the life of the Emperor seemed to be
hatching in the capital, yet all efforts of the police and
the gendarmes in this connection were futile. Indeed, the
circumstances of the Janitor's arrest only furnished new
proof of the ineptitude and shiftlessness of those whose
business it was to ferret out Nihilism.

A few days before the Janitor was taken the police
received word about two portraits which had been left
for reproduction at a well-known photograph gallery and
in which the photographer had recognised the two Nihilists

Digitized

by Google

258 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

who had recently been hanged. Instead of a detective
being detailed, however, to lie in wait for the unknown
man, the proprietor of the gallery was simply ordered
to notify the police when he came for his pictures. The
unknown man was the Janitor. When he called for
the photographs, an awkward attempt was made to detain
him which aroused his suspicion. He pleaded haste and
made for the door. When a porter barred his way he
scared him off by thrusting his hand into an empiy
pistol-pocket. A similar order for photographs of the
two executed Terrorists had been given by him to another
well-known photographer next door to the former place,
and it was when he called there, a day or two after his
narrow escape at the adjoining gallery, that he was seized
by detectives.

When his landlady heard that her ''star'* lodger, the
punctilious government official and retired army officer,
was neither an official nor a retired officer, but a leading
Nihilist, she fainted. The gendarmes had been hunting
for him since he broke away from his captors on his
way to prison one evening more than two years before.
They had heard that it was he who subsequently organised
the railroad plot near Moscow; also that he had been
connected with the assassination of the chief of gen-
darmes and with the shooting at the Czar in front of the
Winter Palace. Yet he had freely moved about the streets
of St. Petersburg these two years, the busiest agitator and
conspirator in tiie city, until, in a moment of morbid
foolhardiness, he practically surrendered himself to the
police.

When Clara heard of his arrest, she clapped her hands
together, Yiddish fashion. ''If the Janitor has been
arrested as a result of carelessness,*' she exclaimed, ^tiien

Digitized

by Google

A SECOND COURTSHIP. 259

everyone of us ought to hold himself in readiness to be
taken at any moment/^

She repeated the remark the next time she saw Pavel,
adding:

*^ The idea of being a married woman under such con-
ditions ! *'

" Oh, that^s an idee fixe of yours," he said, testily.

She gave him a look and dropped her eyes, resentfully.

The peace-oflfering came from him.

" Whew, what a cloud ! " he said, pointing at her glum
face. '* Won't there be a single rift in it ? Not a wee bit
of a one for a single ray to come through? '*

She smiled, heartily.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXIX.

A HUNTED MONARCH.

THE ministers were reporting to the Czar who had re-
cently returned from livadia. They were admitted
one at a time. As they sat chatting under breath in
the blue waiting room, with the white reflection of the snow
that was falling outside, upon their faces, these elderly
men, whose names were associated in millions of minds
with the notion of infinite dignity and power, looked like
a group of anxious petitioners in the vestibule of some
official.

An exception was made for Count Loris-Meliko£f, who
was with the Czar during the audiences of all his col-
leagues. The Supreme Executive Commission over which
he had presided had been abolished some four months
before. Nominally he was now simply in charge of the
Department of the Interior, but in reality he continued
lo play the part of premier, a position he partly owed to
Princess Dolgoruki, the Czar's young wife, who set great
store by his liberal policy. She was said to be a woman
of rather progressive turn of mind, but whether she was
or not, her fate hung on the life of her imperial husband
and every measure that was calculated to pacify the Nihi-
lists found a ready advocate in her. Indeed, she and the
Count were united by a community of personal interests ;
for he had as many enemies at court as she, and his posi-

260

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED MONARCH- 261

tion depended upon the life of Alexander IL 'as much as
hers.

The Czar was receiving the ministers in a chamber of
moderate size^ finished in sombre colours^ with engaged
colimins of malachite, book-cases of ebony and silver, with
carvings representing scenes from Knssian history, and a
large writing table to match. Statues of bronze and ivory
stood between the book-cases and a striking life-size water-
colour of Nicholas I. hung on the wall to the right of the
Czar^s chair. The falling snow outside was like a great
impenetrable veil without beginning or end, descending
from some unknown source and disappearing into some
equally mysterious region. The room, whose high walls,
dismally imposing, were supposed to hold the destinies
of a hundred millions of human beings, was filled with
lustreless wintry light. The Emperor, tall, erect, broad-
shouldered, the image of easy dignity, but pale and with
a touch of weariness in his large oval face, wore the un-
dress uniform of a general of infantry. He was sixty-two
and he was beginning to look it. He listened to the
ministers with constrained attention. He showed exag-
gerated interest in the affairs of their respective depart-
ments, but they could see that his heart was not in their
talk, and with unuttered maledictions for the upstart vice-
Emperor, they made short work of their errands. They
knew that the Interior Department was the only one that
commanded the Czar's interest in those days.

At last the Emperor and his chief adviser were left
alone. Both were silent. Loris-Melikoff was as strikingly
oriental of feature as Alexander II. was European. Not-
withstanding his splendid military career and uniform
he had the appearance of a sharp-witted scientist rather
than of a warrior. His swartiiy complexion, shrewd ori-

Digitized

by Google

262 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ental eyes and huge energetic oriental nose, flanked by
greyer and longer side-whiskers than the Czar^s, made
him look like a representative of some foreign power.

There was pathos in both. Alexander II. had that
passion for life which comes to an old man upon marry-
ing a pretty young woman. Yet foreigners who saw
him during this period said that he looked like a hunted
man. As to Count Melikoff, his advance had been so
rapid, he was surrounded by so many enemies at court,
and the changes by which he was trying to save the Czar's
life and his own power, were beset by so many obstacles,
that he could not help feeling like the peasant of the story
who was made king for one day.

Naturally talkative and genially expansive, the Czar's
manner toward people who were admitted to his intimacy
was one of amiable informality. The chief pathos of his
fate sprang from the discrepancy between the Czar and
the man in him, between a vindictive ruthlessness bom of
a blind sense of his autocratic honour and an affectionate,
emotional nature with less grit than pride. Had he been
a common mortal he would have made far more friends
than enemies.

Count Loris-Melikoff had become accustomed to feel at
home in his presence. At this minute, however, as the
Czar was watching the snow flakes, with an air of idle
curiosity, the Armenian had an overbearing sense of the
distance between them. He knew that the Czar was
anxious to talk about the revolutionists and that he hated
to do so. His heart contracted with common human pity,
yet in the silence that divided them it came over him that
the man in front of him was the Czar, and a feeling of
awe seized him like the one he used to experience at sight
of the Emperor long before he was raised to his present

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED MONARCH. 263

position. This feeling passed^ however^ the moment the
Czar began to speak.

" Well ? '' he said, with sudden directness. *' Anything
new about that Michailoff fellow ?'' Alexandre Michail*
off was the real name of the Janitor.

^'Nothing new so far, your Majesty," Loris-Melikoff
answered obsequiously, yet with something like triumph,
as if the powerlessness of the police were only too natural
and substantiated his views on the ^neral state of things.
*^He is one of their chief ringleaders/'

^'And this has been known all along,'' the Emperor
remarked with sad irony. ^'Such a thing would be in-
conceivable in any other capital in Europe."

*^ Quite so. But I feel that in other countries, the
capture of miscreants like ours would be due less to the
efSciency of the police than to the cordial cooperation of
the public. The trouble is that our police is thrown on
its own resources. Sire. It is practically fighting those
wretches single-handed."

The Czar had a fit of coughing, the result of asthma.
When it had subsided, he said with an air of suffering:

**Well, thafs your theory. But then their public is
not ours. The average Bussian is not wide-awake enough
to cooperate with the authorities." He had in mind his
own address at Moscow in which he had appealed to the
community at large for this very assistance in ferreting
out sedition. The Will of the People had come into
existence since then.

'^ Still, if our public were drawn into active cooperation
with the Government, if it became habituated to a sense
of the monarch's confidence in itself, it seems reasonable to
suppose that the indolence of the community would then
disappear. No people is capable of greater loyalty to the

Digitized

by Google

264 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

throne than your Majesty's. All that is needed is to lend
to this devotion tangibility. This and this alone would
enable your Majesty to cure the evil. What the body
politic needs is judicious internal treatment. Surgical
operations have proven futile. These are my sincerest
convictions, your Majesty.^'

''I know they aie" the Czar answered musingly.

**And the great point is, that with the intelligent
classes actively interested in the preservation of law and
order, criminal societies of any sort would find themselves
without any ground to stand upon.'*

The Czar had another cough, and then he said, flushing:

^^ There is a simpler way to leave them without ground
to stand upon, surgical operations or no surgical opera-
tions. Call it what you will. There is no sense in pamp-
ering them, Melikoflf. Why, in western Europe they
execute common murderers. As to a gang of assassins
like that, death would be regarded a mild punishment.'*
He lighted a cigarette, but forthwith extinguished it and
went on with emphasis : *' We handle them with kid gloves,
Melikoflf. That's why they take chances."

He spoke with subdued anger, citing the republican up-
rising led by aristocratic army oflBcers in 1825, which his
father (the man whose portrait was on tiie right waD)
quelled by means of field guns. Loris-Melikoflf demurred
to the comparison, tactfully hinting tiiat there would be
no betrayal of weakness in inviting the public to partici-
pate in the extermination of crime by showing it signs of
increased imperial confidence, and the Czar softened again.
He felt that the Armenian knew how to save him and he
willingly submitted to his and Princess Dolgoruki's in-
fluence. But Pate was bent on tragedy.

Alexander H. lacked anything but courage. Stilly this

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED MONARCH. 265

continuotis living under fire had gradually unnerved him.
The soldier on the battlefield finds moral support in the
presence of thousands of comrades^ all facing the same
fate as he; whereas he was like a lone man on top of a
djmamite pile. And if his perils were shared by those
about him^ this only added the agonising consciousness
that his person carried the shadow of destruction with it,
endangering the life of every living being that came near
him. He knew, for example, that when he was at the
theatre candles were kept ready, in case the lights were
blown out by an explosion ; that many people stayed away
from the playhouse on such occasions for fear of being
destroyed along with their sovereign. His pride would not
let him feel low-spirited. He very often forced himself
to disdain caution, to act with reckless courage. Never-
theless he had a dreary, jaded look. The notion that he,
the most powerful of men, the image of grandeur and
human omnipotence, should tremble at every sound,
wounded his common human pride acutely. The conse-
quence was that this mightiest monarch in the world,
the gigantic man of sixty-two, every bit of him an Em-
peror, was at heart a terror-stricken infant mutely im-
ploring for help. He continued to appear in the streets
of the capital, accompanied by his usual escort and to
return the salutes of passers-by with his usual air of
majestic ease. Now and then he went to the theatre, and
occasionally even beyond the scenes for a flirtation with
the actresses. But the public knew that besides his large
uniformed escort, his carriage was watched by hordes of
detectives in citizen^s clothes, and that every inch of the
ground which he was to traverse was all but turned inside
out for possible signs of danger. And those who were
admitted to his presence knew that underneath his grand.

Digitized

by Google

266 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

free-and-easy bearing was a sick heart and a crushed spirit.
That the enemy was an unknown quantity was one of the
sources of his growing disquiet. The organised move-
ment might be very large and it might be ridiculously
small, but with a latent half-Nihilist in the heart of every
subject, he was beginning to realise at last that he knew
his people scarcely better than he did the French or the
English. He was anxious to make peace with that in-
visible enemy of his, provided it did not look as if he did.
He was willing to be deceived, and Loris-MelikoflE was
about to help him deceive himself. But destiny was
against them both. He was an honest man, Loris-Melikoff,
serious-minded, public-spirited, one of the few able states-
men Russia ever had; but his path was strewn with thorns.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXX,

THS MYSTERY OF A SHOP.

A TALL man with a reddish beard called at one of the
police stations of the capital about a cheese store
which he was going to open on Little Gkirden Street.
He gave his name as Koboseff. When he had gone the Cap-
tain of the station said to one of his roundsmen:

"That fellow doesn^t talk like a tradesman. I asked
him a few questions^ and his answers were rather too
polished for a cheese dealer/^ And taking up his pen, he
added, with a preoccupied air, **Keep an eye on him,
wiU you?'^

Little Garden Street was part of a route which the
Emperor often took on his way to or from his niece's
residence, the Michail Palace, and received the special
attention of the police.

The roundsman spoke to the agent of the house where
Koboseff had rented a basement for his projected shop
and dwelling room; whereupon the agent recalled that
cheesemonger's handwriting had struck him as being too
good for a man of his class. Inquiry at the town at which
Koboseff's passport was dated brought the information
that a document corresponding in every detail to the one
in question had actually been issued by the local authori-
ties. Koboseff was thus no invented name, and as the
description in the passport agreed with the appearance of

267

Digitized byCjOOQl€

268 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the man who had rented the basement, the St. Petersburg
police saw no ground for further suspicion.

The cheese shop was opened in the early part of Janu-
ary, KoboseflE having moved in with a fair-complexioned
woman whom he introduced as his wife. Some three or
four weeks later the head porter of the house notified the
police that Koboseff had boasted of the flourishing state
of his business, whereas in reality his shop attracted but
very scant custom. At the same time it was pointed out
that there was a well-established and prosperous cheese
store close by, that the basement occupied by the KobosefEs
was scarcely the place one would naturally select for the
purpose, and that the rent was strikingly too high for the
amount of business Koboseff could expect to do there. To
cap the climax, there was some lively gossip among the
neighbours about Mme. Koboseff, who had been seen smok-
ing cigarettes — a habit quite unusual for a woman of the
lower classes — and who often stayed out all night.

" Koboseff ^^ was Urie Bogdanovich, PaveFs "God-
father,^' and "Mme. Koboseff*' was Baska, formerly
" housewife '' of the dynamite shop and a year previous to
that in charge of a house in the south near which Zachar
and others attempted to blow up an imperial train.

The cheese shop was often visited by Zachar, Purring
Cat, the reticent stalwart man with the Tartarian features,
Pavel and other revolutionists. The police kept close
watch on the place, but, according to all reports, no sus-
picious persons were ever seen to enter it. Upon the whole
iSie Koboseffs seemed to be real tradesmen, and as the
information concerning their passport was satisfactory,
they were not disturbed. A slim little man named Kurill-
ofl who had played the part of errand boy at the cheese
shop had been arrested, but his detention had nothing to

Digitized

by Google

THE MYSTERY OP A SHOP- 269

do with the Kobosefik^ and the police of Little Garden
Street had no idea of the arrest, while the oflScers who
had made it were unaware of the prisoner's connection
with a suspicious shop.

" If I were you I'd make missus behave/' the head porter
of the house once said to KoboseflE, speaking of his ** wife."

" Eight you are/' the cheesemonger replied. " Only my
old woman is a tough customer to handle, you know. I
do tell her she had better mind the house and ought to be
ashamed of herself to smoke cigarettes, but she doesn't
care a rap, not she."

" I would teach her if she was my wife."

The cheesemonger made a gesture of despair, and the

porter said to himself that there was nothing suspicious

about him; that he was simply a fellow without backbone

and a fool, qualities which seemed to account for Kobo-

sefPs incompetence as a business man.

« « « ♦ ♦

''Well, Clanya," Pavel said to Mile. Yavner, lazily ad-
dressing her in the diminutive of his own coining. '* I am
afraid I shall have to exile you for some time."

"Exile me?" she asked absently without lifting her
eyes from a heap of type she was sorting and putting up
in packages. She sat across the table from the sofa upon
which he was cuddling himself drowsily as a cat does
before a fireside.

*' Yes, thaf s what 111 have to do — pack you off, put you
in a box, nail you up tight, stick a label on it and ship
you somewhere. 'To places not so very distant/" he
added, mocking the official phrase used in transporting
people to eastern Siberia.

She raised her eyes from her work, her fingers stiff and
black with lead dust. "What are you driving at^ Pasha?

Digitized

by Google

370 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Anything up? Or is it merely one of those jokes under
which one must write in big letters : * This is a joke ? ' ^^

" Is that a joke ? ^* he asked, and burst into laughter.

She resumed her work. The type she was sorting was
intended for a revolutionary printing oflSce, having been
sent to St. Petersburg by Masha SafonofE, who had bought
it of the foreman of the government's printing oflBce in
Miroslav.

"Oh, to all the diabolical devils with thai type of
yours, Clanya. Can't you sit down by a fellow's side for
a minute or two ? '*

She got up, washed her hands and complied with his
wish. As she played with his hand she noticed the trace
of blisters on his palm. Her face darkened; but she
asked no questions. After a little she demanded : " What
did you mean by * exiling ' me ? '*

'* Oh dash it all, Clanya. Ifs something serious. I'll
tell it to you some other time. I'm too lazy to be serious.'*
He would have preferred to be sprawling like this with
her hands in his; luxuriating in the gleam of her intelli-
gent blue eyes and in the feminine atmosphere of her
person; but his excuse tiiat it was "too serious** only
sharpened her determination to know what it was without
delay.

"Whatisit, Padia?'*

^ There you are," he said peevishly. " One can't have
a minute's rest from business, not a minute's rest."

" Why did you hasten to speak of ^ exiling ' me, then? "
she retorted tartly. " Why didn't you keep it to yoursell
until you were again in a mood for * business'?"

He had not kept it to himself simply because it was not
easy for him to keep anything from her. He was more
apt to fly into a temper with her than she with him, but

Digitized

by Google

THE MYSTERY OF A SHOP. 271

in their mutual relations she was the stronger vessel of
the two and, in an imperceptible, unformulated way, he
was considerably under her thumb. When he heard or
saw something new, received some new impression, his
first impulse was to share it with her. If an opinion was
formed in his mind he wondered, sometimes timidly,
whether she would concur with it. Timidly, because in
many instances, when he came bubbling over with enthu-
siasm over some scheme of his own, she had cruelly damp-
ened his fervour by merely extricating the vital point of
his argument from a surrounding tangle of roseate phrase-
ology. His great intellectual feast was to be in her room,
discussing theories, books, people with her. These dis-
cussions which sometimes lasted for hours, often called
forth a snappish, bitter tone on both sides, but they were
at once an expression and a fostering agency of that
spiritual unity which was one of the chief sources of their
happiness in one another.

^'Well, there is very little to tell about,'* he said at
last. " Something is under way, and it has been decided
to notify all illegals not in it to vacate St. Petersburg
until if s all over.'*

The lines of her fresh-tinted face hardened into an
expression of extreme gravity and her fingers grew limp
in his grasp. She withdrew them.

" Look at her I '' he squeaked in a burst of merriment.

*^ There is nothing to look at. I am not going.*' She
dropped her glance. She divined that his blisters had
something to do with the digging of a mine in which he
took part.

"Is it aU settled?'*

''Oh, Pasha! Your jesting is so out of place,** she
returned sullenly. "I am not going.**

Digitized

by Google

272 THE WHITE TERROR AND TttE RED.

*' But the air is getting hot in St. Petersburg. Whew !
The police are suspicious, of course; they won't leave a
stone unturned/*

He took hold of her tender girlish hand, but she with-
drew it again, with a gesture of impatience.

" There will be something to do for you too later on,*'
he comforted her, guiltily. ** It's going to be a big thing,
the biggest of all. You'll come back in a month or so."

She made no answer.

The two intersecting streets outside reeked and creaked
and glittered with the crispness of a typical St. Petersburg
frost. It was about ten in the morning, in the early part
of January. The little parlour was delightfully warm,
with a dim consciousness of sleigh-furs, hack drivers in
absurd winter caps, pedestrians huddling themselves and
wriggling and grunting for an effeminating background to
one's sense of shelter. The even heat of the white glazed
oven seemed to be gleaming and stirring over the surface
of the tiles like something animate, giving them an effect
of creamy mellowness that went to one's heart together
with the delicious warmth they radiated. Ever and anon
a sleigh bell would tinkle past and sink into Pavel's mood.
There was a rhythm to the warm stillness of the room.
But Clara's silence tormented him.

^^ We'll discuss it later on, Clanya. I'm too tired
now. My brain won't work. Let us play school," he
pleaded fawningly, in burlesque Russian, mimicking the
accent of the Czech who taught Latin at the Miroslav
gymnasium.

'' Stop that, pray."

He made a sorry effort to obey her, and finally she
yielded, with a smile and a Jewish shrug. He played a
gymnasium teacher and she a pupil. He made her con-

Digitized

by Google

THE MYSTERY OF A SHOP- 273

jugate his name as she would a verb; made puns on
Clanya^ which is an unfinished Bussian word meaning to
bow, to greet, to convey one^s regards; mocked and
laughed at her enunciation till his eyes watered. Gradu-
ally he drifted into an impersonation of old Pievakin
and flew into a passion because her hearty laughter marred
the illusion of the performance.

"You do need rest, poor thing,'^ she said, looking at
his haggard, worn face.

" Well, another few weeks and we shall be able to get
all the rest we want, if not in a cell, or in a quieter place
still, in some foreign resort, perhaps. I really feel con-
fident we are going to win this time.*'

''If 8 about time the party did.*'

''It will this time, you may be sure of it. And then
— by George, the very sky will feel hot. Everything seems
ready for a general uprising. All that is needed is the
signal. I can see the barricades going up in the streets.'*
He gnashed his teeth and shook her by the shoulders
exultantly. " Yes, ma'am. And then, Clanya, why, then
we won't have to go abroad for our vacation. One will
be able to breathe in Eussia then. Won't we give our-
selves a spree, eh? But whether here or abroad, I must
take you for a rest somewhere. Will you marry your love-
lorn Pashka then? I dare you to say no."

" But I don't want to say no," she answered radiantly.

They went to dinner together and then they parted.
As they shook hands he peered into her face with a rush
of tenderness, as though trying to inhale as deep an im-
pression of her as possible in case either of them was
arrested before they met again. And, indeed, there was
quite an eventful day in store for her.

One of the persons she was to see later in the afternoon

Digitized

by Google

274 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

was a man with a Greek name. As she approached the
house in which he had his lodgings^ she recognised in the
gas-lit distance the high forehead and the boyish face of
Sophia, the ex-Gtovemor's daughter. Sophia, or Sonia,
as she was fondly called, was bearing down upon her at a
brisk, preoccupied walk. As she swept past Clara, without
greeting her, she whispered :

^'Atrap.^'

The lodging of the man with the queer name had been
raided, then, and was now held by oflScers in the hope of
ensnaring some of his friends. Clara had been at the
place several times and she was afraid that the porter of
the house, in case he stood at his post in the gateway at
this minute, might recognise her.

The dim opening of the gate loomed as a sickly quad-
rangular hole exhaling nightmare and ruin. Turning
sharply back, however, might have attracted notice; so
Clara entered the first gate on her way, four or five houses
this side of her destination, and when she reappeared a
minute or two later, she took the opposite direction. As
she turned the next comer she found herself abreast of a
man she had noticed in the streets before. He was fixed
in her mind by his height and carriage. Extremely tall
and narrow-shouldered, he walked like a man with a sore
neck, swinging one of his long arms to and fro as he moved
stiffly along. The look he gave her made a very unpleas-
ant impression on her. He let her gain on him a little
and then she heard his soft rubber-shod footsteps behind
her.

It is a terrible experience, this sense of being dogged
as you walk along. It is tantalising enough when your
desire to take a look at the man at your heels is oidy a
matter of curiosity which for some reason or other you

Digitized

by Google

THE MYSTERY OF A SHOP- 275

cannot gratify. Imagine^ then, the mental condition of
an '^ illegal ^^ shadowed by a spy or by a man he suspects
of being one. He tingles with a desire to quicken pace,
yet he must walk on with the same even, calm step; every
minute or two he is seized with an impulse to turn on the
fellow behind him, yet he must not show the least sign
of consciousness as to his existence. It is the highest
form of torture, yet it was the daily experience of every
active man or woman of the secret organisation ; for if the
political detectives were spying upon pedestrians right and
left, the revolutionists, on their part, were apt to be sus-*
picious with equal promiscuity. Small wonder that some
of them, upon being arrested, hailed their prison cell as a
welcome place of rest, as a relief from the enervating
strain of liberty under the harrowing conditions of under-
ground life. As a matter of fact this wholesale shadow-
ing seldom results in the arrest of a revolutionist Thou-
sands of innocent people were snuffed to one Nihilist,
and the Nihilists profited by the triviality of suspicion.
Most arrests were the result of accident.

At the comer of the next large thoroughfare she paused
and looked up the street for a tram-car. While doing so
Clara glanced around her. The tall man had disappeared.
A tram-car came along shortly and she was about to board
it, when she heard Soma's voice once more.

** You're being shadowed. Follow me.''

Sonia entered a crowded sausage shop, and led the way
to the far end of it in the rear of an impatient throng.
Pending her turn to be waited on, she took off her broad-
brimmed hat, asking Clara to hold it for her, while she
adjusted her hair.

** Put it on, and let me have your fur cap ^ she gestured.

fThe homely broad-brimmed hat transformed Clara's

Digitized

by Google

276 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

appearance considerably. It made her look shorter and
her face seemed larger and older.

** I saw a tall fellow turn you over to one with a ruddy
mug. The red man is waiting for you outside now, but
I don't think he had a good look at your face. There is
a back door over there.'*

Clara regained the street through the yard, and sure
enough, a man with a florid face was leisurely smoking a
cigarette at the gate post. He only gave her a superficial
glance and went on watching the street door of the shop.
She took a public sleigh, ordered the driver to take her to
the Liteyny Bridge, changed her destination in the middle
of the journey, and soon after she got off she took another
sleigh for quite another section of the city. In short, she
was ** circling,'* and when she thought her trail com-
pletely ''swept away," she went home on foot

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XXXI.

A BBASSUBINQ SEABOH.

THE capture of the man with the Greek name proved
disastrous to the Executive Committee. It was the
first link in a chain of most important arrests. The
trap set at his house caught the very tall man with the Tar-
tarian features; this led to the arrest of Purring Cat, and
the residence of Purring Cat, in its turn, ensnared a pre-
tentiously dressed man, in whom the superior gendarme
oflBcers were amazed to find their own trusted secretary,
the man whom Makar knew as "the Dandy.'* Makar's
arrest at Miroslav had tended to strengthen the Dandy's
position somewhat, but now that he was in the hands of
the enemy himself, it seemed as if the medical student's
sweeping system of " counter-espionage " had burst like a
bubble. Makar was in despair. He spoke of new plans,
of new sacrifices, until Zachar silenced him.

" All in due time, my dear romanticist," he said to him.
"A month or two later I shall be delighted to be enter-
tained with the fruit of your rich fancy ; not now, my boy."

The four arrests were a severe blow to the undertaking
of which Zachar had been placed in charge. He was over-
worked, dejected, yet thrilling with nervous activity. But
his own days were numbered. An air of impending doom
hung over the Czar and his *^ internal enemies " alike.

Good fortune seemed to attend the state police. While

277

Digitized

by Google

278 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the gendarmes of the capital were celebrating their un«
expected haul an intellectual looking man was locked up
in a frontier town as a " vagrant/' that is, as a man without
a passport, who subsequently proved to be one of the active
Terrorists the detectives had long been looking for. He
was the " grave bard/' one of the twin poets of the party.
Shortly after his arrest the Eussian government received
word from the police of the German capital that a prom-
inent Eussian Nihilist known among his friends as *'My
Lord/' a sobriquet due to his elegance of personal appear-
ance and address, had spent some time in Berlin and was
now on his way to St. Petersburg. A German detective
followed the man to the frontier and then, shadowed by
Eussian spies, he was tracked to a house on the Neva
Prospect, the leading street of St. Petersburg. There it
was decided to arrest him Friday, March 23.

A little after 4 o'clock of that day Zachar and the ex-
Governor's daughter left their home, where they were regis-
tered as brother and sister, and took a sleigh, alighting in
front of the Public Library, in the very heart of the city.
Instead of entering the library, however, which the sleigh-
driver thought to be their destination, they parted, con-
tinuing their several journeys on foot.

It was an extremely cold afternoon. The beards of
pedestrians and sleigh-drivers and the manes of horses
were glued with frost; their breath came in short painful
puffs. It was getting dark. The sky was a spotless, al-
most a warm blue. To look at it you would have won-
dered where this sharp, all-benumbing cold came from.
There was an air of insincerity about the crimson clearness
of the afternoon light.

Zachar wore a tall cap of Persian lamb, flattened at the
top, and a tight-fitting fur coat. He walked briskly, his

Digitized

by Google

A REASSURING SEARCH. 270

chest thrown out^ his full pointed beard hoary with frosty
his cheeks red with the biting cold.

Presently he found himself shadowed by a man in civi*
lian clothes whom he knew to be a gendarme in disguise.
It was evident, however, that the spy was following him
merely as a suspicious person without having any idea
what sort of man his quarry was, and Zachar, with whom a
hunt of this kind was a daily occurrence, had no difficulty
in "thrashing his trail.'* He was bound for the dieese
shop on Little Garden Street. This was within a short
walk from the Public Library, yet on this occasion it took
him an hour's " circling '' to reach the place.

About ten minutes after Zachar entered the cheese-
monger's basement, the head porter of the house met two
police officers round the comer. One of them was the
captain of the precinct and the other, one of his rounds-
men. The Czar was expected to pass through this street
in two days, so one could not be too watchful over a sus-
picious place like this.

" There is somebody down there now," the head porter
said to the captain, with servile eagerness. *' A big fellow
with a long pointed beard. I have seen him go down sev-
eral times before. He looks like a business man, but
before he started to go down he stopped to look round."

This stopping to look round was, according to a printed
police circular, one of the symptoms of Nihilism, so the
roxmdsman was ordered to watch imtil the suspicious man
should re-emerge from the cheese shop.

When the captain had gone the roundsman brushed out
his icicled moustache with his finger nails, and said with
an air of authority:

*' Well, you take your post at the gate and FU just go
and change my uniform for citizen's clothes in case ilfs

Digitized

by Google

280 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

necessary to see where that fellow is going. Keep a sharp
lookout on that cursed basement until I get back^ will
you?^'

When he returned, in citizen's clothes, he found thai
the suspicious man had left the store and that the head
porter had set out after him, leaving his assistant in his
place.

" There is another man down there now/' the assistant
porter whispered. Presently the new visitor came out of
the basement. As he mounted the few steps and then
crossed over, through the snow, to a sleigh standing near
by, he kept mopping his face with a handkerchief, thus pre-
venting the two spies from getting a look at his features.
Seeing that he boarded a hackney-sleigh, the roimdsman
did the same, ordering the driver to follow along as
closely as possible, but at this he lost time in persuading
the hackman that he was a policeman in disguise. The
two sleighs were flying through the snow as fast as their
horses could run. The policeman was far in the rear.
For some ten minutes his eyes were riveted to the sus-
picious man. Presently, however, the vehicle he was shad-
owing turned a comer, and by the time he reached that
point it was gone. All sorts of sleighs, their bells jingling,
were gliding along in every direction, but the one he
wanted was not among them.

The head porter, who had started after the first man,
in the absence of the roundsman, had met with a similar
defeat. After awhile the hackman who had driven the
second suspicious man returned to his stand. In answer
to inquiry he told how his fare had twice changed his
destination, finally alighted on a street comer, and turned
into a narrow alley.

Meanwhile Zachar had called on My Lord. It was about

Digitized

by Google

A REASSURING SEARCH. 281

seven o'clock. The two revolutionists sat chatting in a
cheerful gas-lit room^ when the host was called out into
the corridor. As he was long in coming back> Zachar went
to the door, prepared for the worst. He found the cor-
ridor full of gendarmes and police. It was evident that
they had fought shy of raiding My Lord's apartments for
fear of violence, and had been patiently waiting until his
visitor should come out of his own accord. Several of the
gendarmes made a dash at Zachar, seizing him by both
arms. One of these was the spy from whom he had " cir-
cled'* away near the Public Library, soon after he had
taken leave from the ex-Governor's daughter three hours
ago. Zachar's presence here was a surprise to this gen-
darme, but the full importance of the man was still un-
known to him. The officer in command, however, knew
who his prisoner was.

^' What is your name? " he addressed himself to Zachar,
with the exaltation of a man come upon a precious find.
He knew but too well how anxious the government was to
capture him, but he had come here to arrest My Lord
without the remotest idea of finding this revolutionary
giant in the place.

^' Krasnofif," Zachar answered with dignity, in his deep-
chested voice.

*' I beg your pardon," the officer returned, with a twin-
kle in his eye. "I once had the pleasure of arresting
you. Your name is Audrey Ivanovitch Jeliabofif."

'^ Oh, in that case I am pleased to meet you," the pris-
oner said with playful chivalry.

Jeliaboffs arrest made a joyous stir not only in the
gendarmerie, but also at court. Apart from the attempt
to blow up an imperial train in the south, in which he had
played the leading part, he had been described to the

Digitized

by Google

282 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

authorities as the most gifted and effective agitator in the
movement.

The police at Little Garden Street were unaware of all
this, but the conduct of the two men who had visited the
cheese shop that afternoon seemed decidedly suspicious
and lent a glare of colour to the irrelevancies that seemed
to enfold the place.

The next morning Pavel called on the Koboseffs. As
he entered the cheese store he saw that the adjoining
room was crowded with police oflScers. In his first shock
he was only conscious of the gleam of uniforms, of Urie's
and somebody else's voice and of his own sick despair.
But the sick feeling ebbed away, leaving him in a state
of desperate, pugnacious tranquillily, his mind on the
revolver in his pocket.

" Hello there I '* he shouted, with the self-satisfied dis-
respect of a man of the better classes addressing one of
the lower, and at this he surveyed the store with an air
of contempt, as much as to say: "What a den I did
strike!'*

''Wife,'* he heard TIrie's voice, "there is a gentleman
in the shop.'*

Baska, who had been calmly emptying a barrel of
cheese into some boxes, wiped her hands upon her apron
and stepped behind the counter.

"Is your Holland cheese any good?** Pavel asked,
sniffing. "Are you sure you can give me a pound of
decent stuff?**

She waited on him, simply, and after some more snif-
fing, at the wrapping paper as well as the cheese, he let
her make up the package. As he walked toward the door
his heart stood still for an instant.

He was allowed to go. Whether he was followed by

Digitized

by Google

A REASSURING SEARCH. 283

spies he did not know. At all events^ when he approached
his " legal '* residence at the house of his high-bom rela-
tive, after an hour's '* circling,'* he felt perfectly free
from shadowing. He was greatly perplexed to think of
the way IJrie and Baska had been allowed to continue in
their r81e of a cheesemonger couple; but, at all events,
even if the true character of their shop had not yet been
discovered by the police oflScers he had seen there, it

seemed to be a matter of minutes when it would be.
« « ♦ « «

In the morning of that day, a few hours before Pavel
called on the Koboseffs, the police captain of the Little
Garden street precinct had asked the prefect of St. Peters-
burg to have the cheese shop examined under the guise
of a sanitary inspection. He was still uninformed of the
arrest of the big fellow with the pointed beard, much less
of the fact that he had proved to be one of the chieftains
of the revolutionary organisation, but the story of the
two suspicious-looking visitors at the cheese shop and
their "circling'' had made him uneasy. The Czar was
expected to pass through Little Garden Street on Sunday,
which was the next day, and one could not ascertain the
real character of the Koboseffs and their business too soon.
Nevertheless the prefect was slow to appreciate the situa-
tion. Indeed, it is quite characteristic of the despotic
chaos of a regime like Russia's that on the one hand peo-
ple are thrown into jail to perish there on the merest
whim of some gendarme, and, on the other, action is often
prevented by an excess of red tape and indolence in cases
where there is ground for the gravest suspicion. While
hundreds of schoolboys and schoolgirls were wasting
away in damp, solitary cells because they had been sus-
pected of reading some revolutionary leaflet, the occupants

Digitized

by Google

284 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

of this basement^ in whose case suspicion was associated
with the idea of a plot on the life of the Czar, had not
even been subjected to the summary search and question-
ing to which every resident in Russia is ever liable.

Finally, after considerable pleading on the part of the
police captain, (leneral Mrovinsky, a civil engineer of the
Health Department, an elderly man with a kindly, genial
face, was assigned to make the feigned inspection.

" Your excellency will please see if they are not digging
a mine there,^^ the police captain said to him, respectfully.
" The Emperor often passes that shop when he goes to the
Riding Schools or to the Michail Palace, and that cheese
dealer and his wife are quite a suspicious-looking couple.
His Majesty is expected to pass the place to-morrow.*'

The general entered the cheese shop accompanied by
the police captain, the captain's lieutenant and the head
porter of the house. KobosefE came out of the inner
rooms to meet them. He turned pale, but this seemed
natural.

"His Excellency represents the Health Department,'*
said the captain. " There is dampness in the next house,
and His Excellency wishes to see if your place is all
right."

"I am sorry to trouble you," said (Jeneral Mrovinsky,
kindly. "But dampness is a bad thing to have in one's
house, you know."

"There is none here ihat I know of, sir," Koboseff
replied deferentially, "but, of course, a fellow must not
be too sure, sir."

Baska stood in a comer of the shop, bending over a
barrel. While the oflScers talked to Urie she threw a
glance at the visitors over her shoulder and resumed her
work.

Digitized

by Google

A REASSURING SEARCH. 285

The uniformed civil engineer made a close examination
of the walls. The one facing the street was covered with
plankings and Koboseff explained that he had had it done
as a safeguard against dampness^ but that there was
none.

^'But then cheese crumbs are apt to get into the
cracks/* urged General Mrovinsky, taking hold of one of
the shelves along that wall. "They would decay there,
don^t you know, and that would be almost as bad as damp-
ness, wouldn't it?'* He then inspected the two living
rooms. In the second of these he found a pile of hay.

'^It^s from our cheese barrels,** KobosefE explained;
and pointing at another pile he added: "And thafs
coke, sir.**

General Mrovinsky picked up a coal, examined it, threw
it back and wiped his fingers with some of the hay.

" Everything is all right,** he said to the police oflScers,
with a look of intelligence. He led the way back to the
store and then back again to the middle room. Here he
took a firm hold of the planking that lined the wall under
the street window. He tried to wrench it oflE, but it would
not yield, and he lei it go.

" Everything is all right,** he said to the captain, seating
himself on a sofa. A trunk and some pieces of furniture
were moved from their places and then put back. The
general knew a merchant by the name of Koboseff, so he
asked the cheese dealer if he was a relative of his. Urie
said no, and after some conversation about the cheese
business in general the officials went away.

" There is no mine in that place. You can make your-
self perfectly easy about it,** Mrovinsky said to the cap-
itain, as they made their way to the adjoining basement.

It was while they were conversing leisurely^ the old gen-

Digitized

by Google

286 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

eral seated on the lounge, that Pavel came in. He was
watched narrowly, but he played his part well, and as the
engineer had already intimated to the police oflBcers that
there was nothing suspicious about the premises he was not
even shadowed.

Thus reassured, the police of the locality set to work
preparing Little Garden street for the Czar^s drive to the
Biding School. This included an investigation as to the
character of the occupants of all the other shops and resi-
dences facing the street, as well as getting the pavement
in good repair.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XXXII.

THB T^Tcn TEREOB.

MEANWHILE a reform measure which subsequently
became known as " the constitution of Loris-Meli-
koflE ^* had been framed and submitted to the Czar
by the Minister of the Interior. The project called for the
convocation of a semi-representative assembly to be clothed
with consultative powers. It was framed in guarded lan-
guage, great pains having been taken to keep out anything
like an allusion to parliamentary government.

^'But it looks like the States-General/' the Czar said
to Loris-Melikoflf. The resemblance which the measure
bore to the opening chapter in the history of the French
revolution, where representatives of the three estates are
convened in consultative parliament, made a disagreeable
impression on him. Still, the project was ingeniously
worded as a measure tending to " enhance the confidence
of the monarch in his loyal subjects '*; so, upon a closer
reading, the Czar warmed to it, and returned the draft to
Loris-MelikofE with his hearty approval. This took place
at 12 o'clock on Sunday, March 13, 1881, one day after
the search at the cheese store. It was decided to have the
document read before the cabinet on Wednesday, after
which it was to be published over the imperial signature
in the Official Messenger.
The Czar was dressed in the uniform of the Sappers of
287

Digitized

by Google

288 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the Guards, whose review he was about to attend at the
Michafl Eiding Schools.

" I pray your Majesty to forego the trip/' Loris-MelikoflE
said, solicitously.

The Czar smiled. Princess Dolgoruld had made a simi-
lar request, and by accentuating his danger they both
only succeeded in challenging his courage. He felt as if
in the light of their appeal staying at home would mean
hiding. Instead of pleading with him for caution Loris-
Melikoff should have made an effort to secure a suspension
of hostilities in the enemy's camp. Had the revolution-
ists been aware of what was coming a truce on their part
would have been assured. And then, little as the project
to be divulged resembled a constitution in the western
sense of the word, it was yet the first approach to repre-
sentative legislation in the history of centralised Russia.
The Nihilists were pledged to abandon their Terror the
moment free speech had been granted, and although no
reference to questions of this character was made in the
''constitution,'' certain liberties in that direction might
have followed as a matter of course, as an offspring of
the new spirit which the measure was expected to inaugu-
rate. A distinquished revolutionary writer has pointed out
how easy it would have been for Loris-Melikoff to bring
his expectations to the knowledge of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Nihilists by setting a rumour on foot among
the professional and intellectual classes, many of whose
representatives, as the Vice-Emperor knew but too well,
were in touch with the central organization of the Will
of the People. Perhaps this method of communicating
with the revolutionists had not occurred to Loris-Melikoff;
perhaps the iron-clad secrecy that enclosed his project
was a necessary protection against the enemies of reform

Digitized

by Google

THE RED TERROR. 289

al court. However it may have been^ neither the revoluo
tionists nor their liberal allies had any inkling as to the
document about to be published in the Official Messenger.
Instead^ they saw the police and the gendarmerie con-
tinuing their riot of administrative violence; instead^ they
heard of an order by virtue of which a number of revolu-
tionists who had served their term within prison walls at
Kara, Siberia, and been admitted to partial freedom in the
penal colony outside, had suddenly been put in irons and
thrown back into their cells; whereupon some of them had
committed suicide rather than return to the tortures of
their former life. All of which had added gall to the
bitterness of the revolutionists at large and whetted their
distrust of the "crafty Armenian,'* as they called Loris-

Melikoff.

« « « « «

The Czar's favourite coachman, a stalwart, handsome
fellow, with a thick blond beard and clear blue eyes, sat
on the box of the closed imperial carriage, waiting in the
vast courtyard of the Winter Palace. An escort of six
lusty Cossacks, two gendarme ofiBcers and one of the sev-
eral chiefs of police of the capital held themselves in
readiness near by, the cossacks on their moimts, the other
three in their open sleighs. Presently a great door flew
open and the Emperor appeared, accompanied by an adju-
tant and a sergeant of the page corps. He wore a mili-
tary cape-cloak and a helmet. While the page held the
carriage door open, the Czar said to the coachman:

" By Songsters' Bridge 1 "

This was not his habitual route to the Biding Schools.
Not that he was aware of the suspicions which the cheese
shop on Little Garden street had aroused. He had not
the least idea of the existence of such a shop. He had

Digitized

by Google

290 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

decided on the new route merely as a matter of general
precaution, in case there was a mine somewhere. As to
pistol shots he was sufficiently screened by the walls of
his carriage as well as by the bodies of his cossacks and
their horses.

That calm feeling of reverent affection with which the
average Englishman hails his sovereign is unknown in Rus-
sia. But whether with reverence or mute imprecations,
the coach of a Czar disseminates thrills of fright as it pro-
ceeds. The cavalcade of horsemen and sleighs, with the
great lacquered carriage in the centre, was sailing and gal-
loping along like a grim alien force, diffusing an atmos-
phere of terror. To those who saw it approaching the fiery
cossacks on their fiery horses looked like a ferocious
band of invaders, their every fibre spoiling for violence,
rushing onward on an errand of conquest and bloody
reckoning.

It was a cloudy day. The streets were covered with
discoloured, brownish snow ; the snow on the roofs, window-
sills, cornices, gate-posts, was of immaculate whiteness,
apparently devoid of weight, smooth and neat, as though
trimmed by some instrument. There were few people
along the route followed by the little procession and most
of these were in their Sunday clothes. Now a civilian
snatched off his cap spasmodically, now a soldier drew
himself up with all his might, as though trying to lift
himself off his feet. Here and there a drunken citizen was
staggering along. Every person the carriage passed was
scrutinised by every member of the escort, by the cos-
sacks as well as by the chief of police and the gendarme
officers. The Biding Schools were soon reached.

Tl^e Emperor left the building less than an hour later.
He was accompanied by Grand Duke Michail, his brother;,

Digitized

by Google

THE RED TERROR. 291

the two going to the Michail Palace^ where they were to
have lunch with the Czar^s niece.

Sophia^ the ex-governor's daughter^ was watching the
imperial carriage from a point of vantage. Presently she
turned into a neighbouring street^ and passing a fair-com*
plexioned young man in a dark overcoat^ who held a white
package in his hand^ she raised her handkerchief to her
nose. The young man then hurried away toward Cath-
arine Canal. Three other men^ one of tiiem a gigantic
looking fellow, stood at so many different points, and
at sight of Sophia with her handkerchief to her nose,
they all started in the same direction as the first man.,
while the young woman walked over to the Neva Pros-
pect from which she crossed a bridge to the opposite
side of Catharine Canal.

It was half past two when the imperial carriage,
surrounded by the six cossacks and followed by the gen-
darme oflScers and the chief of police, set out on their
homebound journey. The handsome coachman let out
his horses. The group was scudding along at top speed.
The chief of police stood up in his sleigh, one of his
gloved hands on the shoulder of his driver, as he strained
his eyes now to the right now to the left, after the manner
of the human figure on the face of a certain kind of
clocks. The carriage turned to the right, passing a de-
tachment of marines who saluted the Czar by presenting
arms. The carriage was now on one of the banks of
the Catharine Canal, an iron railing to the right, a row
of buildings to the left. An employe of a horse-car
company, who was levelling off a ridge of caked snow
at this moment, hastily rested his crowbar against the
iron railing and bared his head. Some distance in front
of him a young man in a dark overcoat, and with a white

Digitized

by Google

THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

package in his hand^ was trudging along the canal side of
the street. He was passed and left in the rear by a
man in the uniform of a hospital nurse of the guards.
On the sidewalk to the left of the Czar^ another man^
also in military uniform^ was moving rapidly along^ while
from the opposite direction, in the middle of the snow-
covered street, came a boy pulling a little sled with a
basket of meat on it. Sophia was looking on from the
other side of the canal.

Colonel Dvorzhitzky (the chief of police) was scan-
ning the sidewalk to the left, when a terrific crash went
up from under the Czar's carriage. It was as if a mass
of deafening sound had lain dormant there, in the form
of a vast closed fan, and the fan had suddenly flown
open. The colonel's horses reared violently, hurling him
over the shoulder of his coachman. While he was sur-
veying the left side of the street, the employe of the
tramway company and several military people, coming
up alongside the railing, had seen the young man in the
dark overcoat lift his white package and throw it under
the Czar's carriage. The carriage came to a sudden halt
amid a cloud of smoke and snow dust. A second or
two passed before any of them could realise what it all
meant. The young man turned about and broke into a
run.

'* Catch him! Hold himl** the pedestrians shrieked
frantically, dashing after the running man.

He had reached a point some thirty feet back of the
imperial carriage when he was hemmed in. One of the
cossacks and the boy lay in the snow shrieking. One
of the rear comers of the carriage was badly shattered.
fFhe rest of it was uninjured, but during the first minute
or two its doors remained closed, so that the bystanders

Digitized

by Google

THE RED TERROR. 293

could not tell whether the Czar was htcrt or not. Then
the chief of police rushed up to the vehicle and flung
the right door open. The Czar was unhurt^ but ghastly
pale. He sat bending slightly forward^ his feet on the
bearskin covering the floor^ a gilt ash receiver on a shelf
in front of him.

"The guiliy man has been caught, your Imperial
Majesty!'' Colonel Dvorzhitzky burst out.

"Has he?'* the Emperor asked, in intense agitation.

"He has, your Imperial Majesty. They are holding
him. May I offer you to finish the journey in my

" Yes, but I first want to see the prisoner.'*

Pervaded by the conviction that another plot on
his life had failed, the Czar stepped out of the carriage,
and accompanied by a group of officers, some from his
escort and others from among the passers-by, he crossed
over to the sidewalk that ran along the canal railing,
erect and majestic as usual, but extremely pale with excite-
ment, and then turning to the right he walked toward
where a group of uniformed men were holding a fair-
complexioned beardless young fellow against the railing.
People, mostly in military uniforms, came running from
every direction.

Somebody asked : " How is the Emperor ? "

"Thank God,*' answered the Czar, "I have escaped,
but — : — ^" and he pointed at the wounded cossack and boy.

" It may be too soon to thank God," said the prisoner.

"Is this the man who did it?" the Czar asked, ad-
vancing toward him. " Who are you ? "

"My name is GlazofE."

The Czar turned back. He had made a few steps, when
a man who stood no more than three feet from him raised

Digitized

by Google

294 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

a white object high over his head and dashed it to the
ground, between the Emperor and himself.

There was another explosion, still more violent and
deafening than the first. The air was a turmoil of smoke,
snow-dust and shreds of uniforms, concealing everything
else from view. Sophia hurried away.

More than half a minute later, when the chaos had
partly cleared away, the Czar was seen in a sitting posture
on the snow-covered sidewalk, leaning against the railing,
his large oval head bare, his cape-cloak gone. He was
breathing hard. His face was in blood, the flesh of
his bared legs lacerated, the blood gushing from them
over the snow. A heap of singed, smoking tatters nearby
was all that had been left of his cloak.

With cries of horror and of overpowering pity the by-
standers rushed forward. Among them was a man with
a bomb under his coat like the two which had just
exploded. He was one of the four men who had shifted
their posts when they saw Sophia raising her handker-
chief to her nose. Had the second bomb failed to do its
bloody work, this Terrorist would have thrown his missile
when the imperial carriage came by his corner. As he
beheld the Czar on the ground and bleeding, however, he
instinctively flung himself forward to offer help to the
suffering man.

At sight of the prostrated Czar the men who held the
author of the first explosion, began to shower blows on
him.

*' Don^t ^^ he begged them, shielding his head and face.
*' I meant the good of the people.*'

Two yards from the Czar lay bleeding the unconscious
figure of a civilian. Further away were several other
prostrated men, in all sorts of uniforms.

Digitized

by Google

THE RED TERROR. 206

^' Help 1 ^^ the Czar uttered in a faint voice.

Somebody handed him a handkerchief, which he put
to his face, muttering " Cold, Cold.'' Several of the ma-
rines who had saluted him a few minutes ago and two
guardsmen placed him on Colonel Dvorzhitzky's sleigh.

When Grand Duke Michail appeared on the scene he
found his brother rapidly sinking.

*'Sasha,* do you hear me?'' he asked him, with tears
in his eyes.

The bystanders, who had never before heard their Czar
addressed in the form of affectionate familiarity, were
thrilled with a feeling of heart-tearing piiy and of the
most fervent devotion. Most of them had sobs in their
throats.

^^Yes," the Czar answered faintly.

''How do you feel, Sasha?"

"To the Palace — Quick," the Czar whispered. And
upon hearing somebody's suggestion that he be taken to
the nearest house for immediate relief, he uttered:

"Bear me to the palace — there — die ."

He reclined between two cossacks, with a gendarme
officer facing him and supporting his legs. This is the
way he returned home. Pedestrians met him with ges-
tures of horrified perplexity and acute commiseration now.

The crowd at one comer of Catharine Canal was a
babel of excitement and violence. In their mad rush
for the man who threw the second bomb, the bystanders
were accusing each other, grabbing at each other, quar-
relling, fighting. As Nihilists were for the most part peo-
ple of education, every man who looked college-bred was
in danger of his life. Among those who were beaten to
a pulp in this wild m§16e were two political spies who had

♦ Diminutive of Alexander.

Digitized

by Google

296 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

the appearance of university students. A shout went up
that the thrower of the fatal bomb had vaulted over the
fence of the Michail gardens nearby, and then the mob
broke down part of that fence, and ruined the gardens
in a wild but vain search for the Terrorist. People were
seized and hustled oflE to the station houses by the hun-
dred.

The heir apparent, a f air-complexioned Hercules, was
on his way to the Winter Palace surrounded by a strong
escort of mounted men. It was the first time he had
appeared in the streets so accompanied. The cluster of
horsemen and sleighs that had left the palace three hours
before never returned; this one was coming in its place;
but the effect of grim detachment, of fierce challenge

was the same.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

An hour had elapsed. The flag over the Winter Palace
which denotes Imperial presence was put at half-mast.
Church bells were tolling the death of Alexander II. and
the accession of Alexander III.

The new Czar was by his father's bedside. He was
even more powerfully built than he, but he lacked his
grace and the light of his intelligent eyes — a physical
giant with a look of obtuse honesty on a fair, bearded
round face. An English diplomatist who understood him
well has said that '^ he had a mind not only commonplace,
but incapable of receiving new ideas.'' When he saw his
father breathe his last, he exclaimed: ''This is what we
have come to I" — a celebrated ejaculation which an arch-
bishop uttered at the funeral of Peter the Great in 1725.
This was his first utterance as Emperor of Russia. Its
puerile lack of originality was characteristic of the man.

Princess Dolgoruki fainted, and she had no sooner been

Digitized

by Google

THE RED TERROR. 297

brought to than the packing of her trunks was ordered
by the sons of her dead husband.

The palace was surrounded by a strong cordon of
Cossacks. Palace Square was thronged, the neighbouring
streets were tremulous with subdued excitement. Some
people were sincerely overcome with grief and horror;
others were struggling to conceal their exultation. There
were such as wept and cursed the Nihilists by way of
displaying their own loyalty, and there were such as burst
into tears out of sheer solemnity and nervousness of the
moment. But the great predominating feeling that per-
vaded these crowds, eclipsing every other sentiment or
tliought, was curiosity. ** What is going to happen next? *'
— this was the question that was uppermost in the
minds of these people in their present fever of excite-
ment Had a republic been proclaimed with the Execu-
tive Committee of the Nihilists as a provisional govern-
ment, they woidd have sworn their allegiance to the bomb-
throwers as readily as they did, on the morrow, to the son
of the assassinated Emperor. Had the Terrorists suc-
ceeded, the same bearded bishops who blessed and sounded
the praises of the new Czar would have blessed and sounded

the praises of those who had killed his father.
« ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Pavel was in a suburb of the capital, when he first
heard the melancholy tolling of the church bells.

"Whafs the matter?*' he asked an elderly man who
was walking with a sleigh-load of bricks, the reins in
his hands.

** They say our little father, the Czar, has been killed,**
the other answered, making the sign of the cross with
his free hand. ^People say the Czarowitz is going to
cut down the term of military service. Is it true, sir?**

Digitized

by Google

298 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

"What is true?^^ Pavel asked. He was literally dazed
with excitement.

" A son of mine is in the army, sir/^ the other explained
reverently. " So I wonder if the new Czar will be easier
on the soldiers, sir.^^

Pavel hailed the first hackman he came across. He
was burning to know the details of the assassination and
to tell Clara that the first man he accosted on the great
news of the hour had shown indijSerence to the death of the
monarch.

When his sleigh reached the Neva Prospect, he saw
the new Czar, surrounded by a cohort of oflBcers in daz-
zling imiform, passing along the thoroughfare. The
crowds were greeting him with wild cheers. They cheered
their own emotions at sight of the man whose father had
come to so tragic a death, and they cheered their own
servility to the master of the situation.

These shouts filled Pavel with a mixed sense of defeat
and triumph. The gloomier feeling predominated. The
world looked as usual. It did not look as if this cheering,

servile, stolid mob would ever rise against anything.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

That evening placards bearing the name of the Execu-
tive Committee appeared on the walls of public buildings.
They announced the death of Alexander II. and admon-
ished his successor to adopt a liberal policy.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THB BSVELATION.

EVERY resident in the capital was being scanned and
spied after, and every house-porter was kept peek-
ing and seeking and reporting at the police station
of his precinct. The railway stations were teeming with
spies and a system was introduced by which every hack-
driver was expected to spy on his fare. The eflEect of it all
was that the great majority of St. Petersburg's population
was in a state of unspeakable terror. Curiosity, pity and
everjrthing else had given way to a nervous feeling of self-
preservation. People walked through the streets hastily.
The sight of a policeman was enough to send a twinge of
fright into the heart of the most loyal government clerk ;
everybody was afraid of everybody else. One avoided to
utter such words as '* Czar,*' " police,'^ " government.*^ As
to the Nihilists, one literally dreaded to think of them.
People who had never had a liberal thought in their brain
were tremulous with distrust of their own souls.

And through all this all-pervading panic Clara was busy
posting revolutionary proclamations in the streets, distrib-
uting tracts among students and working-people, keeping
"business** appointments with her "illegal** friends.
Pavel, in his turn, had all he could do to attend to the
needs of some of the out-of-town "circles.** The revolu-
tionists throughout the country were clamouring for in-

299

Digitized

by Google

300 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

formation, for proclamations, for speakers; so that the
seventy or eighty men and women who formed the inner-
most organisation were as feverishly busy in their way as
the police and the gendarmes were in theirs.

The authorities were ransacking the capital for Nihil-
ists in general and for the cheesemonger couple in particu-
lar, but during the first few hours following the two ex-
plosions their eagerness was centered on the man who had
thrown the fatal bomb. The search for that man soon
proved superfluous, however.

The civilian who was picked up imconscious near where
the Czar was stricken down had been taken to a hos-
pital. Late in the evening he had a brief interval of
consciousness.

"Who are you?^' an oflBcer then asked him.

"I don^t know,^' he answered. He had a relapse from
which he never awoke. The front of his body, particu-
larly the inner side of one arm, was covered with ghastly
wounds, from which experts inferred that at the time of
the explosion he could not have stood more than three
feet from the Czar. This, according to some eye-witnesses
of the catastrophe, was the distance between the deceased
monarch and the man who threw the second bomb. After
two days of searching and sniflSng the police discovered
the unknown man^s lodging, where they found some revo-
lutionary literature and other evidence that pointed to him
as tiie author of the fatal explosion. He had stood so
close to the Czar that it was impossible for him to make
a target of his victim without making one of himself.
His real name still remained unknown.

As to the first bomb-thrower, he proved to be a college
student named Rysakoff. In the hands of the gendarme
officers and the procureur he broke down and told all he

Digitized

by Google

THE REVELATION. 801

knew; but it appeared that he knew very little. He had
been one of a number of volunteers who offered to attack
the Emperor under the command of Zachar. When Za-
char's arrest became known to the Executive Committee
things had begun to be rushed. Sophia Perovskaya, the
ex-govemor^s daughter, had taken his place, and it was
decided to make the assault without delay. Zachar had
been arrested on Friday evening. As it was known to
Sophia that the Czar would visit the Siding Schools on
the next Sunday, the attempt was fixed for that occasion.
The Terrorists immediately connected with the plot held
their gatherings at a *' conspiracy lodgings'* kept by a
man and woman Eysakoff did not know. There the volun-
teers met Sophia and one of the inventors of the self-
igniting shell (the man with the priestly face whom we
saw at the meeting of the Executive Committee at which
Clara's wedding was to be celebrated). On Sunday morn-
ing (the day of the assassination) the volunteers — three
college men and an artisan — called at the same gather-
ing place. They foimd two finished bombs there and soon
Sophia arrived with two more. Where the bomb factory
was Eysakoff did not know. Sophia explained that it
took a whole night to make the four portable machines
and that more than four volunteers could not be accommo-
dated. She then drew a rough map of the Czar's expected
route, with four dots for the posts of the four bomb-
throwers. There were two sets of dots on the diagram.
In case the Czar failed to include Little Garden Street in
his route, the Terrorists were to shift their positions to
Catharine Canal and two neighbouring streets.

That afternoon, as Bysakoff stood on his post near Little
Garden Street, Sophia passed by him, her handkerchief
to her nose (the same sort of signal which the same young

Digitized

by Google

302 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

woman had given a year and a half before to the man
who fired the mine which blew up the imperial train near
Moscow). That meant that the Czar was not passing
through Little Garden Street. Accordingly, Eysakojff has-
tened over to Catherine Canal. There, after he had thrown
the bomb and while the Czar was spealdng to him, he saw
the three other volimteers each on his post.

The second bomb-thrower was known to EysakofiE under
the name of ^*the Kitten.^' His real name he did not
know.

He also gave the police the address of the "conspiracy
lodgings,^* which were located on the sixth floor of
a house on Waggon Street, and an hour or two later, at
midnight, two days after the killing of the Czar, the pro-
cureur, accompanied by gendarmes and police, knocked at
one of the doors of that apartment.

''Who is there ?'^ a masculine voice asked from within.

"Police and the procureur.*'

"What do you want?''

" Open the door at once or we'll break it down.'^

While they were raining blows on the door, a succession
of pistol shots was heard within. Another door flew
open, at the end of the corridor, and a woman made her
appearance.

"We surrender," she said. "Pray send for a doctor.
Look out, don't pass through this door. There are ex-
plosives there."

Inside they found the fresh corpse of a man lying in a
pool of blood. It was the gay poet; and the woman was
Hessia Helf man, the dark little Jewess with the frizzled
hair who was married to Purring Cat. It was she and the
man now lying dead from his own pistol shots who had
been in charge of this "conspiracy lodgings." Among

Digitized

by Google

THE REVELATION. 803

the things found in the apartment were the two bombs
which had been brought back from the scene of the assas-
sination; the rough map made by Sophia on the morning
before the attack and a large quantity of revolutionary
literature.

The former "conspiracy lodgings'' were now a police
trap, and on the very next morning it caught a big burly
man whom EysakofiE identified as Timothy MichailofiE, the
one mechanic among the four men who had been armed
with bombs on the fatal morning. Michailojff's memoran-
dum book furnished the police some important addresses,
but the great surprise of that eventful week did not come
until the following day, March 17th, and when it did it
was anything but a source of self-congratulation to the
authorities.

About ten o'clock in the morning of that day the porters
of the house on Little Garden Street where the KoboseflEs
kept their shop reported to the roimdsman that the cheese
dealer and his wife had not been home since the previous
evening, and that their shop was still closed. The rounds-
man, who, like every member of the St. Petersburg police
during those days, was overworked and badly in need of
rest, made no reply. An hour later the porter accosted
him again:

'* The shop is still closed. Customers have been around
and there is nobody in."

" Oh, I have no time to bother about it."

" But I think I saw something in that store, some strange
looking tools," pleaded the porter.

" The devil you did," the roundsman said, as much with
irritation as with amazement.

The statement was reported to the captain, who com-
municated it to his superiors, until finally an order was

Digitized

by Google

304 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

obtained to raid the shop. A search was made^ more

thorough than the firsts and with quite different results.

The lounge in the living room upon which General Mio-

vinsky had sat while speaking to Koboseff was found to

contain a heap of earthy and when the planks under the

window of the middle room were removed — the very ones

which General Mrovinsky had made a feeble attempt to

detach in the presence of KoboseflE and the police — a

large yawning hole presented itself to view. When this

part of the wall had been torn down, the aperture proved

to be the mouth of a subterranean passage enclosed in

wood. Seven feet from the shop began a charge of a

hundred pounds of dynamite with an electric battery near

by and wires running along the gallery back to the middle

room. Everything was in complete readiness. All that

was necessary to explode the mine was to connect the wires.

As was learned subsequently, this mine had been the

leading feature of the plot, the bombs having been added

in case the Czar left Little Garden Street out of his route

or the mine failed of its deadly purpose for some other

reason. Of the existence of such a mine Rysakoff had

not the remotest idea until he heard of it at the trial.
♦ « ♦ « ♦

On the Friday afternoon immediately preceding the
arrest of Jeliaboff (Zachar) the porter of the house where
he and Sophia were registered as brother and sister met
them in the gate as they were leaving the house together;
and later, at 9 o'clock in the evening, he saw Sophia return
alone. The next morning, after JeliaboflE had spent his
first night in prison, the police, in their effort to discover
his residence, ordered every porter in the city to ascertain
who of his tenants had been absent from home that night.
When the porter rang Sophia's bell that morning there

Digitized

by Google

THE REVELATION. 305

was no response. He reported it at the police station
where he was told to try again. At 2 o'clock he saw
Sophia.

" I have received some blanks from the police/' he said.
" Every tenant must state his occupation and place of busi-
ness.'*

*^ My brother is working now/' Sophia answered. " When
he comes home I'll tell him about it."

Two hours later she went out again^ and in order to
avoid passing the porter at the gate, she gained the street
through a little dry goods shop that had a rear door into
that yard, buying something for a pretext. She came
back, by way of the same dry goods shop, at 9 o'clock in
the evening and that was the last that was ever seen of
her in that neighbourhood. The next morning the porter
reported the disappearance of the couple.

When the police searched the deserted apartment they
found a number of revolutionary publications, several tin
boxes like those which formed the shells of the two ex-
ploding machines seized at the "conspiracy house" kept
by Hessia and the ''gay poet," and several cheeses bearing
the same trade-mark as those in Koboseff's shop.

Meanwhile Jeliaboff had heard the solemn tolling of the
bells in his prison cell. In the excitement of the hour a
gendarme on duty in the prison corridor, answered his
questions through the peep-hole, in violation of regula-
tions. Jeliaboff at once sent word to the procureur, as-
suming responsibility for the entire plot, as an agent of
the Executive Committee.

Sophia knew through a certain high official all thaf
transpired between Jeliaboff and the procureur. She
knew that the authorities were turning the capital inside
out in their search for the woman who had lived with

Digitized

by Google

306 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

JeliaboflE as his sister and for the KobosefiE couple, yet in
spite of all the pressure the Nihilists brought to bear on
her, persuading her to seek temporary retirement, she, like
Urie and Baska, remained in the heart of St. Petersburg, in
the very thick of her party's activity. Clara saw her at a
meeting during that week.

'^ You need rest, Sonia. You look tired.''

*' Do I? " Sophia answered with a smile. " So do you.
Everybody does these days."

Her smile was on her lips only. Her blue eyes were
inscrutably grave, but Clara saw a blend of lofty exalta-
tion and corroding anguish in them. She knew how dear
Jeliaboflf was to her. She had been craving to speak to
her of him, of Hessia and of the '*gay poet," who had
committed suicide at the time of Hessia's arrest; but at
this moment it was Sophia herself who filled her mind.

*' Sonia ! " Clara said, huskily.

''What is it, child?" the other asked, kindly.

For an answer Clara looked her in the face, smiling
shame-facedly. She did feel like an infant in her pres-
ence, although Sophia, with her small stature and fresh
boyish face, looked the younger of the two. She did not
know herself what she wanted to say. She was burning
to cover her with kisses and to break into sobs on her
breast, but Sophia was graver and more taciturn than usual
to-day, so she held herself in check. Her passion for tears
was subdued. She sat by Sophia's side absorbed in her
presence without looking her in the face, tingling with
something like the feeling of people in a graveyard, in
a moment of solemn ecstasy.

Clara came away burdened with unvoiced emotion. She
said to herself that when she saw .Pavel she would find
relief in telling him how she adored Sophia and how

Digitized

by Google

THE REVELATION. 807

thirsty her heart was because she had not unbosomed her-
self of these feelings to her; but when she and Pavel

were alone she said nothing.

« ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The porters of the house from which Sophia had van-
ished were asked at the police station whether they would
be able to single her out in a street crowd. They had to
admit that they were not sure whether they would. She
had lived under their eye for eight months^ but she had
always managed to pass through the gate, where they were
usually on duty, so as to leave no clear impression of her
features on their minds. Finally, on the sixth day, it
was discovered that the proprietress of the little dry goods
store had a clear recollection of her face. This woman,
accompanied by a police officer, then spent hours driving
about through the busiest streets, until, with a shout of
mixed joy and fright, she pointed out Sophia in a public
sleigh.

It was not many days before Kibalchich, the man with

the Christlike face, who was one of the inventors and

makers of the four bombs, and another revolutionist were

arrested in a caf6, through an address found in Timothy

Michailoff's note-book.

♦ ♦ ♦ « ♦

The trial of the six regicides so far captured, JeliabofE,
Sophia, Kibalchich, Hessia, EysakoflE, and Timothy Mich-
ailofE, was begun by a special Court of the Governing
Senate for Political Cases, on April 8. That Purring
Cat and the man with the Tartarian face, both of whom
were in prison now, had taken part in the digging of the
Koboseff mine, was still unknown to the police. Nor
had the authorities as yet been informed of the fact that
another " political '^ in their hands — the undersized man

Digitized

by Google

808 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

who had played the part of shop-boy to the cheese-dealer —
had had something to do with the same conspiracy.

Complete reports of the trial appeared in the newsr
papers, and the testimony and speeches of the accused
were read and read again.

Jeliaboff (" Zachar '^) declined a lawyer, taking his de-
fence in his own hands. His legal battles with the presid-
ing judge, his resource, his tact and his eloquence, made
him the central figure of the proceedings. He began by
challenging the court's jurisdiction in the case. "This
court represents the crown, one of the two parties con-
cerned,'* he said, " and I submit that in a contention be-
tween the government and the revolutionary parly there
could be only one judge — the people; the people either by
means of a popular vote, or through its rightful represent-
atives in parliament assembled, or, at least, a jury rep-
resenting public conscience.'* Declarations of ttiis kind,
Kibalchich's narrative as to how the blind brutality of the
government had transformed peaceful social workers into
Terrorists, and the effect of simple, dignified sincerity which
marked the conduct of all the prisoners produced such a
profoimd impression, that at the time of the next impor-
tant political trial scarcely any reports were allowed to be
published.

The six regicides were sentenced to death, the execution
of Hessia Helfman, who was about to become a mother,
being postponed and later commuted. When the parents
of Kolotkevich (Purring Cat) asked to be allowed to
bring up their son's child, the request was refused on the
ground that it was the child of two regicides and should
be brought up imder special care. The result of this
special care was that the child, like its pardoned mother,
soon died.

Digitized

by Google

THE REVELATION. 309

Sophia and the four condemned men died on the gallows,
on a public square. They were taken to their death on
two ^^ shame waggons/' dressed in convict clothes, each
with a board inscribed with the words " criminal of state ''
across his or her breast. The procession was accompanied
by a force of military large enough to conquer a country
like Belgium. Sophia was the first woman executed on
Bussian soil since 1719.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XXXIV.

THE CZAB TAKES COUEAGB.

ALEXANDEE III. and his court moved to the long-
deserted imperial palace at Gatchina, a village 28
English miles from St. Petersburg. The young
Czar and his entourage were in a state of nervous tension.
Economically, the country was in the throes of hard times.
Districts rich in the potentialities of industry and pros-
perity were in the grip of famine. Driven by bad crops
and extortionate taxes, thousands of village families were
abandoning their homes to go begging. Cities were
crowded with such mendicants from surrounding villages,
and the industrial centres were full of workmen out of em-
ployment. Politically, a demoralising feeling of suspense
hung over the empire. The masses had seen one Czar —
the ward of a vigilant guardian angel — prostrated. The
crown^s prestige was shaken, and the Czar's seeking refuge
in a secluded village did anything but retrieve it. The
number of Idse majesU cases had suddenly grown so large
that by a special imperial ukase these offences were trans-
ferred from the publicity of the courts to the obscure
depths of " justice by administrative order.*' Prom several
places came reports of riots against the police, while the
universities manifested their hostility to the throne quite
openly. Subscription lists for a monument to the assas-
sinated Czar were torn to pieces and those who circulated

310

Digitized

by Google

THE CZAR TAKES COURAGE. 311

them were publicly hissed and insulted. The portents of
turbulence were in the air.

Loris-MelikofE submitted to the new Czar the ^^consti-
tution^' of which Alexander II. had approved an hour
before his violent death. Alexander III. read it and
wrote on the margin of the paper: "Very well con-
ceived^'; and two days later, after the project had been
carried at a cabinet meeting by a vote of eight against
five, the Czar, while conversing with his brother. Grand
Duke Vladimir, on the measure to be introduced, said,
joyfully :

^' I feel as though a mountain had rolled off my shoul-
ders.^'

But the conservative party at court had the support of
a new power behind the throne. M. Pobiedonostzeff, form-
erly tutor of the present Czar and now his favourite ad-
viser, was a man of much stronger purpose than Loris-Meli-
koff. He fought against the innovation tooth and nail, and
the publication of it in the Official Messenger was post-
poned from day to day. The leader of the Panslavists was
invited from Moscow; every conservative influence was
brought to bear upon a Czar who was absolutely incapable
of forming his own opinion. All this was done in the

strictest secrecy from Loris-Melikoff.

« ♦ « « «

Meanwhile, during Easter week, seven days after the
approval of the " constitution '^ by a majorily of the min-
isters and twelve days subsequent to the execution of the
regicides, a furious anti-Jewish riot broke out in Elisavet-
grad, a prosperous city in the south. A frenzied drink-
crazed mob had possession of the town during two days,
demolishing and pillaging hundreds of houses and shops,
covering whole streets with debris and reducing thousands

Digitized

by Google

312 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

of people to beggary. And neighbouring towns and vil-
lages followed the example of the larger city.

The Czar took alarm. It looked like the prelude to a
popular upheaval.

^^Ifs only an anti-Semitic disturbance^ your Imperial
Majesly/' PobiedonostzefE reassured him. " There was one
like that ten years ago, in Odessa."

The Elisavetgrad outbreak was, indeed, a purely local
affair, but it happened at a time that was highly favour-
able to occurrences of that nature. Originally organised
by some high-bom profligates^ victims of a gang of Jewish
usurers, it had nothing to do with the general situation
save in so far as there was in the hungry masses a blind
disposition to attack somebody; a disposition coupled with
a feeling that the usual ties of law and order had been
loosened. When, in addition, the target of assault hap-
pened to be the stepchild in Russia's family of peoples, the
one forever kicked and cuffed by the government itself,
the rioters' sense of security was complete. Moreover,
among the victims of Jewish usurers were hundreds of
army officers and civil officials who lived beyond their
means, and from these came a direct hint at impunity.
The attack had been carefully planned, but the imbruted
mob acted on its own logic, with the result that thousands
of artisans, labourers, poor tradesmen, teachers, rabbis,
dreamers, were plundered and ill-treated while the handful
of usurers escaped.

The promise of impunity was fulfilled. Neighbouring
towns and villages followed the example of Elisavetgrad,
and ten days later. May 8-9, similar atrocities, but with a
far greater display of fury and bestiality, occurred in Eieff,
where a dozen murders and an enormous list of wounded
and of outraged women was added to the work of de-

Digitized

by Google

THE CZAR TAKES COURAGE. 813

vastatlon and plunder. The Kieff authorities encouraged
all this in a thousand ways^ while indiyidual officers and
men took part in the pandemonium of havoc and rape.

*'Easy, boys/' said the governor of the province, with
an amused smile, as he drove past the busy rioters at the
head of a procession of fashionable spectators.

Loris-Melikoff was scarcely to be held responsible for
these occurrences. He had his own cares to worry him.
The reins were fast slipping out of his hands. Indeed,
the attitude of governors, chiefs of police, military offi-
cers, toward the spreading campaign against the Jews was
a matter of instinct The '^ spirit of the moment,'* as it
had become customary to denote the epidemic of anti-
Jewish feeling in official circles, gleamed forth clear and
unequivocal, and local authorities acted upon it on their
own hook. The real meaning of this '' spirit of the mo-
ment '' lay in the idea that if there was a state of general
unrest threatening the safety of the throne, it was spend-
ing itself on anti-Semitic ferocity; that if a storm-cloud
was gathering over the crown, an electric rod had been
found in the Chosen People.

The Czar took courage.

Two days after the Kieff riot he promulgated a mani-
festo, framed by Pobiedonostzeff, and proclaiming the
continuance of tmqualified iron-handed absolutism. The
*' constitution'^ went into the archives. Loris-Melikoff's
public career had come to a close. (General Ignatyeff, a
corrupt time-server, was appointed Minister of the Inte-
rior and a policy of restriction and repression was adopted
that brought back the days of Nicholas I.

Ignatyeff encouraged the '* spirit of the moment " with
all the means at his command. One of the very first
things he did was to order the expulsion of thousands of

Digitized

by Google

314 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Jews from Kieff . At the trial of some of the rioters
the state attorney unceremoniously acted as advocate for
the defendants.

The effect of all this upon the public mind was a fore-
gone conclusion. The general inference was that anti-
Jewish riots met with the government's approval. The
outrages passed from Kieff to neighbouring cities; from
there to Odessa; from Odessa to other sections of the
south. They were spreading throughout the region in
which Miroslav is located with the continuity of a regular
crusade and with a imif ormity of detail that was eloquent
of a common guiding force.

It was a new phase of White Terrorism.

* * * * «

To Pavel the crusade against Clara^s race was a source
of mixed encouragement and anxiety.

*' Hurrah, old fellow/' he said to (Jodf ather one morn-
ing. *'It does look as though the Russian people could
kick, doesn't it?''

** Yes, if they can attack Jewish usurers, I don't see why
they could not turn upon the government some day."

''And, while they are at it, upon the land-plimdering
nobility, upon fellows like you and me, eh?" He poked
Urie in the ribs gleefully.

In his conversations with Clara, however, the subject
was never broached, and this gave him a sense of guilt and
uneasiness. He could not help being aware that instead of
usurers the chief target of attack in every riot, without a
single exception, were Jewish artisans, labourers, teachers
and the poorest tradesmen. And this, so far as Clara was
concerned, meant that the common people of Pavel's race,
for whose sake she was facing the solitary cell and the
gallows, that these Christian people were brutally assault*

Digitized

by Google

THE CZAR TAKES COURAGE. 315

ing and pillaging, reducing to beggary and murdering poor
honest, innocent people of her own blood, Jews like her
father, mother, sister, like herself.

But this bare fact did not fit in with Nihilist theory.
That golden halo which had been painted about the com-
mon Christian people by the ecstasies of the anti-serfdom
movement of twenty years ago had not yet faded. The
Gentile masses were still deified by the Nihilists. What-
ever the peasant or workman of Slavic blood did was still
sacred, — an instinctive step in the direction of liberty and
universal happiness. The Russian masses were rioting;
could there be a better indication of a revolutionary
awakening? And if the victims of these riots happened
to be Jews, then the Jews were evidently enemies of the
people.

That the crusade was part and parcel of the ''white
terror*' of the throne had not yet dawned upon the revo-
lutionists.

As to Clara, she was so completely abandoned to her
grief over the death of Sophia and the four men that
80 far the riots (no unheard-of thing in the history of the
Jews by any means) had made but a feeble appeal to her
imagination. Centuries seemed to divide her from her
race and her past. The outbreaks seemed to be taking
place in some strange, distant country.

The execution of the five regicides had been described
quite fully in the Official Messenger and the account had
been copied in all other newspapers. Clara kept the issue
of the Voice containing the report in a book, and although
she knew its salient passages by heart, she often consulted
the paper, now for this paragraph, now for that. There
was a sacred mystery in the letters in which the description
was printed.

Digitized

by Google

316 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

*'The five prisoners approached the priests almost at
the same moment and kissed the cross; after which they
were taken by the hangmen each to his or her rope/*
Clara beheld the ropes dangling and Sophia placed nnder
one of them, but her aching heart coveted more vividness.
Her imagination was making desperate eflPorts to reproduce
the scene with the tangibility of life. Each time she read
how the hangman, dressed in a red shirt, slipped the noose
about Sophia's neck amid the roll of drums, and how he
wrenched the stool from imder her feet, so that she
plunged with a jerk, and how the next instant her body
hung motionless in the air, each time Clara read this she
was smitten with an overpowering pang of pity and of
helpless, aimless, heart-tearing affection. Sometimes she
would fancy Sophia and her four comrades rescued from
the hangman's hands a second before their execution, and
carried triumphantly through the streets by an army of
victorious revolutionists, but the next moment it would
come back to her that this had not been the case, and then
the re-awakening to reality was even more painful than
the original shock. If a rescuing force were now ready
to attack the hangman and the thousand-bayoneted guard
around him, it would be too late. Sophia was dead, irre-
trievably dead; there was nobody to rescue. And Clara's
heart sank in despair. At such moments she woidd seek
relief in those passages of the report where the calmness
of the condemned revolutionists was depicted. '* Jeliaboff
whispered to his priest, fervently kissed the cross, shook his
hair and smiled. Fortitude did not forsake Jeliaboff,
Sophia and particularly Ebalchich (the man with the
face of Christ) to the very moment of donning the white-
hooded death-gown" — these passages gave Clara thrills of
religious bliss.

Digitized

by Google

THE CZAR TAKES COURAGE. 317

Pavel often talked to her about the execution, raved,
cursed the government; but Clara usually remained gloom-
ily taciturn. The wound in her soul was something too
sacred to be talked about. Words seemed to her like sac-
rilege. Their hearts understood each other well enough,
why, then, allow language to intrude upon their speechless
communion? Some of his effusions and outbursts jarred
on her. On the other hand, her silences made him rest-
less.

" You'll go insane if you keep this up," he once said,
irascibly.

" I don't care if I do,** she answered. *' Don't nag me,
Pashenka, pray."

** But the thing is becoming an idee fixe in your mind,
upon my word it is. Can't you try and get back to your
senses? What is death after all? Absolute freedom
from suffering, thaf s all. There is nothing to go crazy
over anyhow. There is nothing but a dear, a glorious,
a beautiful memory of them, and that will live as long as
there is such a thing as history in the world."

She made no reply. She tried to picture Sophia free
from suffering, but this only sharpened her pain. Sophia
not existing? The formula was even more terrible than
death. In reality, however, her atheism was powerless
to obliterate her visions. Sophia existed somewhere, only
she was solemnly remote, as though estranged from her.
Clara could have almost cried to her, imploring for recog-
nition.

« « « • «

But this mood of hers could not last forever. Sooner
or later she would awaken to the full extent of the riots
and to the fact that they are raging in the vicinity of Mir-
oslav, threatening the safety of her nearest relatives. How

Digitized

by Google

318 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

would she take it then? The question intruded upon
PaveFs peace of mind again and again.

For the present, however, she was taken up with her
thoughts of Sophia, Zachar or Hessia. Poor Hessia!
They had robbed her of her baby, the thugs, even as they
had that woman of the " gay bard^s '^ poem. " To lead a
married life under conditions such as ours is pure mad-
ness,^^ she said to herself.

One afternoon, as she and her lover sat on the lounge,
embracing and kissing deliriously, she suddenly sprang to
her feet, her cheeks burning, kissed Pavel on his forehead
and crossed over to the window.

He shrugged his shoulders resentfully.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXXV.

A HUNTED PEOPLE.

IT was Friday night at the Old Synagogue, but the cheery
voices of Sabbath Eve were not there. The air of
having cast one^s cares aside was missing. Instead
of a light-hearted turmoil of melody there was a' hushed
murmur that betrayed suspense and timidity. Ever and
anon some worshipper would break oflp his hymn and strain
his ears for a fancied sound outside. The half hour spent
away from home seemed many hours. Very few people
were present and none of these wore their Sabbath clothes.
Most of the other synagogues were closed altogether. Eab-
bi Eachmiel, Clara's father, and several others were aban-
doned to an ecstasy of devotion, but their subdued tones
had in them the fervent plea of Atonement Day, the tear-
ful plea for an enrolment in the Book of Life rather than
the joyous solemnity that proclaims the advent of the
Higher Soul. The illumination in honour of Sabbath the
Bride was a sorry spectacle. The jumble of brass chande-
liers hung unbumished and most of them were empty.
The synagogue had a troubled, a cowed look. It dared
not shine brightly, nor burst into song merrily lest it
should irritate the Gentiles. Here and there a man sat
at his prayer book weeping quietly.

Members of the congregation who had not been on speak-
ing terms for years had made peace, as a matter of course.

310

Digitized

by Google

320 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

The spreading frenzy of the Gentile population impressed
them as an impersonal, elemental force. They were cling-
ing to each other with the taciturnity of ship-passengers
when the vessel shudders in the grip of danger. And not
only did they nestle to each other, but the entire present
generation felt drawn to all the former generations of
their hunted race. The terrors of the Inquisition, the
massacres, the exiles, the humiliations, of which one usu-
ally thought as something belonging to the province of
books exclusively, had suddenly become realities. The
Bloody Spot, the site of the present synagogue, where 800
Jews had been slain more than two centuries ago, gleamed
redder than ever in every mind. It was both terrifying
and a spiritual relief to beseech the souls of those eight
hundred martyrs to pray for their panic-stricken descend-
ants. The Russian Jews of 1881 felt themselves a living
continuation of the entire tearful history of their people.

When the service was over, at last, the usual " Good Sab-
bath! Good Sabbath !'* always so full of festivity, was
littered in lugubrious whispers, which really meant: '^May
God take pity upon us.** Nor was there a rush for the
door. Quick, noisy movements were carefully avoided in
these days.

Some of the worshippers had slowly filed out, when there
was a stir, and the crowd scrambled back with terrified
faces.

**Two Gentiles are coming, an army oflScer and a man
in civilian clothes,** said some of those who came running
back.

The look of terror gave way to one of eager curiosity.
The appearance of two refined Gentiles was not the way
an anti-Jewish riot was usually ushered in.

The ^'two Gentiles** turned out to be Dr. Lipnitzky

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED PEOPLE. 321

and Vladimir Vigdoroff, the one in his military nnif onn^
and the other in a summer suit of rough duck. When
they were recognised they were greeted with looks of affec-
tion and expectancy. The pious old-fashioned people who
had hitherto regarded Dr. Lipnitzky despairingly as more
Glentile than Jew, now thought of him tenderly as an
advocate of Israel in the enemy^s camp.

'* Don't be so scared/* the little doctor said with friendly
acerbity, as he paused in the centre of the synagogue.
" We are Jews like yourselves — the same kind of Jews all
of us. We were passing by, so we thought we would look
in. We saw the synagogue was almost dark, though it is
still so early. The lights could not yet have gone out.
If s enough to break one's heart.'* He was choking with
embarrassment and emotion and his words produced a
profound eflPect. People of his class were not in the habit
of attending divine service. The doctor's military uni-
form, in fact, had never been seen in a synagogue before.
But the great point was that instead of Russian or Ger-
manised Yiddish which he habitually aflPected with un-
educated Jews he was now speaking in the plain, imem-
bellished vernacular of the Ghetto. His listeners knew
that he was the son of a poor illiterate brick-maker, a plain
''Yiddish Jew" like themselves, yet they could scarcely
trust their ears. They eyed his shoulder-straps and sword-
hilt, and it seemed incredible that the man who wore
these things was the man who was speaking this fluent,
robust Yiddish. His halo of inaccessible superiority had
suddenly faded away. Everybody warmed to him.

*' We'll be here to-morrow, we'll attend the service. And
next Saturday, too. Every Saturday. We're Jews." He
could not go on. Some of his listeners had tears in their
eyes. Vladimir was biting his lips nervously.

Digitized

by Google

322 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

"Still, it is not to see you cry that we have come to
you/* the doctor resumed: but he was interrupted by
Clara^s father, who, advancing toward him with glaring
eyes, said, in a voice shrill with rage:

** Now that Jewish blood is flowing in rivers you people*
come to do penance ! It is too late. It is the sins of men
like yourselves that have brought this punishment upon us.
A Gentile Jew is even worse than a bom Gentile/* He
put up his fists to his temples and gasped : " Better be-
come Christians ! Better become Christians ! **

The crowd had listened with bated breath, but at last
somebody said : " Oh shut up ! ** and similar shouts burst
from forty or fifty other men.

" We are all Jews, all brethren.**

" We*ll settle old scores some other time.**

" A good heart is as good as piety.**

"Yes, but why don*t you give the doctor a chance to
speak? '* Vladimir stepped up to his uncle and pleaded with
him.

"Who is he?** said Dr. Lipnitzky with a smile. "Is
he crazy?** And flying into a passion, he was about to
address Babbi Bachmiel, but held himself in check. A
feeble old man of eighty with a very white beard was
arguing from the Talmud with Clara*s father.

"^The sinner who returns to God may stand upon
ground upon which the righteous are not allowed to
stand,*** he quoted. ''Again, 'Through penance even
one*s sins are turned to good deeds.* **

When Babbi Bachmiel tried to reply, he was shouted
down by the crowd. They were yelling and gesticulating
at him, when somebody mounted a bench and fell to swish-
ing his arms violently. " Hush I ** he said in a ferocious
whisper. "Do you want to attract a mob?** His words

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED PEOPLE.

had an immediate effect^ and then Babbi Bachmiel said to
his nephew, in much milder but deeply grieved accents :

"Do you know what the Talmud says? *As long as
you shall do the will of God no strange people shall
domineer over you, but if you don^t do the will of Gtod,
God will hand you over to a low people, and not merely
to a low people, but to the beasts of a low people/ ^'

" All right, rabbi. This is not the time for argument,'*
the doctor said, kindly. *^I have some important infor-
mation for you all, for all of us. There won't be any
rioting in this town. You may be sure of it. That* s
what my young friend and I have dropped in to tell you.
I have seen the governor'' — his listeners pressed eagerly
forward — ^^ there will be plenty of protection. The main
point is that you should not tempt the Gentiles to start a
riot by showing them that you dread one. Don't hide,
nor keep your shops closed, as that would only whet one's
appetite for mischief. Do you understand what I say to
you ? This is the governor's opinion and mine too. Every-
body's."

His auditors nodded vigorous and beaming assent.

" He particularly warns the Jews not to undertake any-
thing in the way of self-defence. That would only arouse
ill-feeling. Besides, it's against the law. It could not be
tolerated. Do you understand what I am saying or do
you not? Every precaution has been taken and there is
really no danger. Do you imderstand? There is no
danger, and if you go about your business and make no
fuss it will be all right. I have spoken to several oflScers
of my regiment, too. Of course, you wouldn't have to
look hard to find a Jew-hater among them, but they spoke
in a friendly way and some of them are really good-
natured fellows. They assured me that if the troops were

Digitized

by Google

324 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

called out they would protect our people with all their
hearts/'

Every man in the group looked like a prisoner whai the
jury announces an acquittal. Some, in a flutter of joy,
hastened to carry the news to their wives and children.
fThe majority hung about the uniformed man, as if ready
to stay all night in his salutary presence, while one man
even ventured to say quite familiarly : *^ May you live long
for this, doctor. Why, you have put new souls into us.'*
Whereupon he was told by another man, through clenched
teeth, that it was just like him to push himself forward.

Each man had his own tale of woe to tell, his own ques-
tions to ask. One man, whose appearance and manner
indicated that he was a tin-smith, had a son at the gym-
nasium and a Gentile neighbour whose wife became green
with envy as often as she saw the Jewish boy in his hand-
some uniform. She was much better off than the tin-smith
yet her children were receiving no education.

^^But why should you pay any attention to her?'' Dr.
Lipnitzky asked.

"I don't, but my wife does. You know how women
are, doctor. They take everything hard. Last week the
Gentile woman said aloud that it was impudent on the
part of Jews to dress their boys up in gymnasium uni-
forms, as if they were noblemen, and that it was time
Miroslav did like all God-fearing towns and started a riot
against the Jews. So my wife is afraid to let the boy
wear the uniform, and I think she is right, too. Let flie
eyes of that Gentile woman creep out of their sockets
without looking at the child's uniform. It is vacation
time anyhow. But the boy, he cried all day and made a
rumpus and said the school authorities would punish him
if he was seen in the street without his uniform. Is it

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED PEOPLE. 325

true, doctor? I am only an ignorant workman. What do
I know?''

"Yes, it is true, and tell your wife not to mind that
woman/' answered Dr. Lipnitzky, exchanging a woebegone
look with Vladimir.

"I have some goods lying at the railroad station for
me/' said a little man with a puckered forehead. "It
has been there about a month. ^ Shall I take it to the
shop so that the rioters may have some more goods to
pillage?' I thought to myself. Would you really advise
me to receive it, doctor?"

Dr. Lipnitzky took fire. "Do you want me to sign a
guarantee for it?" he said. "Do you want me to be
responsible for the goods ? You people are an awful lot."

"I was merely asking your advice, doctor/' the man
with the puckered forehead answered, wretchedly. "You
can't do much business these days, anyhow. The best
Gentiles won't pay. One has nothing but a book full of
debts. Besides, when the door flies open one's soul sinks.
And when a Gentile customer comes in you pray God that
he may leave your shop as soon as possible. For who
knows but his visit may be a put-up job and that all he
wants is to pick a quarrel as a signal for a lot of other
rowdies to break in?"

"And the Gtentile sees your cowardice/' the doctor cut
in with an effect of continuing the man's story, " and be-
comes arrogant, and this is the way a riot is hatched." By
degrees he resumed his superior manner and his German-
ised Yiddish, but his tone remained warm.

" Arrogant ! " said a tall, stooped, neatly-dressed jeweller.
" You have told us of some honest officers, doctor. Well,
the other day an army officer came into my place with a
lady. He selected a ring for her, and when I said it was

Digitized

by Google

326 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

forty rubles, he made no answer, but sent the lady away
with the ring, and then — you should have seen him break
out at me. I had put him to shame before a lady, he said.
He was good for forty times forty dollars, and all the
Jews were a lot of cut-throats and blood-suckers; that all
we were good for was to ask oflBcers to protect us against
rioters, and that my shop was made up of ill-gotten wealth
anyhow. I had never seen the man before and I insisted
upon being paid; but he made such a noise, I was afraid
a crowd might gather. So I let him go, but I sent out
my salesman after him and he found out his name. Then
I went before his colonel '^ (the jeweller named the regi-
ment), ^^but what do you think the colonel said: ^He's a
nice fellow. I shall never believe it of him. And if he
owes you some money, he^U pay you. At a time like this
you Jews oughtn^t to press your claims too hard/ That^s
what the colonel said.^'

When a shabby cap-maker with thick bloodless lips told
how he had let a rough-looking Gentile leave his shop in
a new cap without paying to^ it, the doctor flew into a
passion.

"Why did you? Why did you?^^ he growled, stamping
his feet, just as he would when the relatives of a patient
neglected to comply with his orders. " It is just like you
people. I would have you flayed for this.^^

This only encouraged the cap-maker to go into the
humour of the episode.

"I was poking around the market place, with a high
pile of caps on either hand,^^ he said, "when I saw a
Gtentile with a face like a carrot covered full of warts.
^Aren^t you ashamed to wear such a cap?'^ says I.
^ Aren^t you ashamed to spoil a handsome face like yours
by that rusty, horrid old thing on your head? ' "

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED PEOPLE. 827

"Oh, I would have you spanked/' the little doctor
snarled smilingly. Whereupon several of the bystanders
also smiled.

" Hold on, doctor. I spanked myself. Well, the Gen-
tile was not hard to persuade, though when we got at my
place he was rather hard to please. He kept me plucking
caps from the ceiling until the very pole in my hand got
tired of the job. At last he was suited. I thought he
would ask how much. He didn't. He did say something,
but that was about anti-Jewish riots. * This cap will do,'
he then said, ^ Gk)od-bye old man,' and made for the door.
And when I rushed after him and asked for the money
he turned on me and stuck the biggest fig* you ever saw
into my face. Since then when I see the good looks of a
Gentile spoiled by a horrid old cap I try not to take it to
heart."

The doctor laughed. " And you let him go without pay-
ing?" he asked.

"I should say I did. I was glad he didn't ask for
the change."

Another man confessed to having had an experience of
this kind, a customer having exacted from him change
from a ruble which he had never paid him.

"He was a tough looking customer, and he made a
rumpus, so I thought to myself, * Is this the first time I
have been out of some cash? Let him go hang himself.'
And the scoundrel, he gave me a laugh, called me accursed
Jew into the bargain and went his way."

"Did you ask him to call again?" the cap-maker de-
manded, and noticing Clara's father by his side, he added :
" This is not the way Eabbi Eachmiel's wife does business,

* A sign of contempt and defiance consisting in the thumb being put
between the next two fingers.

Digitized

by Google

328 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

is it? She would make him pay her the dollar and the
change, too.^'

The doctor burst into laughter, the others echoing it
noisily. Only Vladimir^s face wore a look of restless
gravity. It was the restlessness of a man who is trjring to
nerve himself up to a first public speech. His heart was
full of something which he was aching to say to these
people, to unburden himself of, but his courage failed
him to take the word. Presently a man too timid to seek
information in the centre of the assembly addressed a
whispered inquiry to Vladimir and Vladimir's answer
attracted the attention of two or three bystanders. Grad-
ually a little colony branched oflf from the main body.
He was telling them what he knew from the newspapers
about the latest anti-Jewish outbreaks in various towns;
and speaking in a very low voice and in the simplest
conversational accents, he gradually passed to what weighed
on his heart. He knew Yiddish very well indeed, yet he
had considerable diflSculty in speaking it, his chief impedi-
ment lying in his inability to render the cultured language
in which he thought into primitive speech. His Yiddish
was full of Russian and German therefore, but some of
his listeners understood it all, while the rest missed but
an occasional phrase.

** People like myself — those who have studied at the
gymnasia and universities'* — he went on in a brooding,
plaintive undertone, "feel the misery of it all the more
keenly because we have been foolish enough to imagine
ourselves Russians, and to keep aloof from our own people.
Many of us feel like apologising to every poor suflfering
Jew in Russia, to beg his forgiveness, to implore him to
take us back. We were ashamed to speak Yiddish. We
thought we were Russians. We speak the language of

Digitized

by Google

A HUNTED PEOPLE-

the Gtentiles^ and we love it so dearly; we have adopted
their ways and customs; we love their literature; every-
thing Eussian is so dear to us; why should it not be? Is
not this our birthplace? But the more we love it, the
more we try to be like Eussians, the more they hate us.
My uncle, Sabbi Eachmiel, says it is too late to do penance.
Well, I do feel like a man who comes to confess his sins
and to do penance. It is the blood and the tears of our
brothers and sisters that are calling to us to return to our
people. And now we see how vain our efforts are to be
Eussians. There was a great Jew whose name was Hein-
rich Heine.*' (Two of the men manifested their acquaint-
ance witii the name by a nod.) ^^He was a great writer
of poetry. So he once wrote about his mother — how he
had abandoned her and sought the love of other women.
But he failed to find love anywhere, until ultimately he
came to the conclusion that the only woman in whom he
was sure of love was his own dear mother. This is the
way I feel now. I scarcely ever saw the inside of a syna-
gogue before, but now I, like the doctor, belong here. It
is not a question of religion. I am not religious and can-
not be. But I am a Jew and we all belong together.
And when a synagogue happens to stand on a site like

this ''

He broke off in the middle of the sentence. His allu-
sion to the massacre of two centuries before inspired him
with an appalling sense of the continuity of Jewish suffer-
ing. The others stood about gazing solemnly at him,
until the scholarly old man of eighty with the very white
beard broke silence. He raised his veined aged little
hands over Vladimir's head and said in a nervous treble:
" May God bless you, my son. That's all I have to say."
Vladimir was literally electrified by his words.

Digitized

by Google

330 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" But what do they want of us? '^ asked a man with a
blueish complexion. " You say they are good-natured. Do
you call it good-natured when one acts like a wild beast^
bathing in the blood of innocent people ? ^*

^^Well, this is the Gentile way of being good-natured/'
somebody put in, with a sneer, before Vladimir had time
to answer.

'^ They have been turned into savages,'* VigdorofiE then
said. He maintained the low, mournful voice, though he
now put a didactic tone into it. " They are blind, igno-
rant people. They are easily made a catspaw of .*'

The man with the blueish complexion interrupted him.
He spoke of Gentile cruelty, of the Inquisition, the Cru-
sades, massacres, and almost with tears of rage in his eyes
he defied Vladimir to tell him that Jews were capable of
any such brutalities. Vladimir said no, Jews were not
capable of any bloodshed, and went on defending the Bus-
fiian people. The man with the sneer was beginning to
annoy him. He was an insignificant looking fellow with
very thin lips and a very thin fiat blond beard. Even
when his face was grave it had a sneering eflfect. He said
very little. Only occasionally he would utter a word or
two of which nobody else took notice. Yet it was chiefly
to him that Vladimir was addressing himself. But the
assembly was soon broken up. Rabbi BachmiePs wife
came in at the head of several other women who were not
afraid to walk through the streets after sundown in these
days. They had grown uneasy about their husbands'
delay.

Vladimir saluted his aunt warmly. They exchanged a
few words, but nothing was said of Clara. An " illegal'*
person like her could not be mentioned in public.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XXXVI.

A PAPEB FROM THE OZAB.

ALABGE crowd of peasants^ in tall straw hata^ many
of them with their whips in their hands, congre-
gated in front of the bailiff's office at Zorki. It
was a sultry afternoon in August. A single shirt of
coarse white linen and a pair of trousers of the same ma-
terial were all the clothes the men wore. The trousers
were very wide and baggy but drawn tight at the bottom
by means of strings, so that they dropped at the ankles
blouse-fashion, and the loose-fitting shirt fell over
the trousers with a similar effect. Most of the shirts were
embroidered in red and blue. Sometimes, as a result of
special rivalry among the young women, one village will
affect gaudier embroidery and more of it than its neigh-
bours. This could be seen now at one comer of the crowd
where a group of peasants, all from the same place, defined
itself by the flaming red on the upper part of their sleeves.
There were women, too, in the crowd, the girls in wreaths
of artificial fiowers and all of them in ribbons and coral
beads, though some of them were barefoot.

A strong smell of primitive toil emanated from their
bodies; primitive ideas and primitive interests looked out
of their eyes. The northern moujik — the Great, or
"reaV^ Russian — who speaks the language of Turgeneff
and Tolstoy, has less poetry than the Little-Eussian, but

331

Digitized

by Google

332 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

he also has less cunning and more abandon. To be sure^
the cunning of the Zorki peasant is as primitive as bis
whole mind. Very few men in the crowd now standing
in front of the bailiflPs office could have managed to add
such two numbers as six and nineteen, or to subtract the
weight of an empty pail from the weight of a pail of honey.
Their book-keeping consists of notches on the door-jamb,
and their armour in the battle of life is a cast-iron dis-
trustfulness.

At last the bailiflf made his appearance, adjusted the
straps of his sword across his breast, and asked what they
wanted. A tall old fellow with a drooping steel-grey
moustache came out of the crowd, hat in hand, and bowed
deeply, as he said :

^* If s like this, your iiobleness. We wish to know when
that paper from the Czar about the Jews will be read to
us?''

'' What paper from the Czar ? '' the bailiff asked. '^ What
are you talking about?'' He was a dry-boned man, but
ruddy-faced and with very narrow almond-shaped eyes.
As he now looked at the crowd through the sharp after-
noon glare his eyes glistened like two tiny strips of bur-
nished metal.

"Your nobleness need not be told what paper. It's
about beating the Jews and taking away their goods."

The scene was being watched by several Jews, plucky
fellows who had come in the interests of their people at
the risk of being the first victims of mob fury. Among
these was Yossl, Makar's father, at once the most intel-
lectual and strongest looking man in the delegation. In
the meantime ihe other Jews, stupefied and sick with
fear, had closed their shops and dwellings and were hid-
ing in cellars and in garrets, in the ruins of an old church

Digitized

by Google

A PAPER FROM THE CZAR. 383

and in the woods. Two women gave birth to stillbom
children during the conunotion, one of these at the bed-
side of her little boy who was too sick to be moved.

^'You are a fool/' the bailiff said to the spokesman,
with a smile, as he raised his narrow eyes in quest of some
Gentile with whom he might share the fun. " You are a
lot of fools. Better go home. There is no such paper in
the world. Whoever told you there was? '^

*^ Why, everybody says so. In most places they finished
the job long ago. Only we are a lot of slow coaches, people
say. And then, when the higher authorities find out about
it, who will be fined or put in jail? We, poor peasants.
As if we did not have troubles enough as it is.*'

^^What will you be put in jail for?'' asked the bailiff,
chuckling to himself.

Here a younger peasant whispered in the spokeman's
ear not to let himself be bamboozled.

Speaking with unwonted boldness, bom of the conviction
that the bailiff was suppressing a document of the Czar,
the tall fellow said:

^^You can't fool us, your nobleness. We are only
peasants, but what we know we know." And he went on
to enumerate villages where, according to rumour, the paper
had already been read and acted upon. ''Although un-
educated, yet we are not such fools as your nobleness takes
us for. If it is a ukase direct from the Czar we aren't
going to take chances, sir. Not we, sir. Better read it to
us and lef s be done with it. We have no time to waste,
sir."

One of the Jews was going to make a suggestion, but
he was shouted down and waved aside.

The bailiff made a gesture of amused despair and turned
to go back, when the peasants stepped forward, and chat-

Digitized

by Google

334 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

tering excitedly, they gave him to understand that they
would not let him go until he had shown them the imperial
ukase. The purport of their remonstrance was to the
effect that the Jews had bribed him to suppress the docu-
ment. The bailiflf took it all good-naturedly. In his
heart of hearts he was looking forward to the sport of an
anti-Jewish outbreak with delight; but the noise brought
the local priest upon the scene — a kindly elderly man
with the face of a whimpering peasant girl. He was a
victim of ofiScial injustice himself and he implored the
crowd to listen to reason. His face, at once comic and
piteous, was the main cause of his failures. He was a
well-educated priest, yet he was kept in this obscure town.
His sacerdotal locks, meant to be long and silken, hung in
stiff, wretched little clumps. Nevertheless, as he now stood
in his purple broad-sleeved gown, appealing to the multi-
tude of white figures, his cross sparkling in the sun, the
spectacle was like a scene of the early days of Christianity.

''It is a great sin to circulate wicked falsehoods like
that and it is just as much of a sin to credit them,^' he
said in a pained heartfelt voice. " Ours is a good Czar.
He does not command his children to do violence to human
beings.'*

" Oh, well, little father,'* one peasant broke in. ^ YovL
don't seem to have heard of it. Thafs all. If the Czar
had not ordered it, then why do they beat the Jews every-
where else and the police and soldiers stand by and see to
it that they do the work well? "

The bailiff burst into a horse-laugh and slapped his
knees violently. The priesfs face bore a look of despair.

** Can it be that you believe such foolishness? " he said.

** What do we know ? We are only common people. All
we do know is that whatever happens it is our slda that is

Digitized

by Google

A PAPER FROM THE CZAR. 335

peeled off. If we canH get the paper we'll do our duty
without it/'

''Thafs it, without it!'' the others chimed in in ex-
cited chorus.

Further parleying made it clear that many of them
had no inclination to do any personal harm to the Jews or
to their property. They were on friendly terms with their
Jewish neighbours, and all they wanted was to get rid of
a disagreeable duty. The rest, about half of the entire
crowd, had had their heads turned with stories of lakes of
vodka and fabulous piles of loot, but even these proved
susceptible to argument.

^^ Here," Yossl shouted at the top of his voice and with
great fervour. " I have a scheme, and what will you lose
by it if you hear me out? If you don't like it, I'll take
it back and it won't cost you a cent." The intensity of
his manner took them by storm. He was allowed to finish.
'^ My scheme amounts to this : The Jews will sign a paper
taking upon themselves all responsibility for your failure
to smash their shops and houses, so that if the authorities
call you to account for violating the imperial ukase, we will
answer and you will come out clear."

First there was perplexed stillness, then a murmur of
distrust, and finally a tumult of rejection.

** Crafty Jew ! There must be some trick in it ! " they
yelled sneeringly.

The priest was wiping the perspiration from his fore-
head. Finally he shouted huskily.

^ Very well, I'll sign such a paper."

After some more arguing, the plan, in its amended form,
was adopted. The older men flaunted their experience by
insisting upon a formal " certificate " bearing the priesf s
oflScial seal and signature, so that when the Czar's in-

Digitized

by Google

336 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

specters arrived the peasants might have something tan-
gible to present. When all this had been complied with,
there was some portentous talk about the Jews sprinkling
the bargain with vodka; but having followed the ** little
f ather^s '' advice in the main point the peasants were now
in a yielding mood toward him generally, and the vodka
shops being closed, he had no diflBculty in getting them to
go home sober.

A large number of them had to cross the river. To
occupy their minds while they were waiting for the ferry
— a small antediluvian afEair which could only accom-
modate about one-fifth of the crowd at a time — the priest
asked them for a song. And then the quiet evening air
resounded with those pensive, soulful strains which for
depth of melancholy have scarcely an equal in the entire
range of folk-music. Thus the men who might now have
been frenzied with the work of pillage, devastation and,
perhaps, murder, stood transfixed with the poetry of
anguish and pity. Race distinctions and ukases — how-
alien and imintelligible these things were to the world in
which their souls dwelt at this minute ! The glint of the
water grew darker every second. The men on the ferry
continued their singing. Then somebody on the other
side joined in and the melody spread in all directions.
The fresh ringing treble of a peasant girl, peculiarly dole-
ful in its high notes, came from across the water. A choir
of invisible choirs, scattered along both banks, sang to the
night of the sadness of human existence.

The Jews returned from their hiding-places, but very
few of them went to bed that night. The tragedy in many
houses was intensified by the circumstance that the heads
of these families were absent from the town, having gone
to the Good Jew for prayer and advice as to the spreading

Digitized

by Google

A PAPER FROM THE CZAR. 337

calamity. Weinstein^s spacious rooms were full of neigh-
bours and their families. The presence of the man whom
one had been accustomed to regard as a monument of
worldly power had a special attraction for the poorer Piet-
ists this evening. Besides^ one dreaded the hallucinations
of solitude and in Weinstein^s house one was sure to find
company. Most of them sat in the large prayer room,
keeping close to each other, conversing in subdued, melan-
choly voices, comfortable in the commimity of their woe,
as though content to remain in this huddle until the end
of time. Yossl was curling his black side-locks morosely.
The other people in the room importuned him for details
of the scene in front of the bailifiE's ofiSce, but he was not
in the mood for speaking. Weinstein was snapping his
fingers at his own florid neck, as he walked backward and
forward. Presently Maria, his Gtentile servant, who spoke
good Yiddish, addressed him, with sad, sympathetic mien :

^' Master dear,'^ she said in Yiddish. " Will you let me
break a couple of windows?'^

He did not understand.^

" You see,'* she explained bursting into tears. '^ If they
get at me because I did not smash things in your house,
rU be able to swear that I did.'* For an instant he stood
surveying her, then, in a spasm of rage and misery, he
shrieked out:

**Why, certainly! Go ahead! Break, smash, every-
thing you set your eye on. You are the princess, we are
only Jews. Qo smash the whole house.'* And in his
frenzy he went breaking windows and chairs, shrieking as
he did so :

'^ Here ! Look and let your heart rejoice.**

'' Madman,** Yossl said calmly, *' you*ll alarm the town.
They'll think it*s a riot and the Gentiles will join in.**

Digitized

by Google

338 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Weinstein sat down pale and panting. "Go and tell
your people to come and delight in the sight of a Jew's
broken windows/' he said to the Gentile woman.

She put her hands to her face and left the room sobbing.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THS DSFENCB OOMMITTBE.

THE little man who played the part of errand boy at
the cheese shop and who was arrested before the
work on the mine was well advanced had ultimately
turned staters evidence. Among the revolutionists he be-
trayed was Pavel, but the prince was known to him under
a false name. Still, the information furnished by his
man, added to some addresses found on other captured
Nihilists, led to a series of new arrests. The ranks of the
Will of the People were being rapidly decimated.
Grisha, the dynamiter, and several other members of
the innermost circle were seized shortly after the killing of
the Czar. The few surviving leaders withdrew to the
provinces, in some cases only immediately to fall into the
hands of the police there. Thus in April, after a Jewish
student girl was arrested in Kieff, the ''trap'' at her
lodgings caught a woman and a man who proved to be
Baska, the '' wife ^' of the " cheesemonger '' couple, and her
real husband, ''the German.'' TTrie (the "cheese-
monger"), Makar and several other active revolutionists
were in Moscow.

One late afternoon Clara was slowly pacing the painted
floor of her room, her hands clasped behind her, while her
lover lay on the lounge, watching her through the gather-
ing dusk.

Digitized

by Google

340 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

''St. Petersburg is too hot now/' he said, breaking a
long silence. " Everybody is going away.''

" There is really no use staying here just at present/*
she assented, sadly, without pausing.

They grew silent again. The gloom of the little parlour
was thickening so rapidly that it seemed as though the out-
line of Clara's face, as she walked back and forth, became
vaguer every time she turned in Pavel's direction.

Presently, with a burst of amorous tenderness, he got up,
saying:

*' Clanya ! Let us go for a rest somewhere. You know
you need it."

''You need it even more than I do, poor boy," she
replied, stepping up close to him. " I do wish you would
go home for a month or two — or somewhere else. As to
myself, I should first like to see my parents. The riots
may strike Miroslav at any moment. If any harm came
to them, I should never forgive myself. I must get them
away from there. That's all I can think of." There was
an obvious blank in her words. She left something un-
said, and the consciousness of it made him uncomfortable.

"But that's easily arranged," he urged. "You can
send them money and invite them to some safe place."

" That's what I have been thinking of. I am so restless
I wish I could start to-morrow. It couldn't be arranged
too soon. There are persistent rumors that a riot is com-
ing there. I shan't be gone long, dearest."

He had it at the tip of his tongue to force a discussion
of their party's attitude toward the riots and to have it
out once for all. In his imagined debates with her on the
subject he had often exclaimed : " I happen to belong to
a class of land-robbers and profligates; now, suppose the
revolution breaks out and my class is attacked by the

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE, 341

people, will that affect me ? A nice revolutionist I should
be if it didl " This and other arguments were all ready;
what he lacked, however, was the courage to bring up the
topic. As to her promise to marry him when the great
conspiracy was out of the way, her redeeming it now, while
she was so tremulously absorbed in the question of her
parents' safety, could not be thought of.

He gathered her to him and kissed her, at once sympa-
thetically and appealingly.

*' Go home. Pasha,'* she besought. " But not to Miro-
slav. You won't rest there. Go to some of your mother's
country places, or, perhaps some other place would be safer
for you. Go and take good care of yourself. It would be
too terrible if I found you arrested when I got back."

^'Will you marry me then?" he asked, impersonating
a pampered child.

She nodded, in the same playful spirit, and again her

reticence brought disquiet to his heart. *' Something tells

me she'll never be mine," he thought with a sigh.
♦ « ♦ « «

While the government was actively fomenting the riots,
making an electric rod of the Jews, the Nihilists persisted
in mistaking them for revolutionary kindling wood.
While the "Chronicle of Arrests" in the revolutionary
organ included a large number of Jewish names, several
of them of persons conspicuous in the movement and noted
for their pluck, another page of the same issue contained
a letter from the riot-ridden district that was strongly
flavoured with anti-Semitism. Moreover, a proclamation,
addressed to the peasantry, was printed on an "under-
ground" press, naming the Czar, the landlords and the
Jews as enemies of the people. This proclamation met
with a storm of disapproval, however, (m the part of Gten-

Digitized

by Google

342 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

tiles and Jews alike, and was withdrawn from circulation.
Chaos reigned in the minds of the Nihilists. Their party
was disorganised, their thinkers for the most part buried,
dead or alive, the editorial management of their publica-
tions in the hands of the weakest man on the Executive
Committee, of one who several years later sent, from Paris,
a most servile petition to the Czar, abjuring his former
views and begging permission to return home as an advo-
cate of unqualified absolutism and panslavism.

The attitude of the Nihilists toward the Jewish popu-
lation in general was thus anything but sympathetic; and
yet, so far as the higher strata of the movement were con-
cerned, the personal relations between Jew and Gentile
were not affected by this circumstance in the slightest
degree. The feeling of intimate comradeship and mutual
devotion between the two elements was left unmarred, as
if one^s views on the Jewish question were purely a matter
of abstract reasoning without any bearing on the Jew of
flesh and blood one happened to know.

More than this, in their blind theorising according to
preconceived formulas, most of the active Jewish Nihilists
shut their eyes to the actual state of things and joined
their Gentile comrades in applauding the riots as an en-
couraging sign of the times, as "a popular revolutionary
protest/'

Pavel longed to discuss the riots with Makar. When he
saw him, however, he found him far more interested in the
^^ new revolutionary program '* upon which he was engaged
than in the anti-Semitic crusade.

*' As if it was the first time Jewish blood had been shed,'*
he said, answering a question from Pavel, half-heartedly.
'^The entire history of the Jews is one continuous riot.
Indeed, the present outbreaks are a mere flea-bite to what

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. 343

they have undergone before. So, what has happened to
make one revise one^s views on the movement? One might
as well stay away from the Will of the People because,
forsooth, Jews were burned by Gentiles in the 15th cen-
tury. Nonsense.^*

** Clara doesn^t seem to take it quite so easy/' Pavel
thought to himself.

^ Clara has gone to meet her parents,'* he said, thirsting
to talk of her.

** Has she ? There may be a riot in Miroslav at any time,
I wonder how Zorki is getting along. But then my father
will be able to take care of himself, — and of Miriam,
too,'' he added, lukewarmly. The only thing of which he
could have spoken with enthusiasm in these days was his
program.

Pavel came away hankering for more conversation about
his fianc^ and about the riots. Instead of seeking rest
and safety, as he had promised Clara to do, he coveted a
new sort of excitement and danger. He felt that there
was something wrong about that crusade, and he had a
sportsmanlike craving to see it for himself. Lacking the
courage to criticise his party, he accused himself of allowing
his revolutionary convictions to be affected by the interests
of his love; yet he continued to pray in his heart that the
Jews of Miroslav, at least, might be spared. He read all
he found in the newspapers about the atrocities, and on
taking up a paper he would tremble lest it should contain
news of a riot in his birthplace.

When he read of the Miroslav panic he went there at
once.

'^ If if s really a riot shell never come back to me," he
brooded, wretchedly.

Digitized

by Google

344 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

The rumours of an impending catastrophe were assum-
ing definite outline in Miroslav. A date was mentioned
and tall Great-Eussians in red shirts — specialists at the
business — were said to have been seen about town. Great-
Russia is and has always been strictly without the pale of
Jewish settlement; it being one of the characteristic fea-
tures of the anti-Semitic riots of the period that their
leaders were imported from the rabble in those districts
in which very few people had an idea what a Jew looked
like.

The Jews of Miroslav sent a snug bribe to PaveTs uncle,
but their agent came back with the money. The governor
had commissioned him to assure them that everything
would be done to make an outbreak impossible, but *' grati-
tude ^' he would not accept. The Jews took alarm. '* If
he doesn't eat honey/' they said, in the phrase of a current
proverb, ** then it looks bad indeed.'' When a deputation
of representative men called on him he lost his temper.

^'Tou Jews are too intense, thafs whafs the trouble
with you," he said, blinking his eyes. ^'I have let you
know twice that there is no cause for alarm, yet it seems
that it is not enough for you." When he had softened
down he talked quite at length, although in a haughty tone
of authority and immeasurable aloofness, of the steps he
had taken. The main point was that the Jews should not
tempt people to lawlessness by betraying anxiety. He
delivered quite a lecture on the point. The deputation
came away greatly encouraged. They knew of the exten-
sive business relations which the managers of his estates
had with Jewish merchants, and they argued, among them-
selves, that a riot, involving as it usually did the wholesale
destruction of Jewish property and a general demoralisa-
tion of business, could not but entail serious financial losses

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. 845

upon himself. This was in keeping with declarations
made by the boards of trade at Moscow, Warsaw and
KharkoflE, the three chief centres of Eussian commerce,
regarding the anti-Jewish crusade. These bodies had
pointed out the importance of the Jews of the south as
the prime movers of local industry^ as almost the exclusive
connecting link between the south of Bussia and the world
markets of Germany and England; accordingly, they had
protested against the anti-Semitic campaign as a source
of ruin to the economic interests of the whole empire. All
this the members of the deputation were aware of, so they
saw no reason to doubt the sincerity of the govemor^s
pledges. His advice not to put the thought of a riot in
the popular mind by a demonstration of timidity produced
' a strong impression.

The upshot was that the Jews of Miroslav were afraid
to be afraid. A singular mood took hold of them. Every-
body made an effort to act upon the presumption that
Miroslav was immime, that it was in an exceptional posi-
tion, and at the same time everyone read suspense and
mortal fear in the eyes of everyone else. It was like walk-
ing in one's stocking feet with a spectacular effect of mak-
ing a noise. Jewish women still avoided the proximity of
Christian men, and a Jewish face that did not look Jewish
was still eyed enviously as a shield against violence. The
only tangible manifestation of the spirit advocated by the
governor was a slight lengthening of business hours. Since
the beginning of the panic Jewish tradesmen had been
closing their shops before it was quite dark — three or
four hours earlier than usual. Now they compromised on
keeping them open imtil the street lamps were lit. Never-
theless those of them who depended on Christian trade
continued to treat their customers with a gentleness and

Digitized

by Google

846 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

a fawning attention that had nothing to do with the ordi-
nary blandishments of the counter. Inveterate rogues
among Jewish tradesmen became honest men. On the
other hand a most respectable Gentile often yielded to
temptation that amounted to downright robbery, while the
license of *' shady Christian characters^' was asserting
itself more portentously every day.

A queer story came from one of the suburbs. When
three Gentiles wearing red shirts entered an out-of-the-
way house to inquire the road, their appearance frightened
the two Jewish women they found there out of the place,
whereupon one of these, in a frenzy of terror, jumped into
a well and was drowned. Meanwhile the three strangers,
finding themselves alone, stripped the house of its valu-
ables — a finale which struck the fancy of a notorious thief
and his gang, who then put on red shirts and made a prac-
tice of plundering Jewish houses after scaring away their
occupants. The thief was known as Petroucha Sivoucha,
which, foregoing the rhyme, may be rendered as Cheap
Vodka Pete. When he was arrested at last he said, im-
personating a simple-minded peasant :

"But it was only Jewish stuff and everybody says a
(Jentile is welcome to it nowadays, that such is the will
of our little father, the Czar.^*

The riots continued to spread, and while they did.
General Ignatyeff, the new Minister of the Interior, an-
noimced measure after measure against the Jews. In a
country where every oflBcial is perpetually craning his neck
toward the capital, it was only natural that an attitude
like this on the part of the Minister of the Interior should
create an atmosphere of anti-Semitic partialiiy amid which
justice to the Jew became impossible. Ignatyeff knew of
the widespread rumour as to the existence of an imperial

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE- 347

ukase ordering the peasantry to plunder and commit vio-
lence upon the Jews. Apart from his official sources of
information, the newspapers were full of instances show-
ing the effect of that rumour, yet he did nothing to stop
it or to disabuse the minds of the peasantry in that con-
nection. This was interpreted by the officials as a sfgn
that the rumour was not meant to be stopped, and it was
not.

Governor BoulatofiPs encouraging answers to the Jews
of his province brought to Miroslav hundreds of people from
other towns. Some of these were victims of former atroci-
ties, left without shelter in their native places; others had
not yet been through an anti-Semitic outbreak, but dreaded
one.

While people from other provinces were flocking to Miro-
slav in quest of safety the leading Miroslav families were
quietly sending their wives and children abroad and taking
their valuables to the government bank. The offices of
Dr. Lipnitzky and of Sender the Arbitrator, Vladimir's
father, were visited by scores of panic-stricken people daily.

*' The rich people put their money and their plate in the
bank,'* said a teamster's wife to Vladimir and his father,
"but what shall we do with our traps?''

*' Don't worry, my dear woman, there will be no riot in
Miroslav," the Arbitrator reassured her.

" Ifs all very well to say don't worry," the woman re-
torted sharply. " You people can afford to say it, because
your house is safe. But if they kill my husband's horse
and destroy his truck, well have to go begging. It did
not come easy, I can assure you." She burst into tears.
" The years that it has taken to save it all up, the pinching,
the scrimping — all in order that a thousand ghosts might
have something to grab. And what are we going to do

Digitized

by Google

348 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

with ourselves ? Where shall we hide ? As to my husband
and myself, well, all they can do is to kill us, but how
about the children ? '* And again she burst into sobs.

When an old woman who had two unmarried daughters^
'^ both as handsome as a tree/^ described her despair con-
cerning them, Vladimir^s mother invited the girls to stay
with her until the storm was over. And then scores of
other mothers begged her, with heart-breaking lamentations
and kisses, to take pity on their daughters also ; which she
could not do for sheer lack of room.

The Vigdoroffs felt reasonably safe because EasgadayefE,
their Gentile landlord and friend, was sure to keep the
marauders away. Indeed, the example of all previous out-
breaks had shown that in most cases it was enough for
any Gentile to tell the rioters that he was the proprietor
of the house and that there were no Jews on his premises
for them to pass cordially on, and Easgadayeff was one
of the conspicuous and popular figures in the Gentile com-
munity of the town. It is true that he was looking for-
ward to an anti-Semitic upheaval with joy himself, but his
liking for the VigdoroiBfs was sincere.

Vladimir^s father went about among his depositors ask-
ing to be relieved of their money, jewelry or silver spoons.
They refused to accept it. Finally he moved his iron safe
to EasgadayefiE's apartment.

Vladimir was in despair. He felt it quite likely that
the panic should be father to a catastrophe, as the governor
had said. Once when he spoke in this strain at his f ather^s
table, his mother remarked with light irony :

'^Look at the brave man. Look at the Cossack of
straw.^'

The retort struck cruelly home. He knew that his
heart grew faint every time the anti-Semitic mobs pictured

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. 349

themselves vividly in his brain, although often, indeed, he
had a queer feeling as if it would be disappointing to see
Miroslav left out of the list of towns that were sharing in
the tragic notoriety of the year, and visioned himself going
through the experiences of a most brutal outbreak without
facing its dangers. The tragedy of his people filled his
heart. He watched them in their terror, in their misery,
in their clinging despairing love of their children; he
studied their frightened look, their shrinking, tremulous
attitudes. Every Jewish woman he met struck him as a
hxmted bird, on the alert for the faintest sound, trembling
over the fate of her nest. He saw mapy of them packing
their things to flee, they did not know whither. Indeed,
the whole historical life of his race seemed to have been
spent in packing, in moving, in fleeing without knowing
whither. ^^ Oh, my poor, my unhappy people 1 *' Vladimir
said to himself, in a spasm of agony, yet with a glow of
pleasure in calling them his people. In his heart of
hearts he knew that while he told everybody to take cour-
age his own mind was barren of conviction as to what was
the best thing to do. He felt crushed. He lost his head.

One day, as Vladimir walked along the street, his atten-
tion was arrested by a rough-looking young man who was
circling round him, and scrutinising him now on this side,
now on that. He felt annoyed. He was not sure that
the yoxmg man was a Jew, and as he asked him sternly,
"What are you looking at?^* he was conscious of a little
qualm of timidity.

'* Excuse me, sir,** the other answered, in Yiddish. *' I
saw you at the synagogue that Friday night. Do you
remember?**

They paused. The young man had the manner of a
Jewish horse-driver or blacksmith. He was robust and

Digitized

by Google

350 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

broad-shouldered with small very sparse teeth, somewhat
bow-legged and somewhat cross-eyed. His coat was liter-
ally in tatters and gave off a strong smell of herring.

"Well?'' asked Vladimir.

*' I have been wanting to see you, sir, only I have been
too bashful.'' He gave a smile, his tongue showing be-
tween his sparse teeth.

Vigdoroff rather liked his manner and invited him to
his father's house. On their way thither the young man
said that his name was Zelig and that he was a cooper by
trade, making a specialty of herring barrels. When they
found themselves alone in Vladimir's room, Zelig grew
still more bashful, and after surveying the room, to make
sure that they were not overheard, he said :

" I want to belong to the committee."

"What committee?"

"You need not be on the lookout with me, sir; I am
no babbler."

It appeared that there was a defence committee in town,
with educated young men at the head, and that in case
of a riot it was expected to fight "to the last drop of a
fellow's blood," as Zelig phrased it. That there should be
such a thing in Miroslav without him being so much as
aware of its existence hurt Vladimir keenly.

" I don't know anything about it," he said, blankly.

" Don't you really ? " said Zelig. " I was sure you were
in it and that you could get me in, too. Why, everybody
knows about it. Only the committee is strict, because if
the police hears of it, they'll all be arrested. It's against
the law." As he offered him more detail of the matter
he became patronisingly enthusiastic and confided to him
the names of Elkin and of several university students now
on their vacation as the organisers and leaders of the

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTER 351

movement. Vladimir knew these young men and his pain
became sharper still.

" But what good will it do? '' he said, drily. '' It will
only lead to trouble.**

'* Trouble 1 The idea of an educated man speaking like
that! Can there be more trouble than the Jews are in
now? I don*t see why we should sell ourselves so cheap.
Once we are going to be licked, why act like a lot of
sticks? Let us pay them for their bother at least.
Come what may, when they attack us, let us go to work
and crack their skulls at least — with lumps of iron, clubs
or even pistols. Let us fondle them so that a ghost
may get into every bone of theirs.** His words were
accompanied with mighty swings of his shoulders and
arms and these gesticulations of his had a peculiar effect
on Vladimir. They stirred his blood, they hypnotised him.
''What is the danger? They*ll kill us? Let them. As
if the life of a Jew is worth living ! Besides, aren*t they
killing and maiming us anyhow ? **

" But look here,** VigdoroflE said seriously. " The gov-
ernor has promised us protection and he is perfectly sin-
cere about it. Now if he learns that our people take the
law in their own hands, it may do us great harm. It is a
very serious matter.**

" Spit upon him, sir ! I*m an uneducated man, but the
governor — a ghost into his f ather*s father ! — may all he
wishes the Jews befall his own head.**

" That*s all true enough, but now he has promised us
protection, and an organisation of that kind is against the
law and may lead to trouble,** Vigdoroff said with per-
functory irritation.

"And an organisation of rioters is not against the
law? And robbing and killing innocent people is not

Digitized

by Google

352 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

against the law? Long life to you, sir; you're so wise,
so educated and yet you are speaking like a baby. Look
here, sirl If the governor — a plague take him — is as
good as his word, and he does not allow the riot to get
started, well and good. Then we'll call the bargain oflf.
But suppose he proves to be neither better nor worse than
all governors?"

Zelig knew of a number of other Jewish artisans who
were anxious to join the ^* committee,'' and he urged
VigdoroflE to visit their gathering and to give them a talk
like the one Zelig had heard from him at the Synagogue
on that Friday night. " Oh, that was sweet as sugar," he
said, kissing two of his dirty fingers. ^^You see, when
it comes to striking a scoundrel's snout such a blow as
will set his eyes raining sparks, we want no help. That
we can manage ourselves, but we are only common people,
and when a smart man like you says a couple of words,
they simply go melting in a fellow's bones."

*'But I don't know anything about the 'committee."*

Zelig laughed familiarly. '^ Sender-the-Arbitrator's
son, doesn't know ! If you only had the desire, you could
belong to it yourself and introduce us fellows, too."

" Very well. I'll consider it. And I should advise you
men to do the same."

"Consider it! We are only plain uneducated people,
but we aren't going to do any considering. I have a
sister, sir, and if a Gentile lays a finger on her he'll be a
dead man, I can tell you that. Jewish blood is being
spilled by the bucket and here you are talking of * consid-
ering.'" He insisted that Vladimir should attend the
meeting of his informal society, and Vladimir, completely

in his power, promised to do so.

« « « ♦ ♦

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. 353

That evenings in a spacious barn, half of which was
crowded with barrels of herring, Vladimir found Zelig
and some fifteen chums of his. Zelig was playing with a
huge iron key. He was employed here and the meeting
was held by his employer's permission. For more than
nine persons to assemble without a police permit is a crime;
so it gave VigdorofiE satisfaction to reflect that he was now
incurring risks similar to those incurred by Clara and her
friends. The gathering seemed to be made up of me-
chanics and labourers exclusively. One of the men present
was the sneering fellow whom Vigdoroff had seen at the
synagogue. Of the others Vladimir's attention was at-
tracted by two big burly young butchers with dried-up blood
about their finger-nails, a chimney-sweep, who looked like
a jet-black negro, with white teeth and red lips, and three
men with medals from the late war which they apparently
expected to act as an amulet against Gtentile rowdies. The
chimney-sweep sat apart, cracking sunflower seeds. Now
and again he made as though to throw his sooty arms
round somebody's neck and then burst into laughter over
his own joke. All the others looked grave. They showed
Vigdoroff much respect and attention. Even the sneering
man made a favourable impression on him to-night. Only
he himself was so ill at ease he could scarcely take part in
the conversation. Other men came. When one of these
proved to be Motl, the trunk-maker in his aunt's employ,
Vigdoroff felt somewhat more at home.

One of the retired soldiers took to bragging of the cour-
age he and his two comrades had shown at the taking of
Plevna, and when one of the other two signed to him to
stop boasting, he said, with a blush :

''I am sajdng all this because — because — what good
did it do us? Does the Czar pat us on the head for it?

Digitized

by Google

354 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

We risked our lives and many of our people died tinder
Plevna, and yet if we tried to settle in Great-Eussia we
would be kicked out neck and crop, wouldn't we?''

" Indeed we would, war record, medal and all,'' one of
the other two chimed in.

^^ And why ? Because we are Jews. We were not chased
home from the firing line because we were Jews, were we ? "

*^ Talk of Great-Eussia," somebody put in. ^* As if in
a place like Miroslav we were allowed to live in peace."

Another man assented with a sigh, adding: ^^ If a thou-
sandth part of the courage shown by the Jews in the war
was shown in our self-defence against (Jentiles, the Gen-
tiles would have more respect for us."

The conversation turned on the subject of pistols, but the
proposition was overruled.

"Before we get pistols and learn to use them we'll be
asleep under a quilt of earth," said Zelig. "Why, what
ails my cooper's hatchet, or a hammer, or a plain crow-
bar?"

Every lime Vigdorofif opened his mouth the faces of the
others would become tense with expectation. But he had
nothing to say except to ask an occasional question, and
every time Zelig, playing with his enormous iron key,
pressed him for a speech, he would adjure him, in a flutter
of embarrassment, to let it go this time.

They talked of the prospective fight in phrases like
" forwarding a remittance to one's snout " or " pulling up
sharp under a fellow's peeper," which amused and jarred
on him at once. For the rest, there was a remarkable
flow of common sense, humour and feeling. The gathering
cast a spell over him. He had come with the partial in-
tention of speaking against their scheme, yet now he felt
that he could much more readily face a gang of armed

Digitized

by Google

THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. 855

Gentiles than betray a faint heart to these Jewish artisans.
Moreover — and this was the great point with him at the
present moment — he felt that with these men by his side
he could fling himself into the very thick of the hottest
fight. A peculiar sense of solemnity and of gratification
came over him. He followed their talk reverentially. He
humbly offered to call on one of the leaders of the Defence
Committee and to apply for the admission of this group
with himself as one of its members.

His first dawn of consciousness as he opened his eyes
next morning was of something exceedingly important and
solemn which somehow had the flavour of herring. The
active participation of a man like ElMn in the work of
the Defence Committee was a source of disappointment to
him. He usually kept out of Elkin's way, as much for his
venomous pleasantry as for his revolutionary aflBliations
which he divined from his friendship with Clara. He
wondered whether he meant to give the affair a revolu-
tionary character. ** He must have warned the other mem-
bers against me as a silk stocking and a coward/^ Vigdoroff
said to himself bitterly. " That^s probably the way Clara
describes me.'*

The next morning he was surprised by a visit from Elkin
himself. The revolutionist frowned as he spoke, but this
was clearly a disguise for his embarrassment.

^^ Look here, Vigdoroff,*' he said. '* There has not been
much love lost between you and me, but that's foolish —
at a time like this anyhow. We must all work together.
We are all Jews. I understand you have organised a
number of good fellows. Let them join the others."

Vigdoroff's heart beat fast, with emotion as well as with
a sense of flattered pride. He would never have expected
Elkin capable of such soulful talk. Moreover his speak-

Digitized

by Google

356 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ing of himself as a Jew seemed to imply that he had aban-
doned Nihilism. "So we 'cowards^ were not so very
wrong after all/^ he thought to himself triumphantly.

"In the first place/^ he answered, "it wasn't I who
organised them. It was just the other way, in fact.**

" Well, anyhow, let them join the rest.**

" Of course we will. Only look here, Elkin. You have
been frank with me **

" I know what you mean, but you need not worry. I
won*t get you in trouble,** Elkin replied with his usual
venom in his lozenge-shaped sneer. And then, kindly:
" It is not as a Russian revolutionist that I have gone into
this thing. I am one, as much as ever; I have not changed
my views a bit, in fact. But that*s another matter. All I
want to say is that in this thing I am as a Jew, as a child
of our unhappy, outraged, mud-bespattered people.**

Digitized

by Google

OHAPTEE XXXVIIL

THE nihilist's GUAED.

PAVEL'S mother, the countess, had not been in Miro-
slav since March. She lived in retirement on one
of her estates in another province, in a constant
tremour of fear and compunction. The image of Alex-
ander II. bleeding in the snow literally haunted her. She
took it for granted that Pavel had had a hand in the bloody
plot, and she felt as though she, too, had been a party to it.
To ascertain the situation with regard to the riot rumours
Pavel called on his uncle, the governor. He found him
dozing on a bench in his orchard, a stout cane in one hand
and a French newspaper in the other. The old satrap was
dressed in a fresh summer suit of Caucasian silk, which
somehow emphasised the uncouth fleshiness of his broad
nose. He was overjoyed to see his nephew, and he plunged
into the subject of the riots at once and of his own accord.
It was evidently one of those situations upon which he
usually had to unburden his mind to somebody.

^' Can you tell me what they are up to in that great city
of yours?'' he said, referring to St. Petersburg and the
higher government circles and blinking as he spoke.
^' There is an administration for you! Perhaps you
younger fellows are smarter than we oldsters. Perhaps,
perhaps." He took out a golden cigarette case, lit a ciga-
rette and went on blinking, sneeringly.

357

Digitized

by Google

358 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

His words implied that Pavel, being one of the younger
generation, was, morally at least, identified with the ad-
ministration of the yomig Czar.

"What do you mean, uncle ?^^ he inquired.

" What do I mean? Why, I mean that they don^t want
those riots stopped. That^s plain enough, isnH it? ^^

This was a slap at the doctrine of PaveFs party concern-
ing the outrages, and he resented it as well as he could.

"But you have no evidence for such an accusation,
uncle,'^ he said. " Thafs a mere theory of yours.'*

" I knew you would stick up for your generation. Ha,
ha, ha! Quite commendable in a young chap, too. Ha,
ha, ha!'*

" But where is your evidence ? '*

" You want to know too much. Pasha. Too young for
that. If they wanted the riots stopped, it would be a case
of one, two, three, and there she goes! Thafs as much
as I can tell you, and if you are really clever you can under-
stand the rest yourself.'*

"He is in league with his fellow fleecers, the Jewish
usurers,'* Pavel remarked inwardly. "He simply cannot
aflEord an anti-Jewish demonstration, the old bribe-taker."

" Neither can you," a voice retorted from Pavel's heart,

" though for quite diflEerent reasons."

« « « « «

Prince Boulatoif called on Orlovsky, the government
clerk in whose house the local revolutionists held their
meetings. The first thing that struck him was Orlovsk^s
loss of girth.

" Hello, Aliosha," he said heartily, meeting him at the
gate.

"Why, Pasha!" The clerk flung himself upon him,
and they exchanged three prolonged kisses.

Digitized

by Google

THE NIHILISTS GUARD. 359

'' By Jove/' Pavel went on, " you are so changed I came
near letting you pass. Why, what has become of your
bulk, old boy ? Have you been ill ? '^

^' Not exactly,'^ the other answered, leading the way in-
doors; then, as his face broke into an expression of wan
joy, he added: "Been in love, devil wrench it. I take
these things rather too hard, I suppose, but that's a small
matter. How have you been? Climbing upward in the
service of the revolution, aren't you ? "

The room was the same. The huge tin samovar stood on
the floor.

"Well, and how is your Circle? First-rate fellows all
of them," Pavel said.

"Yes, indeed. Only we miss Clara now more than
ever."

"Anything specially the matter?" Pavel asked, colour-
ing slightly.

"Well, it really used to be a splendid circle — in our
humble way, that is — but those riots have had a bad
effect on us, deuce take it. Eemember Elkin? It was he
who got us together, and now it's he who has brought dis-
cord into our ranks. He is organising people who want
to go to America. This is his hobby now."

"Why, have the riots knocked all his socialism out of
him ? " Pavel asked, grimly.

" Oh, no," Orlovsky answered with something like dis-
may. " I wouldn't say that. It's as an organiser of com-
munistic colonies that he is going to emigrate. Only he
says the Jewish people have a more direct claim upon
him than Russia."

" There is a revolutionist for you ! " Pavel roared, bit-
terly. " I never did attach much importance to that fel-
low. The sooner he goes the better. God speed him."

Digitized

by Google

360 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

*^ You're too hard on him. Pasha. He's a good fellow.
If we had Clara here she would straighten it all out We
iniss her very much. As a matter of fact, it was she —
indeed, I don't see why I shouldn't tell it to you — it was
she with whom I was in love."

"Was it?" Pavel asked, colouring.

He paused, in utter confusion, and resumed, without
looking at him. " Well, you must excuse me, Aliosha, but
I fear your frankness goes a bit too far. Such things are
not meant to be published that way."

" Why? Why? What a funny view you do take of it.
Pasha ! Suppose a fellow's heart is full and he meets an
intimate old friend of his, is it an indiscretion on his part
if he opens his mind to him ? "

" I certainly am a friend of yours, and a warm one, too,
old boy," Pavel replied with a smile. "But still, things
of that sort are usually kept to oneself."

Several other members came in. The gigantic samovar,
the improvised sugar bowl, a huge loaf of rye bread, some
butter and a lamp made their appearance on the table.
Elkin dropped in later in the evening. He and Pavel
had not been conversing five minutes when they quarrelled.

" What you are trying to do is to blend the imblendable
— to mix socialism with Jewish chauvinism," Boulatoff
said in an ill-concealed rage.

" Am I ? " the other retorted with one of the most viru-
lent of his sneers. " Can socialism be mixed with the wel-
fare of the Russian people only? — the welfare of the Rus-
sian people with a pailful or two of Jewish blood thrown
in ; in plainer language, socialism can only be mixed with
anti-Semitism. Is that it?"

" Oh, nonsense ! " Pavel hissed. " There are other Jews
in the movement, lots of them, and one does not hear that

Digitized

by Google

THE NIHILISTS GUARD. 361

kind of stuff from them. They have not sickened of the
bargain on account of the riots.^^

'* I don^t know whom you mean. Perhaps some of them
are still under the spell of the fact that a Gtentile or two
will speak to them or even call them by their first names.**

" Calm down, Elkin/* the judge with the fluffy hair and
the near-sighted eyes interposed. " Come, you won*t say
that of Clara, for instance ? **

" No, not of Clara. But, then, you have not yet heard
from her. Sooner or later she, too, will open her eyes and
come to the conclusion that it is wiser to be a socialist for
her own people than for those who will slaughter and
trample upon them. I am sure she will give it all up and
join the emigration — sooner or later.**

" The devil she will,** Pavel said quietly, but trembling
with fury.

'^ Yes, she will,** Elkin jeered.

Pavel felt like strangling him.

** She is too good a revolutionist to sneak away from the
battlefield,** snapped Ginsburg, the red-headed son of the
usurer, without raising his eyes from the table. ^^Of
course, America is a safer place to be a socialist in. There
are no gendarmes there.**

EUdn chuckled. '^You had better save your courage
for the time the riot breaks out in this town,*' he said.
" You know it is coming. It may burst out at any mo-
ment, and when it does we*ll have a chance to see how a
hero like you behaves himself when the ^revolutionary
instincts of the people are aroused.* **

*'Very well, then, let him go back to the synagogue,**
Pavel shouted to the others, losing all his self-control.
*^ But in that case, what*s the sense of his hanging around
a place like this?**

Digitized

by Google

362 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" Oh, I see, you are afraid I^U send spies to this house,
are you? Well, there is less danger of tiiat than that you
should take a hand in the slaughter of Jewish shoemakers,
blacksmiths or water-bearers as a bit of practical * equality
and fraternity,' I can assure you. But then, after all, you
may be right. Good-bye, comrades 1 Don^t judge me
hard.''

Tears stood in Orlovsky's eyes. He, the judge, and Mile.
AndronoflE, the judge's fianc6e, were for running after him,
but the others stopped them.

Left to themselves, the group of Nihilists began to dis-
cuss the coming outbreak. Everyone felt, in view of El-
kin's charge, that whatever else was done, no effort should
be spared to keep the mob from attacking the Jewish poor.
Much was said about ^^ directing the popular fury into revo-
lutionary channels," and "setting the masses upon the
government," but most of those who said these things
knew in their hearts that they might as well talk of direct-
ing the ocean into revolutionary channels or of setting a
tornado upon the Russian government. Orlovsky alone
look it seriously :

"It begins to look something like, by Jove," he said
beamingly. " We'll go out, and when the mob gets going,
when the revolutionary fighting blood is up in them, we'll
call out to them that Jewish usurers are not the only ene-
mies of the toiling people ; that the Czar is at the head of
all the enemies of the nation. And then, by Jove, Miroslav
may set the pace to other Russia. See if it doesn't."

The son of the usurer called attention to the extreme
smallness of their number, but he thought it enough to
keep the mob from assaulting working people. He knew
that his own relatives were all safe personally. As to his
father's property, he said he would be glad if it was all

Digitized

by Google

THE NIHILISTS GUARD.

destroyed by the "revolutionary conflagration/' and he
meant it.

Pavel took no hand in the discussion. Instead^ he was
pacing to and fro mopingly.

At last, after some more speeches, including one by the

gawky seminarist, who came late and who disagreed with

everybody else, it was decided that in case of a riot every

Gentile member of the Circle should be out in the streets,

"on picket duty,'' watching the mob, studying its mood

and " doing everything possible to lend the disturbance a

revolutionary character."

« « « ♦ «

Eight Jewish women, including three little girls, were
brought to the Jewish hospital of Miroslav from a neigh-
bouring town, where they had been outraged in the course
of an anti-Semitic outbreak. The little girls and the pret-
tiest of the other five died soon after they arrived. The
next day the Gentile district bubbled with obscenity. To
be sure, there were expressions of horror and pity, too, but
the bulk of the Christian population, including many an
educated and tender-hearted woman, treated the matter as
a joke. Where a Jew was concerned the moral and human
point of view had become a reeling blur. The joke had an
appalling effect. While the stories of pillaged shops kin-
dled the popular fancy with the image of staved vodka bar-
rels and pavements strewn with costly fabrics, the case of
the eight Jewish women gave rise to a hideous epidemic
of lust. There were thousands of Gentiles for whom it be-
came no more possible to pass a pretty Jewish woman than
to look into the display window of a Jewish shop without
thinking of an anti-Semitic outbreak.

The storm was gathering. The mutterings of an ap-
proaching riot were becoming louder and louder. Many

Digitized

by Google

364 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Jewish shops were closed. Taverns serving as stations for
stage lines were crowded with people begging to be taken
away from the city before it was too late.

The Defence Committee did not rest. The volunteers
of the several Jewish districts were organised into so many
sections, and a signal system was perfected by which the
various sections were to communicate with each other.
The raiders were sure to be drunk, it was argued, while
the Defence Guard would be sober and acting according to
a well-considered plan. The Guard, was spoiling for a
fight.

The Nihilists ^^on picket duty" were strolling around
the streets.

Troops were held in readiness and placards had been
posted forbidding people to assemble in the streets. Hav-
ing ordered this. Governor Boulatofif announced himself ill
and in need of a fortnights leave of absence. When a
delegation implored him to postpone the journey, he re-
plied curtly that all had been done to insure order. He
was in bad spirits and treated them with unusual rudeness.

He left Miroslav in the morning. At about noontime
of the same day the town was full of sinister rumours.
One of these was about the poisoning of twelve Christian
wells by Jews.

A few yards ofiE a retired government clerk, in dilapi-
dated though carefully shined boots and with a red nose,
stood in front of one of the governor's placards forbidding
people to congregate in the streets, with a crowd of illiter-
ate Gentiles about him.

*''So by an All High ukase,'" he pretended to read,
"'all people of the orthodox Christian faith are hereby
ordered to attack the Jews, destroy their homes and shops,
tear their pillows and drink their vodka and wine,

Digitized

by Google

THE NIHILISTS GUARD. 365

take from them all they have plundered from Christians
and administer a drubbing to them/ '^

As he proceeded he worked himself up to a tone of maud-
lin solemnity.

'* Aye, the day of reckoning hath come/' he went on.
** Let not a man of that unchristian tribe escape. Let the
blood of Jesus and of his followers be avenged.'* Here,
however, he spoiled it all by suddenly breaking off with a
grin of inebriate roguishness.

The revolutionary seminarist was watching this man
philosophically.

Similar scenes occurred in other neighbourhoods. When
in one instance they had led to an attack upon a rabbinical
looking old man who was left bleeding and imconscious
on the pavement, the troops were ordered out. Then there
was a scramble for rooms in Qentile hotels. Twenty-five
rubles a day was charged for a ruble room, and there were
a dozen applicants for each room. Still, those who had
money contrived to find shelter. Much greater difiBculty
was encountered in many cases in getting a Christian
cabman to take a Jew to a place of refuge. Many a (Jentile
rented part of his dwelling to Jews at an enormous price,
a guarantee of safety being included in the bargain. Then,
too, there was a considerable number of Gentiles who re-
ceived some of their prosperous Jewish neighbours into
their houses without accepting any offer of payment. Pros-
perous, because the poorer Jews for the most part lived
huddled together in the Ghetto and were far removed from
the Gentile population. At Pavel's instance Orlovsky
went to take Clara's sister and her family to the house
of a relative of his, but he found their door locked. They
were taking refuge with the Vigdoroffs.

Toward five o'clock, when the crimson sunlight was play-

Digitized

by Google

366 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ing on the gold steeple of the Church of Our Saviour and
the dazzling blue and white of hussars' uniforms, a small
crowd of men and boys came running to the square in
front of the sacred structure.

"We want to carry out the holy vessels and banners/'
said a spokesman to an ofl&cer. ^^ We hear the Jews have
decided to set fire to God's temple/'

"We won't let them, you may be sure of that/' the
hussar oflScer answered. " You can safely go home.''

The crowd was slowly dispersing, when a man in a red
shirt shouted:

" Boys, I know a Jewish cellar where twenty-five Chris-
tian corpses are kept in empty vodka casks. Come on ! "

The officer did not interfere, and the crowd followed the
red-shirt round the comer to a closed drink-shop. Half
an hour later the streets in that locality rang with a
drunken sing-song: "Death to the Jews! Death to the
Christ-killers!"

The shop was the property of a Jew, who was hiding
with his family somewhere, but the street was inhabited
by Gentiles. Meanwhile on a little square near Nicholas
street, the best street running through the Jewish quarter,
a mob of five hundred men and boys, mostly from the scum
of the population, had seemingly dropped from the sky.
A savage " Hee-hee-hee ! " broke loose, scattered itself,
died away, and was taken up again with redoubled energy.
All over the district Jews^ men and women, most of them
with children clasped in their arms, were running along
the middle of the streets as people run at the sound of
a volcano. Some were fleeing from their shops to their
homes and some from their homes to the hiding places
which they had prepared for themselves. The eyes of
most of them had the hollow look of mortal fear.

Digitized

by Google

THE NIHILISTS GUARD. 367

They ran in family groups, holding close to each other.
Here and there a man, his feet giving way under him,
sick and dizzy with fright, would slacken pace for a
minute, as if giving himself up for lost; then, wiping
the cold sweat from his face, he would break into a fresh
nm, more desperate than before. Some simply walked
quickly, a look of grim determination on their faces.
Here and there an aged man or woman, too feeble to nm,
were making a pitiful efifort to keep up with the younger
members of their families, who were urging them on with
a look of ghastly impatience. Often a frail little woman
with two or three children in her arms could be seen run-
ning as she might down a steep hill.

Christians stood on the sidewalks, jeering and mimick-
ing their fright and making jokes.

Pavel watched the spectacle in a singular state of mental
agitation. His heart leaped at sight of that chaotic mob
as it paraded through the streets. Visions of the French
Eevolution floated through his brain, quickening his pulse.
^^ So our people are not incapable of rising ! ^^ he felt like
exclaiming. " The idea of a revolution is not incompatible
with the idea of Eussia ! '^ It was as if all the dangers
he had been facing during the past few years had finally
been indorsed by life itself, as if they were once for all
insured against proving to be the senseless sacrifices of a
modem Don Quixote. He could have embraced this mass
of human dregs. And while his mind was in this state,
the panic-stricken men, women and children with oriental
features who were running past him were stranger than
ever to him. He simply could not rouse himself to a
sense of their being human creatures like himself at this
moment. It was like a scene on a canvas. Clara did
not seem to belong to these people; and when it came

Digitized

by Google

368 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

fully home to him that she did, and how these scenes were
apt to stand between him and her, his heart grew faint
within him; whereupon he felt like a traitor to his cause,
and at the same time he was overcome with a sense of his
inward anarchy and helplessness.

Within the Jewish houses and on their courtyards there
was a rush for sub-cellars, garrets, barrels. As they ran,
clambered, tiptoed, scrambled, they smothered the cries of
their frightened babies with several cases of unconscious
infanticide as a result. Christians hastened to assert the
immunity of their houses by placing the image of the
Virgin (a Jewess!) in their windows; and so did many
a Jew who had procured such images for the purpose.
Some smashed their own windows and piled up fragments
of furniture in front of their doors, to give their homes
or shops the appearance of having already been visited
by mob fury. Here and there a man was chalking crosses
on his gate or shutters.

While this was in progress several hundred Jews burst
from gateways on and about Nicholas street and bore down
on the enemy with frantic yells in Russian and in Yid-
dish. They were armed with crowbars, axes, hammers,
brass knuckles, clubs and what-not. As to the rioters
they were mostly unarmed. Following the established
practice of the crusade, they had expected to begin with
some hardware store and there to arm themselves with
battering rams and implements of devastation — an inten-
tion which they had not yet had time to carry out. At
sight of this armed multitude, therefore, they were taken
aback. Resistance was not what they had anticipated.
Indeed, for some seconds many of them were under the
impression that the crowd now descending on them was
but another horde of hoodlums. They wavered. A crowd

Digitized

by Google

THE NIHILIST'S GUARD. 369

of Jewish butchers, lumberers, blacksmiths, truck-drivers
— the advance guard of the Defence — made a dash at
them, jeering and howling at the top of their lungs, in
Yiddish:

" Lef s hack them to pieces 1 Lively boys I Lef s drive
right into their lungs and livers ! Lef s make carrot-pud-
ding of them 1 Bravely, fellows, the/re drunk as swine ! '^

At this point Orlovsky and the seminarist instinctively
joined the rioters. Elkin and VigdoroflE were on the other
side. Pavel was looking on from the sidewalk.

The Defence was mistaken. The rioters were almost as
sober as they, for, indeed, it was another part of the stereo-
typed program of anti-Semitic riots that drink-shops should
be among the very first targets of attack, so that the in-
vaders might fit themselves for the real work of the riot
by filling themselves full of Jewish vodka. Bui the Jews,
as we have seen, descended upon them before they had torn
down a single door. What the outcome would have been
had the two opposing crowds been left to themselves is
imknown, for a troop of hussars whose commander had
been watching the scene, charged on both when they were
a few inches apart, and dispersed them both. Some fifty
arrests were made, more than two-thirds of the prisoners
being Jews. The arrested Gentiles went to the police
headquarters singing an anti-Semitic refrain and mimick-
ing the frightened cry of Jewish women. Bystanders,
some of the Nihilist ** pickets'' among them, shouted:

"Don't fear, boys. You'll soon go home." And the
answer w^s:

" Sure we will, and then well give them a shaking-up,
the scurvy Jews, won't we? "

On another business street some boys threw a few
tentative stones at a shop window. There being no inter-

Digitized

by Google

370 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

ference on the part of the military, a mob of grown men
sprang up. Doors were burst in and rolls of silk and
woollen stuffs came shooting to the pavement.

"Don% boys; you had better go home/' said a hand-
some young lieutenant, affecting the basso of a general.

The raiders did not desist. While some went on empty-
ing the shop into the street others were slashing, tearing or
biting at the goods. They did it without zest and some-
what nervously, as if still in doubt as to the attitude of
the authorities. A servant girl unrolled a piece of blue
velvet over a filthy spot on the cobblestones before a lieu-
tenant of the hussars, saying:

*'Here, sir! Why dirty the dear little feet of your
horse? Here is Jewish velvet for them.''

" Thank you, my dear girl, but you had better go home,"
the lieutenant answered, smiling. A crumpled mass of
unrolled fabrics, silk, woollen, velvet, satin, cotton, lay in
many^oloured heaps on the pavement and in the gutter.
The rioters, whose movements were still amateurish and
lacked snap, soon wearied of the job. Several of them
then broke into a grocery store and brought forth a barrel
of kerosene.

" What are you going to do ? " asked the lieutenant

''Well pour it over the stuff and set fire to it, your
high nobleness."

*'That you can't do," the oflBcer returned decisively.
*' Youll have to go home now."

The rioters obeyed at once, many of them taking rolls
of silk or velvet along.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEB XXXIX.

THB RIOT.

THE next morning the Police Master^ *^in order
to avoid bloodshed/' issued a proclamation for-
bidding Jews to leave their houses. The order was
copied from one that had been issued in other riot-
ridden towns where^ as the Miroslav Police Master knew
but too well, it meant that the Jews were prevented from
imiting for their self-defence and forced to await the
arrival of the mob, each family in its own isolated lodg«
ings. At the same time every soldier of the Jewish faith
was called back to barracks, none of their number being
included in the patrol, ** for fear of embittering the Chris-
tian population/'

A peculiar air hung about the city, an air at once of
festive idleness and suppressed bustle. It looked as it
might on the eve of some great fair. Gtentile workmen,
staying away from their shops, were parading the streets,
many of them shouldering axes, sledge-hammers, bores,
chisels — their tools of useful toil to be turned to weapons
of demolition and pillage; peasants from neighbouring
villages were arriving with sacks, pails, tubs, spades, axes,
pitchforks, their waggons otherwise empty and ready to be
laden with booty. Among the people in the streets were
gangs of trained rioters, come from tovms where their
work was at an end. The Jews were in their hiding places

371

Digitized

by Google

372 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

where they had passed the night. Pavel went about alone^
avoiding company, asking himself questions to which his
mind had no answer. He was filled with the excitement
of a sportsman a few minutes before the beginning of a
great race; with mental chaos and anxiety.

At one corner of Cucumber Market a group of peasants
took oflE their coarse straw hats and bowed to two police-
men.

"We are only ignorant peasants/^ they said. *^Will
your High Nobleness tell us when his Excellency the Police
Master will give the order to start in? ''

*' There won^t be any order to start in/^ answered one
of the policemen. ''Move along, move along.'^

The large market place became white with country peo-
ple. They were getting restive. Their sacks and tubs
were hungry for the goods of " Christ-killers.^^ Four years
ago many of these very people, dressed like soldiers, had
been driven to the Balkans by a force known to them as
the Czar, to fire at Turks without having the least idea
what sort of creatures those people called Turks were or
what they had done to be fired at. Now they had come
here, in obedience to the same force, to rob and do violence
to Jews. Among the out-of-town looters were two tramps
who had it. whispered about that they were two well-known
generals in disguise, personal emissaries of the Emperor
sent to direct the attack upon the Jews. These two were
soon put in jail, but that which they personified, the idea
that the anti- Jewish riots met with the Czar's approval, was
left at large. It seized upon soldier and civilian alike.
People who usually kept at a timid distance from every-
thing in the shape of a uniform, were now bandying jests
with army lieutenants and police captains. The question
this morning was not whether one wore the Czar's uniform

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 373

or citizen^s clothes, but whether one was a Jew or not. An
unusual feeling of kinship linked them all together, and
the source of that feeling was the consciousness that they
were not Jews.

It was about nine o^clock when a large seedy-looking
man with a bloated, sodden face, stepped out of a vast
crowd on Cucumber market, and walked jauntily up to a
deserted fruit stand. Snatching a handful of hickory nuts,
he flung it high in the air, then thrust his two index fingers
into his mouth and blew a loud piercing blast, puffing him-
self up violently as he did so. The sound was echoed by
similar sounds in many parts of the crowded market place.

" Hee-ee-eeee ! ^^ came from a thousand frantic throats.

A long stick was raised with a battered hat for a flag, a
hundred human swarms rushed in all directions, rending
the air with their yells, and pandemonium was loose.

There was a scramble for hardware shops, vodka shops
and places where Jewish women were said to be secreted.
Another few minutes and the streets were streaming with
spirits. The air was filled with the odour of alcohol, with
the din of broken glass, with the clatter of feet, with the
impact of battering rams against doors; and coming
through this general clang, thud and crash of destruction,
were smothered groans of agony, sfirieks of horror and
despair, the terror-stricken cry of children, the jeers of
triumph and lust. Here a row of shops, their doors burst
in, was sending forth a shower of sugar, kerosene, flour,
spices, coats, bonnets, wigs, dry goods, crockery, cutlery,
toys ; there a bevy of men were tearing up the street, piling
up the cobble-stones which others were hurling at shop
windows. Some men and women were carrying away
bucketsful of vodka. Others were bending over casks,
scooping out the liquid with their caps, hands or even

Digitized

by Google

374 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED-

boots; others were greedily crouching before barrels, their
mouths to the bungholes. Here and there a man leaning
over a broken cask was guzzling at its contents in a torpor
of drunkenness. One rioter, holding a sealed bottle in
each hand and too impatient to look for a corkscrew,
smashed their necks against each other, while another man,
by his side, broke two similar bottles against each other,
and then cursed the Jews as he licked wine mixed with
his own blood oflE his fingers. Nearby a woman carrying
a shoe full of vodka toward a four-year-old boy who was
seated on a pile of logs, yelled frantically :

"Here, my darling 1 Taste it, precious one, so that
when you grow up you may say you remember the day
when the ill-gotten wealth of Jews was smashed by people
of the True Faith.''

Women and children were serving vodka to the soldiers
in cans, teapots, saucers, ladles, paper boxes.

Orlovsky mounted a cask and began to shout, wildly :

" Don't drink too much, boys I Don't befog your minds I
Tor this is a great historical moment 1 Only why attack
Jews alone? Behold, the Czar is at the head of all the
blood-suckers in the land 1 "

Scarcely anybody listened to him. The crowd was too
deeply absorbed in its orgy. His voice was drowned by a
thousand other sounds; his flashing eyes and his air-
pounding fists were part of a nightmare of brutalised
faces, attitudes of greed, gesticulations of primitive hu-
manity ran amuck. Presently, however, a group of be-
lated rowdies came along in search of drink. They stopped
in front of Orlovsky, eyeing the cask under his feet hope-
fully, the appearance of the bung showing that its contents
were still intact.

"Who are you, anyhow?" one of them said to the

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 375

speaker. ^^ It must be the Jews who sent you here to talk
like that to good Christian people.'*

^^It isn't true. You're mistaken, old boy/' Orlovsky
answered hoarsely and breathing hard, but with a kindly,
familiar smile on his flushed, perspiring face. ** I am one
of the best friends you and all the people ever had, I mean
the good of all of you fellows. Whafs the use attacking
Jews only, I say. We had better turn upon the authorities,
the flunkeys of the Czar ^"

" Do you hear what he says? " one of his listeners said,
in perplexity, nudging the fellow by his side.

*^ He wants to get us in trouble, the sly fox that he is,"
somebody remarked.

" Sure, he does. And it was by the Jews he was hired
to come here. I know what I am talking about," growled
the man who had spoken flrst. *' Down with him, boys I "

** Down with him ! " the others echoed, thirstily.

Orlovsky was pulled off and the group of belated rioters,
re-enforced by some others, rushed at the cask savagely.

Pavel was in another section of the same street. An
old little Jewess whom he saw run out of a gate struck
him as the most pathetic figure he had seen that day. Her
fright gave her pinched little face something like a pout,
an air of childlike resentment, as it were. A Gentile boy
snatched off her wig and held it up, jeering to some by-
standers, whereupon she covered her gray head with her
bony hands, her faith forbidding her to expose her hair,
and ran on with the same childlike pout. A sob of pity
caught Pavel in the throat. He was about to offer to take
her to a place of safety, when an elderly rowdy, apparently
provoked by her outlandish anxiety about her bare hair,
struck her a vicious blow on the head, accompanying it
with profanity.

Digitized

by Google

376 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" Cur ! ^* Pavel shrieked, springing up to him and land-
ing a smart whack in his face.

The rioter looked round with surprise, muttered some-
thing and joined the looters.

" Come with me, don^t be afraid of the scoundrels,^' Pavel
said, taking her by the hand. His heart was melting with
pity for all the Jews at this moment. He felt a rush of
yearning tenderness for Clara, and he wished she could
see him taking care of this woman of her race.

When he saw two marauders hand out gold and silver
watches — the spoils of a raid — to the patrol, his blood
was up again.

*^ Is that what you are here for, thieves, vermin that you
are ? '^ he shouted.

'^ Who is that fellow ? Eun him in ! '' somebody said.

He fought desperately, cursing the authorities and call-
ing to the mob to turn upon the soldiers, but he was over-
powered and carried away half dead. When his identity
was discovered at Police Headquarters, it caused a panic
among the officials of the place. He was reverently placed
in a carriage and taken to the Palace.

The Defence Guard gave the rioters fight in two places,
and a desperate encounter it was, but it was not to last long.
Troops fell upon them, beat them with the butts of their
rifles and hurled execrations at them for violating the
police ordinance. Every Jew who was armed and every
Jew who looked educated, Elkin among them, was arrested.
The others were driven indoors. Vladimir was brought to
police headquarters unconscious, with blood gushing from
his head.

When the first stack of bedding was pitched out on the
sidewalk at Nicholas street, from a residence over a to-
bi^cco shop, a man with watery eyes and a beautiful Qreat-

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 377

Eussian beard, one of the leaders, selected a big, plump,
tempting feather-bed, and opened his pocket-knife with
dignified deliberation. A crowd of about one thousand
stood about in breathless silence, as though attending a
religious ceremony of great solemnity. In order to pro-
long the spell, the man with the golden beard played with
the feather-bed awhile, kneading, patting, punching it,
brandishing his knife over it, like a barbaric high priest
performing some mystic rite over a captive about to be
sacrificed. Then, grasping it with sudden ferocity, his
teeth a-glitter amid his enormous whiskers, his watery eyes
flashing murder, he cut a quick, long gash, rent the pillow-
case apart and hurled its snow-white entrails to the breeze.

** Hurrah 1 Hurrah!'' the mob yelled savagely, as the
breeze seized the down and flung it in a thousand direc-
tions. *' Hurrah 1 Hurrah ! ''

The other feather-beds and pillows were ripped up, dis-
embowled and emptied by some of the other rioters. The
summer-baked street seemed to be in the grip of a snow-
storm.

It is one of the characteristics of the housewife of the
Ghetto that she will put up with a poor meal rather than
with an uncomfortable bed. The destruction of pillows
and featherbeds is therefore the most typical scene of anti-
Semitic riot in Eussia. An Anglo-Saxon crowd viewing a
prize-fight is not thrilled more deeply at sight of "first-
blood'' than were the rioters of Miroslav at sight of the
first cloud of Jewish down. Now the outbreak was in
full swing. Some of the men came out in fashionable
clothes, their pockets bulging with plunder. The same
work of devastation and pillage was going on in many
places at once. About ten thousand raiders, most of them
covered with down, were skirmishing about in groups of

Digitized

by Google

378 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

fif ^ to one hundred, preceded by one or two leaders and
accompanied, in some cases, with a band of toy-drums and
whistles. They went from street to street reconnoitering
for houses or eJiops that had not yet been visited. Now it
looked like a real anti-Jewish riot. Hurrah! Hurrah 1

After the pillows came the furniture and other household
goods, every bit of it either shivered to flinders or carried
oflE. While some were busy smashing things or throwing
them out of the windows, others were stripping off their own
clothes and arraying themselves in the best coats, trousers,
dresses, bonnets, the raided houses contained. A frowzy
drunken scrub-woman emerged in a gorgeous hall dress, a
costly fur cap on her head, with two gold watches dangling
from her neck. One of these gangs was led by a man who
wore a woman's jacket of brown plush and a high hat.
Another leader was decked out in a fashionable summer
suit and a new straw hat, but his feet were bare and en-
crusted with dirt. A third gang was preceded by a flag
consisting of the torn skirt of an outraged Jewish woman,
the flag-bearer celebrating the exploit as he marched along.

Following the looters were dense crowds of spectators,
many of them well dressed and with the stamp of education
and refinement on their faces. These included some well
known families, members of the aristocracy, who watched
the scenes of the day from their fashionable equipages.
Officials, merchants, people of the middle class were out in
their best clothes. Miroslav made a great gala day of it
The aristocracy was in a complacent, race-track mood.
Occupants of carriages were exchanging greetings and
pleasantries. Cavaliers were interpreting to their ladies the
bedlam of sound, odour and colour. The appearance of a
drunken jade in a ball dress, strutting with her arms akim-
bo, in besotted imitation of a lady, brought forth bursts of

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 379

facetious applause. The well-dressed spectators tried to
steer clear of down and feathers^ but that was almost im-
possible. Many streets were so thickly covered with it
that it deadened the sound of trafiBc. But then to catch
some of the Jewish down on one's dress or bonnet or coat
was part of the carnival. Where the street was strewn with
jewelry, silverware or knicknacks, costly carpets, fabrics,
many a noblewoman scanned the ground with the haze of
temptation in her eye. "Isn't that cameo perfectly
lovely ! '' And in many, many instances the cameo, or the
silver tray, or the piece of tapestry found its way into the
lady's carriage. This was during the early stage of the
riot. Later on, when all restraint had been cast off,
phaetons with crests on their sides were filled with plunder.
The lame princess took home one carriage-load and hur-
ried back for more. At every turn one saw a cavalier
offering his lady some piece of finery as he might a rose
or a carnation, and in most cases it was accepted, on the
cogent ground that if left on the ground it would be
destroyed. On the other hand many of the rioters them-
selves disdained to appropriate anything that was not
theirs. Very often when a Jew offered his assailants all
the money he had about him as a ransom the paper money
was torn to pieces and silver and copper even flung out into
the street, whereupon the crowd outside would fall over
each other in a wild scramble for shreds of the paper or
the metal. In one place a man offered the mob all he had
in the world as a ransom for his daughter's honour, but
his money was destroyed, his daughter assaulted and he
himself mortally wounded. When a peasant woman was
seen carrying an armful of linen and ribbons out of a small
shop, she was stopped by one of the rioters.

"Drop that, you old hag,*' he shouted. "We are no

Digitized byCjOOQlC

380 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

robbers, are we?" He added a torrent of unprintable
Russian and kicked the woman into a swamp of syrup,
whisky and flour. A short distance from this spot other
peasant women were stufSng their sacks lustily, whereupon
some of them preferred loud linen to black silk and cheap
spoons to silver ones. In several places large sums of
money were plundered. As the bank and check system
was (and still is) in its very infancy in Miroslav, this
meant in most cases that people of means were literally
reduced to beggary. One family was saved from personal
violence as well as from the loss of its fortune by an iron
safe which the looters spent the whole day in vainly trying
to open. But then, while they were at work on the safe,
the mother of the family went insane with fright.

Marching side by side with the leaders of the various
bands were the competitors of Jewish tradesmen or mechan-
ics who acted as guides, each pointing out the stores or
workshops of his rivals. Thus Rasgadayeff, after instruct-
ing his wife and servants to see to it that no harm was done
to his tenants, the Vigdoroffs, had gone to the scene of the
outbreak, where he directed a crowd of rowdies to the store
of his most formidable business opponent. The place was
raided. A wealth of costly furs was cut to pieces and
flung into the street, where cans of kerosene and pails of
tar were emptied over the pile, while more than half as
much again was carried off intact.

^^Boys, no stealing,'' Rasgadayeff said, in a drunken
gibberish, when it was too late. All he could save from
the maurauders for the slashers was a sable muff over
which two women rioters were fighting desperately.

In the meantime Rasgadayeff's tenants and the people
who sought shelter in their house, — the family of Clara's
sister and the two or three strangers — had had a narrow

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 381

escape from coming face to face with an infuriated band
of hoodlums. Their presence had been indicated by a
Gentile woman across the street. Mme. BasgadayeS had
tearfully begged the rioters to desist and after some parley-
ing it had been agreed that the Yigdoroffs and their guests
should be allowed to escape to their landlord's apartments
before the mob invaded their rooms. From an attic win-
dow commanding the street Vladimir's parents then saw
their household effects and their celebrated library — the
accumulations of thirty years — flung out on the pavement
where it was hacked^ tom^ slashed, trampled upon, flooded
with water, mixed with a stream of preserves, brine, kero-
sene, vinegar, until the contents of eight rooms and cellar,
all that for the past thirty years had been their home,
were turned into two mounds of pulp. The Vigdoroffs
watched it all with a peculiar sense of remoteness, with a
sort of lethargic indifference. When old Vigdoroff saw
the rioters struggling with the locked drawer of his desk,
he remarked to his wife :

''Idiots! Why don't they knock out the bottom?"
When one of the mob hurt his fingers trying to rend an
old parchment-bound folio, he emitted a mock sigh, quot-
ing the Yiddish proverb : '* Too much hurry brings nothing
but evil." Only when Clara's little niece began to shake
and cry in a paroxysm of childish anguish, upon seeing her
doll in the hands of a little girl from across the street, did
the whole family burst into tears.

" I'm going to kill them. Let them kill me 1 " the old
man said, leaping to his feet. But his wife and daughters
hung to him, and held him back.

Later on, when the rioters had gone, the family re-
turned to their nest. The eight rooms were absolutely
empty, as though their occupants had moved out.

Digitized

by Google

382 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Gradually the various bands of rioters got into the swing
of their work and did it with the system and method of
an established trade. First the pavement was torn up,
the cobblestones being piled up and then crashed into the
windows ; the padlocks were then knocked off by means of
crowbars, banners or axes and the doors battered down or
broken in. Next the contents of pillows were cast to the
wind, after which, the street having thus received its bap-
tism of Jewish down, the real business of the rioters was
begun by the wreckers and the looters. If the shop raided
was a clothier's and the freebooters had not yet prinked
themselves they would do so to begin with, some of them
returning to the streets in two pairs of trousers, two coats
and even two hats. After a house or a shop had
been gutted and its contents wrecked or plundered it would
be left to children who would then proceed to play riot on
its ruins. Here and there a committee followed in the
wake of some band, ascertaining whether some Jewish
dwelling or shop had not been passed over, or whether a
roll of woollen or a piece of furniture had not been left
undestroyed. Not a chair, not a pound of candles was
allowed to remain unshattered. Kerosene was poured over
sugar, honey was mixed with varnish, ink or milk. It was
hard, slow work, this slashing and rending, smashing and
grinding. Some raiders toiled over a single article till
they panted for breath. A common sight was a man or a
woman tearing at a piece of stuff with broken finger-nails
and bleeding fingers, accompanying their efforts with vol-
leys of profanity at the expense of the Jews whose wares
seemed as hard to destroy as their owners. In one place
the mob was blaspheming demoniacally because a heap of
ground pepper from a wrecked grocery store had thrown
them into a convulsion of sneezing.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ «

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 383

The most hideous delirium of brutality waB visited upon
Paradise, — upon that district of narrow streets and lanes
in the vicinity of Cucumber Market which was the seat of
the hardest toil and the blackest need, the home of the
poorest mechanics, labourers and tradesmen. As though
enraged by the dearth of things worth destroying, the riot-
ers in this section took it out of the Jews in the most
bestial forms of cruelty and fiendishness their besotted
minds could invent. The debris here was made up of the
cheapest articles of furniture and mechanics* tools. It
was here that several Jewish women were dragged out into
the street and victimised, while drunken women and chil-
dren aided their husbands and fathers in their crimes.
One woman was caught running through a gale of feath-
ers and down, her child clasped in her arms. Another
woman was chuckling aloud in a fit of insanity, as she
passed through the district in a cab, when she was pulled
oflf the vehicle. A good-looking girl tried to elude the
rioters by disguising herself as a man, but she was recog-
nised and the only thing that saved her was a savage fight
among her assailants. A middle-aged woman came out
of a house with shrieks of horror, imploring an intoxicated
army oflBcer to go to the rescue of her daughter. The
ofiicer followed her indoors, but instead of rescuing the
younger woman tiie only thing that saved her own honour
was his drunken condition. One woman who broke away
from two invaders and was about to jump out of her
window, was driven back at the point of the bayonet by
one of the soldiers in front of the house.

"We are under orders not to allow any Jews to get
out,*' he explained to her, good-naturedly.

'* Take pity, oh, do take pity,** she was pleading, when
her voice was choked oflf by somebody within.

Digitized

by Google

884 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Every synagogue in town was sacked, the holy ark in
many cases being desecrated in the most revolting man-
ner; while the Scrolls of the Law were everywhere cut
to ribbons, some of which were wound around eats and
dogs. One woman met her awful fate upon scrolls from
the Old Synagogue at the hands of a ruffian who had
once heard it said that that was the way Titus, the Roman
emperor, desecrated the Temple upon taking Jerusalem.
Two strong Jews who risked their lives in an attempt to
rescue some of the scrolls were seen running through the
streets, their precious and rather heavy burden hugged to
their hearts. The mob gave chase.

^^^Hear, Israel !*^^ one of the two men shrieked,
'^'God is God. God is one.'''

But the verse, which will keep evil spirits al a respect-
ful distance from every Jew who utters it, failed to exer-
cise its powers on the rioters. The two men were over-
taken and beaten black and blue and the scrolls were cut
to pieces.

A white-haired musician, venturing out of his hiding
place, begged the mob to spare his violin which he said
was older than he; whereupon the instrument was shat-
tered against the old man's head. On another street in
the same section of the city another Jewish fiddler was
made to play while his tormentors danced, and when they
had finished he had to break the violin with his own
hands. Pillows were wrenched from under invalids to be
ripped up and thrown into the street. In one tailoring
shop a consumptive old man, loo feeble to be moved, was
found with a bottle of milk in his trembling hands, his
only food until his children should find it safe to crawl
back to the house.

"You have drunk enough of our milk, you scabby

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 886

Christ-killer!'* yelled a rioter as he knocked the bottle
out of the tailor^s hand and hit his head with a flat-iron.

Little Market in front of Boyko's Court, the home of
Clara's father and mother, glistened with puddles of
vodka, in which cats and dogs, overcome by the alcoholic
evaporations, lay dead or half-dead. Now and then a
drunken rioter would crouch before one of these puddles,
dip up a handful of the muddy stuff with his hands and
gulp it thirstily, with an inebriate smile of apology to
the bystanders. The comer of a lane nearby was piled
with brass dust and with broken candle-stick moulds.
A horse trough in the rear of the police booth was full of
yolks and egg-shells. When the goose market next door
to Boyko's Court was raided some of the fowls were
stabbed or had their necks wrung on the spot, while others
were driven into the vodka ponds on the square. A hun-
dred geese and ducks went splashing through the intoxi-
cating liquid, fluttering and cackling. A number of riot-
ers formed a cordon preventing them from waddling out
and then fell to stabbing them with knives and pitchforks,
till every pool of vodka was red.

" Jewish geese, curse them ! Jewish geese, curse them ! *'
they snarled.

Not very far off, hard by a wall, a Jewish woman was
giving birth to a child. Presently a Gentile woman with
a basket half filled with loot took pity on the child and
took it home, giving the policeman her address, while the
mother was left bleeding to death.

It was also in this district of toil and squalor where
the most desperate fighting was done by the Jews. One
lane was held by five of them against a mob of fifty for
more than half an hour until the five men were lugged off
to jail, and then the remaining inhabitants of the lane be-

Digitized

by Google

386 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

came the victims of the most atrocious vengeance in the

history of the day. A mother defended a garret against

a crowd of rioters by brandishing a heavy crowbar in front

of them. The maddened Gentiles then scaled the wall

and charged the roof with axes and sledge-hammers.

Part of the roof gave way. The woman continued to

swing the crowbar until she fell in a swoon.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The houses of the richest Jews were closely guarded by
the soldiery and, barring one exception, rioters were kept
at a safe distance from them. Even the house of Gins-
burg, the most repugnant usurer in town, was taken care of.
Some army ofi&cers, indeed, directed various bands of roughs
to the place on the chance of having their promissory
notes destroyed, but the roughs failed to get near it. There
was an instinct in official circles that the wrecking of
wealthy Jewish homes was apt to develop in the masses a
taste for playing havoc with " seats of the mighty.^' For
after all a man like Ginsburg and a titled plunderer of
peasant lands are not without their bonds of affinity. The
great point was that in dealing with Jewish magnates
Popular Fury was liable to confuse the Jew with the mag-
nate, the question of race with the question of class.

As to the Gentile magnates their attitude toward the
rioters was one which seemed to say: *'You fellows and
we are brothers, are we not?*^ And their mansions were
safe. Members of the gentry openly joined the rioters,
some out of sheer hatred of the race, others for the sport
of the thing, still others honestly succumbing to the con-
tagion of beastliness. In the horrid saturnalia of pillage,
destruction and rapine many a peaceful citizen was drawn
into the vortex. A man stands looking on curiously,
perhaps even with some horror, and gradually he becomes

Digitized

by Google

THE RIOT. 887

restless as do the legs of a dancer when the floor creaks

under a medley of sliding feet. But then there was a

large number of Gentiles who acted like human beings.

Among these were members of the priesthood, although

there were holy *^ little fathers'* who pointed out the

houses of their Jewish neighbours to the mob.
♦ ♦ ♦ « ♦

The best friend of the Jews during that day of horrors
was Vodka. The sons of Israel were made a safety valve
of by the government and Vodka rendered a similar serv-
ice to the sons of Israel. It saved scores of lives and
the honour of scores of women. Hundreds of the fiercest
rioters were so many tottering wrecks before the atrocities
were three hours old, while by sundown the number of
dead and wounded looters was as large as the number of
murdered and maimed Jews. Two men were found
drowned in casks of spirits into which they had apparently
let their heads sink in a daze of intoxication. A hand-
some young rioter in a crimson blouse staggered over the
balustrade of a balcony, hugging a Jewish vase, and was
killed on the spot. One man was killed in a struggle
over a Jewish woman and several others had simply drunk
themselves to death, while a countless number were bruised
and disabled in the general mgl6e, falling, fighting, in-
juring themselves with their own weapons of destruction.

Toward evening some of the streets had the appearance
of a battlefield after action. Hundreds of men and
women, swollen, bleeding, were wallowing in the gutters,
in puddles, on the sidewalks, between piles of debris, in a
revolting stupour of inebriety. Some of them slept sev-
eral hours in this condition and then struggled to their
feet to resume drinking. The trained rioters had thought-
fully seen to it that some casks of vodka, as also some

Digitized

by Google

388 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

accordions, should be reserved for the closing scenes of
the bacchanalia.

The moon came out. Her soft mysterious light
streamed through the rugged holes of shattered unlit win-
dows; over muddy pavements carpeted with silks, velvets,
satins; over rows and rows of debris-mounds on streets
snowed under with down ; over peasants driving home with
waggons laden with plunder; over the ghastly figures of
sprawling drunkards and the beautiful uniforms of patroll-
ing hussars. Silence had settled over most of the streets.
For blocks and blocks, east and west, north and south,
there was not an unbroken window pane to be seen, not a
light to glitter in the distance. The Jewish district, the
liveliest district in town, had been turned into a " city of
death.** In other places one often saw a single illu-
minated house on a whole street of darkness and ruin.
The illuminated house was invariably the abode of Chris-
tians. OfiBcers on horseback were moving about musingly,
the hoofs of their horses silenced by thick layers of down.
Most streets were impassable for the debris. Here and
there the jaded sounds of revelry were heard, but there
were some peasants who had come out of the day's rioting
in full control of their voices.

Seated on empty boxes and barrels, their fingers grip-
ping new accordions, their eyes raised to the moon, a com-
pany of rioters on Little Market were playing and singing
a melancholy, doleful tune. The Jews were in their hid-
ing places.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTEE XL.

LIGHT OUT OP DARKNESS.

CLABA was with her parents in a White-Eussian
town. The inn at which they were stopping was
entered through a vast yard, partly occupied by
fruit-barns. It was the height of the fruit season. The
bams and part of the yard were lined with straw upon
which rose great heaps of apples and pears of all sizes and
colours. Applewomen, armed with baskets, were coming
and going, squatting by the juicy moimds, sampling them,
haggling, quarrelling mildly. Now and then a peasant
waggon laden with fruit would come creaking through the
open gate, attracting general attention. A secluded cor-
ner of the yard was Clara's and her mother's favourite spot
for their interminable confidences, a pile of large bulky
logs serving them as a sofa. The people they saw here
and in the streets were much shabbier and more insignifi-
cant-looking than those of their native town and the
south in general. The Tavners lived here unregistered,
as did most of the guests at the inn, the local police being
too lazy and too '^ friendly '' with the proprietor to trouble
his patrons about having their passports vised at the sta-
tion house.

The town was a stronghold of Talmudic learning, and
Eabbi Bachmiel felt as a passionate art student does on
his first visit to Italy. When the first excitement of the

389

Digitized

by Google

390 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

meeting was over the local scholars were of more interest
to him than his daughter. His joy was marred by his
fear of being sent to Siberia in case Clara's (to her
parents she was still Tamara) identity was discovered by
the local police; but he had a rather muddled idea of the
situation and his wife assured him that there was no
danger. As to Hannah, she was not the woman to flee
from her daughter for fear of the police. She coidd not
see enough of Clara. She catechised her on her political
career and her personal life, and Clara, completely under
the spell of the meeting and in her mother's power, told
her more than she had a mind to. What she told her was,
indeed, as foreign to Hannah's brain as it was to her
husband's; but then, in her practical old-fashioned way,
she realised that her daughter was working in the interests
of the poor and the oppressed, though she never listened
to Clara's expositions without a sad, patronising smile.

One day, during one of their intimate talks on the wood-
pile, the old woman demanded :

"Tell me, Clara, are you married?"

'^What has put such an idea in your mind?" Clara
returned, reddening. "If I were I would have told you
long ago."

" Tamara, you are a married woman," Hannah insisted,
looking hard at her daughter.

" I tell you I am not," Clara said testily.

"Then why did you get red in the face when I said
you were ? People don't get red without reason, do they ? "

The young woman's will power seemed to have com-
pletely deserted her. " I am engaged," she said, " but I
am not married, and — let me alone, mamma, will you?"

"If you are engaged, then why were you afraid to say
so? Is it anything to be ashamed of to be engaged ? Fool-

Digitized

by Google

LIGHT OUT OF DAHKNESS. 891

ish girl that you are, am I a stranger to you? Why don't
you tell me who he is, what he is ? ^'

^* He is a nice man and thaf s all I can tell you now,
and pray don^t ask me any more questions, mamma dar-
ling/'

After a pause the old woman gave her daughter a sharp
look and said in a whisper: "He must be a Christian,
then. Else you wouldn't be afraid to tell me who he is."

" He is not," Clara answered lamely, her eyes on a heap
of yellow apples in the distance.

"He & a Christian, then," Hannah said in consterna-
tion. " May the blackest ill-luck strike you both."

"Don't! Don't!" Clara entreated her, clapping her
hand over her mother's mouth, childishly.

"What! You are going to marry a Christian? You
are a convert-Jewess ? " Hannah said in a ghastly whisper.

" No, no, mamma ! I have not become a Christian, and
I never will. I swear I won't. As to him, he is the best
man in the world. Thaf s all I can tell you for the pres-
ent. Oh, the young generation is so different from the
old, mamma!" she snuggled to her, nursing her cheek
against hers and finding intense pleasure in a conscious
imitation of the ways of her own childhood; but she was
soon repulsed.

"Away from my eyes! May the Black Year under-
stand you. I don't," the old woman said. Her face
wore an expression of horrified curiosity. Had Clara
faced her fury with a pugnacious front, it might have
led to an irretrievable rupture; but she did not. While
her mother continued to curse, she went on fawning and
pleading with filial self-abasement, although not without
an effect of trying to sooth an angry baby. Hannah's
curses were an accompaniment to further interrogations

Digitized

by Google

392 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

and gradually became few and far between. Her daugh-
ter's engagement and her whole mysterious life appealed
to an old-fashioned sense of romance and adventure in
the elderly Jewess; also to a vague idea of a higher altru-
ism. Her motherly pride sought satisfaction in the fact
that her daughter was so kind-hearted as to stake her life
for the poor and the suffering, and so plucky that she
braved the Czar and all his soldiers. "It's from me she
got all that benevolence and grit/' Hannah said to herself.
As to Babbi Bachmiel, he asked no questions and his wife
was not going to disturb his peace of mind.

"There is no distinction between Jew and Gkntile
among us/' Clara said in the course of her plea.

"No, there is not/' her mother returned. "Only the
Gentiles tear the Jews to pieces." And at this Clara
remembered that circumstance which lay like a revolting
blemish on her conscience — the attitude of the revolu-
tionists toward the riots.

However, these matters got but little consideration
from her now. She was taken up with her parents. The
peculiar intonation with which her father chanted grace
interested her more than all the " politics " of the world.
She recognised these trifles with little thrills of joy, as
though she had been away from home a quarter of a cen-
tury. When her mother took out a pair of brass-rimmed
spectacles on making ready to read her prayers, Clara
exclaimed, vrith a gasp of unfeigned anguish:

"Spectacles! Since when, mamma darling, since
when?"

" Since about six months ago. One gets older, foolish
girl, not younger. When you are of my age you'll have
to use spectacles, too, all your Gentile wisdom notwith-
standing."

Digitized

by Google

LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. 393

Another day or two and her communions with her
mother and the odour of apples and pears began to pall
on her. She missed Pavel. Her mind was more fre-
quently given over to musings upon that atmosphere amid
which he and she were a pair of lovers than to the fascina-
tion of being with her father and mother again. She felt
the centuries that divided her world from theirs more
keenly every day. Once, after a long muse by the side of
her mother, who sat darning stockings in her spectacles,
she roused herself, with surprise, to the fact that Sophia
was no more, that she had been hanged. It seemed in-
credible. And then it seemed incredible that she, Clara,
was by her mother's side at this moment. She took soli-
tary walks, she sought seclusion indoors, she was growing
fidgety. The change that had come over her was not lost
upon her mother.

'* You have been rather quick to get tired of your father
and mother, haven't you ? '' Hannah said to her one day.
*' Grieving for your Christian fellow ? A break into your
bones, Tamaraf

Clara blushed all over her face. She was more than
grieving for Pavel. She pictured him in the hands of
the gendarmes or shot in a desperate fray with them;
she imagined him the victim of the ghastliest catastrophes
known to the movement, her heart was torn by the wildest
misgivings.

One afternoon, when her mother was speaking to her
and she was making feeble efforts to disguise her abstrac-
tion, Hannah, losing patience, flamed out:

"But what's the use talking to a woman whose mind
has been bedeviled by a Gentile I *'

"Don't, then," Clara snapped back, with great irrita-
tion.

Digitized

by Google

394 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" The Black Year has asked you to arrange this meet-
ing. Why don^t you go back to your (Jentile? Qo at
once to him or your heart will burst/'

Clara was cut to the quick, but she mastered herself.

When she read in the newspapers and in a letter from
her sister accounts of the Miroslav outbreak, her agony
was far keener than that of her father and mother. The
most conspicuous circumstance in every report of the riot
was the bestial ferocity with which the mob had let itself
loose on the homes of the poorest and hardest working
population in those districts of Miroslav known as Para-
dise and Cucumber Market. She knew that neighbour-
hood as she knew herself. She had been bom and bred
in it. The dearest scenes of her childhood were there.
Tears of homesickness and of a sense of guilt were chok-
ing her.

For the first time it came home to her that these
thousands of Jewish tailors, blacksmiths, tinsmiths,
lumber-drivers, capmakers, coopers, labourers, who toiled
from fourteen to fifteen hours a day and lived literally
on the verge of starvation, were as much at least entitled
to that hallowed name, **The People,'' as the demonised
Russians who were now committing those unspeakable
atrocities upon them. Yet the organ of her party had not
a word of sympathy for them ! Nay, it treated all Jews,
without distinction, as a race of fieecers, of human leeches !
Russian literature of the period was teeming with *' fists,'*
or village usurers, types of the great Russian provinces in
which Jews were not allowed to dwell. Drunkenness in
these districts was far worse than in those in which the
liquor traflBc was in Jewish hands. And the nobility —
was it not a caste of spongers and land-robbers? Yet
who would dare call the entire Russian people a people of

Digitized

by Google

LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. 895

human sharks, liquor-dealers and usurers, as it was cus-
tomary to do in the case of the Jews? A Bussian peasant
or labourer was part of the People, while a Jewish tailor,
blacksmith or carpenter was only a Jew, one of a race of
profit-mongers, sharpers, parasites.

And this " People/^ for whose sake she was staking her
liberty and her life, was wreaking havoc on Jews because
they were Jews like her father, like her mother, like
herself.

People at the inn were talking of the large numbers of
Jews that were going to America. ** America or Pales-
tine ?'' was the great subject of discussion in the three
Russian weeklies dedicated to Jewish interests. One day
Hannah said, gravely.

** I tell you what, Tamara. Drop your Gentile and the
foolish work you are doing and let us all go to America.**

Clara smiled.

'* Will it be better if you are caught and put in a black
hole?**

Clara smiled again. There was temptation in what her
mother said. Being in Russia she was liable to be arrested
at any moment; almost sure to perish in a solitary cell or
to be transported to the Siberian mines for twenty years.
And were not the riots enough to acquit her before her
own conscience in case she chose to retire from a move-
ment that was primarily dedicated to the interests of an
anti-Semitic people; from a movement that rejoiced in
the rioters and had not a word of sympatiiy for their vic-
tims?

But an excuse for getting out of the perils of un-
derground life was not what she wanted. Rather did
she wish for a vindication of her conduct in remaining
in the Party of the Will of the People in spite of all ** the

Digitized

by Google

396 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

People ^' did against her race. She was under the sway of
two forces, each of them far mightier than any temptation
to be free from danger. One of these two forces was
Pavel. The other was Public Opinion — the public
opinion of imderground Russia. According to the moral
standard of that Russia every one who did not share in
the hazards of the revolutionary movement was a " career-
ist/* a self-seeker absorbed exclusively in the feathering
of his own nest; the Jew who took the special interests
of his race specially to heart was a narrow-minded na-
tionalist, and the Nihilist who withdrew from the move-
ment was a renegade. The power which this '* under-
ground'* public opinion exerted over her was all the
greater because of the close ties of affection which, owing
to the community of the dangers they faced, bound the
active revolutionists to each other. Pavel and Clara were
linked by the bonds of love, but she would have staked her
life for every other member of the inner circle as readily
as she would for him.

They were all particularly dear to her because they were
a handful of survivors of an epidemic of arrests that had
swept away so many of their prominent comrades. The
notion of these people thinking of her as a renegade was
too horrible to be indulged in for a single moment* Be-
sides, who would have had the heart to desert the party now
that its ranks had been so decimated and each member was
of so much value? Still more revolting was such an idea
to Clara when she thought of the Nihilists who had died on
the scaffold or were dying of consumption or scurvy or
going insane in solitary confinement. Sophia, strangled on
the gallows, was in her grave. Would she, Clara, abandon
the cause to which that noble woman had given her life?

The long and short of it is that it would have required

Digitized

by Google

LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. 397

far more courage on her part to go to America and be safe
from the Bussian gendarmes than to live under constant
fire as an active " illegal *^ in her native country.

This was the kind of thoughts that were occupying her
mind at this minute. While her mother was urging her
to go to America, she exclaimed mutely: ^*No, Sophia,
I shan't desert the cause for which they have strangled you.
I, too, will die for it.'' It seemed easy and the height of
happiness to end one's life as Sophia had done. She saw
her dead friend vividly, and as her mind scanned the mys-
terious, far-away image, the dear, familiar image, her
bosom began to heave and her hand clutched her mother's
arm in a paroxysm of suppressed tears.

** Water! Water!" Hannah cried into the open door-
way. When the water had been brought and Clara had
gulped down a mouthful of it and fixed a faint, wistful
smile on her mother, Hannah remarked fiercely :

** The ghost knows what she is thinking of while people
talk to her."

Clara went out for a long walk over the old macadamised
road that ran through the White-Eussian town on its way
to St. Petersburg. She loved to watch the peasant wag-
gons, and, early in the morning and late in the evening, the
incoming and outgoing stage-coaches. She knew that she
was going to stay in the thick of the struggle, come what
might. Yet the riots — more definitely the one of Miro-
slav — lay like a ruthless living reproach in her heart.
She wanted to be alone with this Beproach, to plead with it,
to argue with it, to pick it to pieces. She walked through
the shabby, narrow streets and along the St. Petersburg
highway, thinking a thousand thoughts, but she neither
pleaded with that Beproach, nor argued with it, nor tried
to pick it to pieces. Her mind was full of Pavel and of

Digitized

by Google

398 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Sophia and of her other comrades, living or dead. " It is
all very well for me to think of going to America and be
free from danger," she said to herself. " But can Sophia
go there? or Hessia? "

At one moment it flashed through her brain that to be
true to the people was to work for it in spite of all its in-
justices, even as a mother did for her child, notwithstand-
ing all the cruelties it might heap on her. The highest
bliss of martyrdom was to be mobbed by the very crowd
for whose welfare you sacrificed yourself. To be sure, these
thoughts were merely a reassertion of the conflict which
she sought to settle. They oflEered no answer to the ques-
tion. Why should she, a Jewess, stake her life for a people
that was given to pillaging and outraging, to mutilating
and murdering innocent Jews? They merely made a new
statement of the fact that she was bent upon doing so. Yet
she seized upon the new formulation of the problem as if
it were the solution she was craving for. "I shall bear
the cross of the Social Eevolution even if the Eussian peo-
ple trample upon me and everybody who is dear to me,*'
she exclaimed in her heart, feeling at peace with the shade
of Sophia.

She walked home in a peculiar state of religious beati-
tude, as though she had made a great discovery, found a
golden key to the gravest problem of her personal life.
Then, being in this uplifted frame of mind, she saw light
breaking about her. Arguments were offering themselves
in support of her position. When Russia was free and the
reign of fraternity and equality had been established the
maltreatment of man by man in any form would be impos-
sible. Surely there would be no question of race or faith
then. Anti- Jewish riots were bow raging? All the more
reason^ then, to work for Russia's liberty. Indeed^ was not

Digitized

by Google

LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. 399

the condition of the Jews better in free countries than In
despotic ones? And the Bussian peasant, would he in his
blind fury run amuck the way he did if it were not for the
misery and darkness in which he was kept by his tyrants?
Her heart went out to the mob that was so ignorant as to
attack people who had done them no harm. And then,
once the great Eeproach had been appeased in her mind,
the entire Jewish question, riots, legal discriminations and
all, appeared a mere trifle compared to the great Human
Question, the solution of which constituted the chief prob-
lem of her cause.

The next time her mother indulged in an attack upon
Gentiles in general and Clara^s " Gentile friends ^^ in par-
ticular the young woman begged her, with tears in her
voice, to desist :

" Look at her ! I have touched the honour of the Impur-
ity,^^ the old woman said, sneering.

" Oh, they are not the Impurity, mamma darling,** Clara
returned ardently. "They are saints; they live and die
for the happiness of others. If you only knew what kind
of people they were ! **

"She has actually been bedeviled, as true as I am a
daughter of Israel. Jews are being torn to pieces by the
Gentiles; a Jew isn't allowed to breathe, yet she ^*

"Oh, they are a different kind of Gentiles, mamma.
When that for which they struggle has been realised the
Jew will breathe freely. Our people have no trouble in a
country like England. Why? Because the whole country
has more freedom there. Besides, when the demands of my
'Gentile friends' have been realised the Christian mobs
won't be so uneducated, so blind. They will know who is
who, and Jew and Gentile will live in peace. All will live
in peace, like brothers, mamma."

Digitized

by Google

400 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Hannah listened attentively, so that Clara, elated by the
apparent effect of her plea, went on, going over aloud the
answer that she gave her own conscience. When she
paused, however, Hannah said with a shrug of her shoul-
ders and a mournful nod of her head :
" So you are bound to rot away in prison, arenH you? ^*
" Don't talk like that, mamma, dear, pray/'
^* Why shouldn't I ? Has somebody else given birth to
you ? Has somebody else brought you up ? ^'

"But why should you make yourself uneasy about me?
I won't rot away in prison, and if I do, better people than
I have met with a fate of that kind. I wish I were as good
as they were and died as they did.'^

"A rather pecidiar taste,'' Hannah said with another
shrug which seemed to add : " She has gone clear daft on
those Gentile books of hers, as true as I live."

« « « « 4c

Clara remained in the White-Eussian town two days
longer than her parents. At the moment of parting her
mother clung to her desperately.

" Will I ever see you again ? " Hannah sobbed. ^' Daugh-
ter mine, daughter mine! Will my eyes ever see you
again?"

The old Talmudist was weeping into a blue bandanna.

As Clara walked back to her lodging alone the streets of
the strange town gave her an excruciating sense of desda-
tion.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XLI.

PAVEL BECOMES

A MONTH had elapsed. Clara was in a train, bound
for Moscow, where her lover was awaiting her ar-
rival. The nearer she drew to her destination the
more vivid grew his features in her mind and the more
violent was her fidget. *^ I am madly in love with him/*
she said to herself, and the very somid of these words in her
mind were sweet to her. The few weeks of separation
seemed to have convinced her that the power of his love
over her was far greater than she had supposed. Things
that had preyed upon her mind before now glanced off her
imagination. She wept over the fate of Hessia and her
prison-bom child, yet she felt that if Pavel asked her to
marry him at once she would not have the strength to resist
him. Nay, to marry him was what her heart coveted above
all else in the world.

Being an " illegal,'* she had to slip into the big ancient
city quietly. As she passed through the streets, alone on a
droshky, she made a mental note of the difference in gen-
eral pictorial effect between Moscow and St. Petersburg,
but she was too excited to give her mind to anything in
particular.

Her first meeting with Pavel took place in a large caf^,
built something like a theatre, with two tiers of stalls, a
gigantic music box sending up great waves of subdued

401

Digitized

by Google

402 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

sound from the main floor below. He waited for her in
front of the building. When she came they just shook
hands smilingly, and he led the way up one flight of stairs
to one of the stalls — a fair-sized, oblong private room, its
walls covered with red plush, with upholstered benching to
match.

" I am simply crazy, Clanya ! '^ he whispered, pressing
her to him tremulously.

At first they both experienced a sense of desuetude and
awkwardness, so that in spite of his stormy demonstrations
he could not look her full in the face. But this soon wore
oflf. They were overflowing with joy in one another.

A waiter, all in white, suave and hearty as only Great-
Eussian waiters know how to be, brought in '* a portion of
tea,^* served in attractive teapots of silver, with a glass for
the man and a cup for the lady, and retired, shutting the
door behind him, which subdued the metallic melody that
filled the room still further and added to the sense of mys-
tery that came from it. They talked desultorily and
brokenly, of her parents and of the revolutionists gathered
in Moscow. The subject of the Miroslav riot was tactfully
broached by Clara herself, but she strove to give this part
of their incoherent conversation the tone in which people
usually discuss some sad but long-forgotten event, and she
passed to some other topic as quickly and imperceptibly as
she could. That he had seen that riot he did not tell her,
though he once caught himself on the point of blurting it
all out.

When she asked him about the general state of the move-
ment he gradually warmed up. The outlook was brilliant,
he said.

TTrie, the tall blond nobleman with the strikingly Qreat-
Eussian features, who had played the part of cheesemonger

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL BECOMES " ILLEGAL.'^ 403

on Little Garden street, St. Petersburg, was in Moscow
now, mending the shattered organisation. He was the cen*
tre of a busy group of revolutionists, Jews as well as Slavs.
Several well-known veterans of both nationalities, who had
been living in foreign countries during the past year or
two, were expected to return to Bussia. Everybody was
bubbling with enthusiasm and activil^.

"And your fiery imagination is not inclined to view
things in a rather roseate light, is it? " she asked, beaming
amorously.

** Not a bit,*^ he replied irascibly. " Wait till you have
seen it all for yourself. The reports from the provinces
are all of the most cheerful character. New men are
springing up everywhere. The revolution is a hydra-headed
giant, Clanya.^'

" But who says it isn't ? '^ she asked, with a laugh.

She got up, shot out her arms, saying :

" Now for something to do. I feel like turning moun-
tains upside down. Indeed, the revolution is a hydra-
headed giant, indeed it is. And you are a little dear,'' she
added, bending over him and pressing her cheek against

hie.

♦ « « ♦ ♦

They had been married less than a month when he
learned from a ciphered letter from Masha Safonoff that
the gendarmes were looking for him.

" Well, Clanya,'' he said facetiously, as he entered their
apartment one afternoon, "you are a princess no longer.'^

Her face fell.

" Look at her ! Look at her ! She is grieving over the
loss of her title."

"Oh, do stop those silly jokes of yours. Pasha. Must
you become illegal?"

Digitized

by Google

404 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

^^Yes^ ma^am. I am of the same rank as you. That
puts a stop to the airs you have been giving yourself /* It
was in the course of the same conversation that he told her
of his trip to Miroslav and of all that had happened to him
there.

They were known here as brother and sister, his legal
residence being in another place, but now both these resi-
dences were abandoned, and they moved into a new apart-
ment, in another section of the town, which he took great
pains to put in tasteful shape. Indeed, so elaborately
fitted up was it that he fought shy of letting any of his fel-
low Nihilists know their new address. A table against one
wall was piled with drawings, while standing in a conspic-
uous comer on the floor were a drawing-board and a huge
portfolio — accessories of the r61e of a russified German
artist which he played before the janitor of the house. Be-
fore he let her see it he had put a vase of fresh roses in the
centre of the table.

When he and Clara entered their new home, he said in
French, with a gallant gesture :

" Madame, permit me to introduce you.*'

He helped her off with her things and slid into tiie next
room, where he busied himself with the samovar. She
had with her a fresh copy of the WUl of the People — a six-
teen page publication of the size of the average weekly
printed on fine, smooth paper; so she took it up eagerly.
Its front page was in mourning for President Garfield. An
editorial notice signed by the revolutionary executive com-
mittee tendered an expression of grief and sympathy to the
bereaved republic, condemming in vigorous language acts
of violence in a land ''where the free will of the people
determines not only the law but also the person of the
ruler.'* " In such a land/* the Nihilist Executive Commit-

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL BECOMES " ILLEGAL.'' 405

tee went on to explain, ^' a deed of this sort is a manifesta-
tion of that spirit of despotism the eflEacement of which in
Bnssia is the aim of our movement. Violence is not to be
justified unless it be directed against violence."

The declaration made an exceedingly pleasant impres-
sion on Clara.

^' Bravo ! Bravo ! ^' she called out to her husband, as she
peered into the inside pages of the paper.

" Whaf s the matter? " he asked her from the next room,
distractedly, choking with the smoke of his freshly lit
samovar.

She made no answer. The same issue of her party's
organ devoted several columns to the anti-Jewish riots.
She began to read these with acute misgivings, and, sure
enough, they were permeated by a spirit of anti-Semitism
as puerile as it was heartless. A bitter sense of resentment
filled her heart. " As long as it does not concern the Jews
they have all the human sympathy and tact in the world,''
she thought. " The moment there is a Jew in the case they
become cruel, short-sighted and stupid — everything that is
bad and ridiculous.'*

" Whafs that you said, Clanya? " Pavel demanded again.

She had difficulty in answering him. " He is a Gentile
after all,*' she said to herself. " There is a strain of anti-
Semitism in the best of them.'* She was in despair.
" What is to be done, then ? " she asked herself. *' Is tiiere
no way out of it?" The answer was: ^'I will bear the
cross,'* and once again the formula had a soothing effect
on her frame of mind. And because it had, the cross grad-
ually ceased to be a cross.

She warmed to her husband with a sense of her own for-
giveness, of the sacrifices she was making. She felt a new
glow of tenderness for him. And then, by degrees^ things

Digitized

by Google

406 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

appeared in milder light. PavePs rapture over her was bo
genuine, his devotion so profound, and the general rela-
tions between Jew and Gentile in the movement
were marked by intimacies and attachments so sin-
cere, that the anti-Semitic article could not have
sprung from any personal taste or sentiment in
the author. It was evidently a mere matter of revolution-
ary theory. Justly or unjustly, the fact was there: in
the popular mind the Jews represented the idea of econ-
omic oppression. Now, if the masses had risen in arms
against them, did not that mean that they were beginning
to attack those they considered their enemies? In the
depth of her heart there had always lurked some doubt as
to whether the submissive, stolid Russian masses had it in
them ever to rise against anybody. Yet here they had I
Misguided or not, they had risen against an element of the
population which they were accustomed to regard as para-
sites. Was not that the sign of revolutionary awakening
she had fervently been praying for ?

She went so far as to charge herself with relapsing
into racial predilections, with letting her feelings as a
Jewess get the better of her devotion to the cause of
humanity. She was rapidly arguing herself into the ab-
surd, inhuman position into which her party had been put
by the editor of its official organ.

And to prove to herself that her views were deep-rooted
and unshakable, she said to herself: ^*If they think in
Miroslav I am the only person who could restore harmony
to their circle, I ought to go there and try to persuade
Elkin to give up those foolish notions of his.'* What they
were saying about her in that town flattered her vanity.
The thought of appearing in her revolutionary alma mater,
in the teeth of the local gendarmes and police, an '* illegal ^*

Digitized

by Google

PAVEL BECOMES " ILLEGAL.'^ 407

known to underground fame, was irresistible. Her thirst

of adventure in this connection was aroused to the highest

pitch.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

At eight o'clock the next morning she sat in a chair,
looking at her husband, who was still in bed, sleeping
peacefully. He had an early appointment, but she could
not bring herself to wake him. She was going to do so
a minute or two later, she pleaded with herself, and then
they woidd have tea together. The samovar was singing
softly in the next room. It was of her love and of her
happiness it seemed to be singing. Her joy in her honey-
moon swelled her heart and rose to her throat. " I am too
happy,** she thought. As she remembered her determina-
tion to go to her native place, she added: "Yes, I am
too happy, while Sophia is in her grave and Hessia is
pining away in her cell. I may be arrested at any moment
in Miroslav, but I am going to do my duty. I must keep
Elkin and the others from abandoning the revolution.**

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XLIL

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS.

CLAEA alighted from the train at a station immedi-
ately preceding Miroslav. She was met by Olga,
the girl with the short hair and sparse teeth who
was engaged to the judge, the two reaching the city partly
on a peasant^s waggon, partly on foot. At sight of tiie fa-
miliar landscape Clara seemed weird to herself. It was
her own Miroslav, yet she was worse than a stranger in it.
She felt like a ghost visiting what was once his home. On
the other hand, the unmistakable evidences of the recent
riot contracted her heart with pain and brought back that
Eeproach.

Olga took her to a "conspiracy house.*' This was a
basement in the outskirts of the town, whose squatby win-
dows faced the guardhouse of military stores and com-
manded a distant view of the river. The only other
tenants of that courtyard were three sisters, all of them
deaf and in a state of semi-idiocy. The basement had been
rented soon after Clara's flight. It consisted of three
rooms, all very meagrely furnished. Lying tmder the sofa
of the middle room was a wooden roller, which had once
been intended for a secret printing office. One of the walls
was hung with a disorderly pile of clothes of both sexes —
the shed disguises of passing conspirators.

But very few members were allowed to visit her. Those

408

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 409

who were saluted her with admiring looks and generally
treated her as a heroine, which caressed her vanity most
pleasantly. With a temerity born of an acquired habit of
danger, not unmixed with some bravado, Clara was burning
to visit her parents, her sister and her mother-in-law, and
to take a look at her native neighbourhood. Her friends
made an effort to keep her indoors. She would not be
restrained, assuring them that she was going to take good
care of herself, but she finally offered to compromise on a
meeting with her sister, provided she brought her little girl
with her.

" I am crazy to see her,'^ she said, meaning the child.

**See little Eachael! Why you are crazy, Clara !^'
Olga declared. ^^If you do all Miroslav will know the
very next day that ^Aunt Clara ' is in town.*'

" Nonsense. She won^t know me. She has not seen me

for more than a year. Besides, V\\ wear my veil. Oh, I

must see her; don't oppose, Olga, dear.''

« ♦ « « ♦

The meeting took place on a secluded bit of lawn under
a sky suffused with the lingering gold of a dying sunset.
And sure enough, Bachael was extremely shy of the lady in
black. When Clara caught her in her arms passionately
she set up a scream so loud that her mother wrenched her
from her aunt's embrace for fear of attracting a crowd
from a neighboring lane.

♦ ♦ « « *

A debate between Clara and Elkin was to take place in
Orlovsky's house the next evening. A few hours before
the time set for the gathering Clara received an unexpected
call from Elkin. This was their first meeting since her
arrival, and she welcomed him with sincere cordiality.
She respected him as her first teacher of socialism. As to

Digitized

by Google

410 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

his love for her, which could still be read in his eyes, it
flattered her now.

" Well/' he said, trying to take a light tone, but betray-
ing agitation. *' There is some news in town. Clara Yav-
ner has been seen about,*'

" What do you mean? **

"I mean that Clara Yavner has been seen about,'' he
repeated with sarcastic articulation. And by way of put-
ting a period to the sentence, he opened his lips into a
lozenge-shaped sneer and leaned his head against the mass
of hung-up clothes imder which he sat on an oblong stool.

She was seated on another tabouret, with her back to the
low window. His manner exasperated her. *' But I have
been out only once," she retorted calmly, controlling her
anger, *' and then I was heavily veiled."

"Well, could not some people have recognised you by
your figure and carriage ? I am sure I could. At any rate
your cousin, Vigdorofif, was to see me a little while ago, for
the express purpose of conveying this message to you, Clara.
The gossips of Cucumber Market are whispering about your
having been seen in town, ' and in addition to truths no end
of fibs are being told.' Your mother is quite uneasy about
it, and — well, Clara, at the risk of having it set down to a
desire on my part to slip out of the debate, I should sug-
gest that you take no further chances and leave Miroslav at
once."

"Oh, nonsense. Am I not safe in this basement at
least?"

" Yes, I think you are, but if the police should get wind
of your presence in town, why, they would not leave a stone
unturned. They have been itching for a chance to tone
down their reputation for stupidity ever since your disap-
pearance."

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 411

She smiled and frowned at once.

" Besides/^ he went on, leaning back againat the clothes
and gazing at the ceiling, **if that debate is your chief
mission here I am willing to capitulate in advance. You
know I cannot debate with you, Clara. I am still in your
power. My brain is in a whirl in your presence. It is at
this moment. If that debate took place I should simply
not know what I was talking about. You would not wish
me to make an exhibition of the abject helplessness that
comes over me when I see you, would you ? ^*

His words, uttered in monotonous accents, contrasted so
sharply with the air of mockery that had attended his
former attempts at an avowal; they sounded so forlornly
simple, his spirit was so piteously broken that he seemed
a changed man. She was touched.

« Don't speak Uke that,'' she said kindly. "Fll do as
you say. I'll leave Miroslav at once."

** Is there absolutely no hope for me, Clara? "

** I am no longer free, Elkin. I am a married woman,"
she said, flushing violently. ** Let us change the subject.
Tell me something about your Americans."

He dropped his eyes, and after a rather long pause he
said, blankly:

*'Well, pardon me, then. You have my best wishes,
Clara. I say it from my heart. I shall be your warmest
friend as long as I live. I confess I dreamed of your join-
ing our party, so that I might be near you^ and hoped that
some day you would become mine."

" The right place for a revolutionist is here, in Buseia,
Elkin."

"Nobody is going to try to persuade you to leave the
movement," he said, levelling a meek, longing Io<* at her.
" The Russian people act like wild beasts toward our poor

Digitized

by Google

412 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

Jews, Clara ; yet they and the Russian revolution will ever
be dear to our hearts. We appreciate that it is their blind-
ness which makes such brutes of them. We shall always
think of those who are in the fight here; we shall adore
you ; we shall worship you, Clara ; and perhaps, too, we shall
be able to do something for Russian liberty from there.
But if you condemn us for joining the emigrants, I wish to
say this, that if you had been in Miroslav during the riot
you would perhaps take a more indulgent view of our step.
So many Jewish revolutionists have sacrificed their lives by
* going to the people ' — to the Russian people. It's about
time some of us at least went to our own people. They
need us, Clara.''

*^Look here, Elkin," she said with ardent emphasis,
striving to deaden the consciousness of his love-lorn look
that was breaking her heart, *^ you must not think I am so
soulless as to take no interest in the victims of those hor-
rors, for I do. I do. I can assure you I do. I have been
continually discussing this question in my mind. I have
studied it. My heart is bleeding for our poor Jews, but
even if it were solely a question of saving the Jews, even
then one's duty would be to work for the revolution. How
many Russian Jews could you transport to America and
Palestine? Surely not all the five million there are. The
great majority of them will stay here and be baited, and
the only hope of these is a liberated Russia. All history
tells us that the salvation of the Jews lies in liberty and in
liberty only. England was the first country to grant them
the right to breathe because she was the first country where
the common people wrested rights for themselves. The
French revolution emancipated the Jews, and so it goes.
If there were no parliamentary governments in Western
Europe^ the Jews of Germany, Austria, or Belgium would

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 413

still be treated as they are in Eussia. When Russia has
some freedom at least, her Jews, too, will be treated like
human beings/^

" But we are not like the Palestinians, Clara. We don^t
propose to estrange ourselves from the revolutionary move-
ment. We shall support it with American money, and we
hope to fit out expeditions to rescue important prisoners
from Siberia, and to take them across the Pacific Ocean to
our commune.^^

" Dreams ! ^^ she said, laughing good-naturedly.

The discussion lasted about an hour longer. He had
not the strength to get up, and she had not the heart to cut
him short. They listened to each other^s arguments with
rapt attention, yet they were both aware of the imspoken
other discussion — on the pathos of his love — that went
on between them all the while they talked of the great
exodus.

And while she commiserated Elkin and felt flattered by
her power over him, her heart was full of yearning tender-
ness for her husband, of joy in him and in her honeymoon
with him.

When Elkin rose from his seat at last he said :

"By the way, I came near forgetting it — your cousin
wants to see you.^^

"Volodia? Volodia VigdoroflE? I thought he would
dread to come near me.^^

Time being short, the meeting was set for an early hour
the very next morning. Elkin had made his adieux, but
he still lingered. There was an extremely awkward still-
ness which was broken by the appearance of Olga. Then
he left.

Disclosing the location, or, indeed, the existence, of a
" conspiracy house '' to one uninitiated into underground

Digitized

by Google

414 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

life was impossible. Accordingly, Vladimir was to meet
Clara in a scanty pine grove near the Nihilists' base-
ment On his way thither Vladimir was continually
looking over his shoulder, lest he was being followed by
spies. He was flurried and the sight of every policeman he
met gave him a moment or two of abject terror. But the
part he had taken in the fight of the Defence Quard
had left him with a sense of his own potential cour-
age; so he was trying to live up to it by keeping this ap-
pointment with his "illegaP' cousin, whom he was so
thirsting to see. That she was married he did not know.
He was going to persuade her to join his American party.
At this minute, in the high-strung state of his mind, the
result of recent experiences, he felt as though she were not
merely his ** second sister,'^ which is Eussian for cousin,
but a real one. His chief object for seeking this interview,
however, had been to celebrate his own vindication. By
her enthusiasm for the revolutionary movement from which
he stayed away she had formerly made him feel like a
coward and a nonentity; now, however, that in his judg-
ment the riots plainly meant the moral bankruptcy of that
movement, so far at least as it concerned revolutionists of
Jewish blood, he mentally triumphed over her.

The meeting had been fixed for an early hour. The air
in the woods was cold and piquant with the exhalations of
young evergreens. The grass, considerably yellowed
and strewn with cones, was still beaded with dew, save for
a small outlet of the clearing which was being rapidly
invaded by the sun.

They met with warm embraces and kisses.

"Clara, my sister! If you only knew what we have
gone through ! '* he said, with the passion of heartfelt trag-
edy in his subdued voice.

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 415

" How is imde ? How is auntie ? *' she asked with simi-
lar emotion.

His kiss and embrace had left an odd sensation in him.
He had never had an occasion to kiss her before ; and now
that he had not seen her for about a year the contact of his
lips with the firm, though somewhat faded, cheek of this
interesting young woman had revealed to him what seemed
to be an unnatural and illicit fact that she was not a sister
to him, but — a woman.

They seated themselves in a sunny spot

"Are you really going to America, Volodia?^' she in-
quired with a familiar smile, carefully hiding her grief.

" I certainly am, and what is more, I want you to come
along with us,^^ he answered, admiring her figure and the
expression of her face as he had never done before. *' Oh,
I am quite in earnest about it, Clara. You see, the fist
of the rioter has driven it home to me that I am a Jew. I
must go where my people go. Come, Clara, you have
staked your life for the Eussians long enough, and how have
they repaid you ? Come and let us do something for our
own poor unfortunate Jews.*'

She listened with the attention of one good-naturedly
waiving a discussion.

** And what has become of that bridge you were build-
ing ?'* she asked.

" And what has become of that gallows, of the martyr's
scaffold, which you said united Jew and Gentile ? Has that
done anybody any good? As to the bridge I was building
across the chasm that divides us from the Christians, I
admit that it has been wrecked to splinters; wrecked un-
mercifully by that same fist of the rioter. I dreamed of
the brotherhood of Jew and Gentile and that fist woke me.
The only point of contact between Jew and Gentile possible

Digitized

by Google

416 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

to-day is this *^ — pointing at a scar slightly back of his ear,
his badge of active service as a member of the Defence
Committee.

" Why, did you get it in the riot? '* she asked with a ges-
ture of horror.

" If s a trifle, of course. Others have been crippled for
life, but such as this bit of a scar is it will stand me in
good stead as a reminder that I am a Jew. The fact is now
everlastingly engraven on my flesh. There is no effacing it
now. But joking aside, Clara, I love the Russian people
as much as I ever did. My heart breaks at the thought
of leaving Russia. I don^t think the Russians themselves
are capable of loving their people as I do. But it canH
be helped. There is an impassable chasm between us.^'

He was conscious of being on his mettle, as though the
fiascoes he had sustained in his last yearns talks with her
were being retrieved. As to her, there was a look of curios-
ity and subtle condescension in her eye as she listened.
But she was thoroughly friendly and warm-hearled, so for
the moment he saw nothing but encouragement to his flow
of conversation. From time to time he would be seized
with mortal fear lest they should be pounced upon by gen-
darmes, but he never betrayed it.

At one point, when he had put a question to her and
paused, she said, instead of answering it:

" Really, Volodia, I somehow can't get it into my head
that you are actually going to America.'*

" Oh, I am, I am. I am going to that land * where one's
wounded feelings are sure of shelter.* Come along, Clara.
Haven't you taken risks enough in Russia? Come and
serve your own people, your poor, trodden people. Have
not the riots been enough to open your eyes, Clara?"

"As if those were the only riots there were," she re-

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 417

turned, pensively. *' All humanity is in the hands of riot-
ers/'

"But our homes are being destroyed, Clara/' he urged
in an impassioned undertone. "Our people are being
plundered, maimed, their every feeling is outraged, their
daughters are assaulted.''

"Is there anything new in that?" she asked, in the
same pensive tone. "Are not the masses robbed of the
fruit of their toil ? Are they not maimed in the workshops
or in the army? Are not tibeir daughters reduced to dis-
honour by their own misery and by the lust of the mighty?
Are not the cities full of human beings without a home?
All Eussia is riot-ridden. The whole world, for that
matter. The riots that you are dwelling upon are only
a detail. Do away with the riot and all the others will
disappear of themselves."

A note of animation came into her melancholy voice.

" What you ' Americans ' propose to do," she continued,
" is to clasp a handful of victims in your arms and to flee
to America with them. Well, I have no fault to find with
you, Volodia. I wish you and your party success. But the
great, great bulk of victims, Gtentiles as well as Jews, re-
main here, and the rioters — the throne, the bureaucracy,
the drones — remain with them."

She struck him as amazingly beautiful this morning and
she seemed to speak as one inspired. He listened to her
with a feeling of reverence.

"But you have done enough, Clara," he said when she
finished. "You have faced dangers enough. Sooner or
later you will be taken, and then — ^" (he threw up his
hands sadly) . '* You have a perfect right to save your life
and liberty now."

She shook her head.

Digitized

by Google

418 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

" You are a wonderful woman, Clara. By (leorge, you
are ! Therefore, if you are arrested, it will be a great loss
not only to your relatives, but to all the Jews. Haven't
the Gentiles robbed us enough ?*'

^^ Would you have them rob us of our sacred principles,
too ? '^ she retorted, with a faint smile. " Indeed, the right
to die for liberty is the only right the government cannot
take away from the Jew.''

" Come to America, Clara. "

" Oh, that's utterly impossible, Volodia," she answered,

gazing at the cones.

*****

The discovery that Prince BoulatofE was prominently
connected with the underground movement, which origi-
nated in the confession of one of his revolutionary pupils,
had created considerable excitement in St. Petersburg.
The secret service had no difficulty in securing his photo-
graph, and when it was shown to the little man who had
acted as an errand boy at the celebrated cheese-shop he at
once identified him as one of those who dug the mine. That
Pavel had recently been in Miroslav was known to the
whole town. Accordingly, the central political detective
office at St. Petersburg despatched several picked men
there to scent for his underground trail. These practic-
ally took the matter out of the hands of the local gen-
darmes, whom they treated with professional contempt.
They gradually learned that Pavel had been a frequent vis-
itor at Orlovsk/s house, and then they took to shadowing
Orlovsky and those in whose company he was seen. They
made discovery after discovery.

One of these imported spies was the fellow who once
shadowed Clara in St. Petersburg — the tall man with the
swinging arm and the stiflE-looking neck whom she met

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 419

on the day when the revolutionist with the Greek name
was arrested.

It was about 8 o'clock in the evening, some ten minutes
before train time, when this spy saw an uneducated Jewish
woman in blue spectacles crossing the square in front
of the station. She seemed familiar to him, yet not enough
so to attract serious attention.

It was Clara. Her disguise, in addition to the blue
spectacles, consisted of a heavy Jewish wig, partly covered
by a black kerchief, and an old-fashioned cloak. To spare
her the risk of facing the gendarmes of the station, her
ticket had been bought for her by somebody else, her in-
tention being to slip into her car at the last moment. Hav-
ing reached the place too early, however, she was now try-
ing to kill the interval by sauntering about. This time the
spy escaped her notice, but a little later, less than a min-
ute before the third bell was sounded and while she was
scurrying through the third class restaurant, she caught
sight of him, as he stood half leaning against the counter
drowsily.

Here he had a much better look at her. She certainly
was familiar to him, but he was still unable to locate her,
and before he knew his own mind he let her pass. It was
not until the train had pulled out, and its rear lights were
rapidly sinking into the vast gloom of the night, that it
dawned upon him that she looked like the girl he used to
spy upon in St. Petersburg. Blue spectacles as a means of
concealing one's identity are quite a commonplace article,
so he called himself names for not having thought of it in
time and hastened to telegraph to the gendarmes at the
next station to arrest the young woman, giving a description
of Clara's disguise and general appearance.
Some three quarters of an hour later an answer came

Digitized

by Google

420 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

from the next station that the train had been detained for

a careful search^ but that no such woman could be found onr

it.

* ♦ * ♦ *

While that search was in progress Clara, her disguise
removed, entered the " conspiracy house/' where Olga had
been waiting for her, in case she should have found it
inconvenient to board the train.

^* There you are ! '* Olga said, in despair, as she beheld
her friend's smiling face in the doorway. *' What has hap-
pened?''

^* It's a fizzle, thaf s all. But it might have been worse
than that. There is a St Petersburg fellow at the station.
He knows me."

"Did he see you?" Olga demanded breathlessly.

" I should say he did," Clara replied with another smile.
'' Well, I thought it was all up. Gracious ! didn't my feet
grow weak under me. But my star has not gone back on
me yet, it seems. I got into one of the cars just as the
third bell was heard. I was sure he was close behind me,
but, when I turned around, looking for a seat, I saw he was
not there. He must have gone to another car for the mo-
ment, or something. Anyhow, I tried to get out again.
I thought I had nothing to lose, and — here I am. But
look here, Olya*, are you sure there is nobody outside? "

"I think I am," Olga answered firmly. "Why?"

" I thought I saw a queer looking individual as I turned
into this street. I must have been mistaken. Still, I con-
fess, the presence of that fellow in this town is anything
but a pleasant surprise to me. I don't like it at all. I
wonder why we have not heard from Masha about him."

The reason they had not heard from her was simply this,

* Diminutive of Olga.

Digitized

by Google

OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. 421

that the invasion of the St. Petersburg detectives had had
such an overbearing effect on everybody in the local gen-
darmerie that her brother had become unusually reticent

on the affairs of his office even at home.

* * « * ♦

Two or three hours had passed, when Clara and Olga
heard an ominous confusion of footsteps in the vestibule.
The next moment the room was crowded with men, some
in uniforms, others in citizens' clothes. One of the St.
Petersburg officers rushed to a window where a blue medi-
cine bottle — Clara's " window signal '' — stood on the sill,
to prevent either of the two Nihilist girls from removing it
by way of warning to their friends.

" You here ! '' the tall, baronial-looking procureur. Prin-
cess Chertogoff's son-in-law, said to Olga, in amazement.
He bowed to her most chivalrously, but she turned away
from him with a contemptuous gesture.

'* And may I ask for your name. Miss,'' a gendarme offi-
cer accosted Clara.

" I decline to answer," she returned, simply. Her eyes
were on a pistol which she saw in the hand of one of the
gendarmes.

" You live in Miroslav, don't you? "

Instead of answering this question she sprang at the
man who held the pistol, seized it from him and began fir-
ing at the wall. This was her substitute for a removal of
the safeiy signal from the window.

The weapon was instantly knocked out of her hand by a
blow with the flat of a gleaming sword, and she was
forced into a seat, two men holding her tightly by the
arms, while a third was tying a handkerchief around her
bleeding hand.

'^ I merely wanted to alarm the neighbourhood," she said

Digitized

by Google

422 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

calmly. "But, of course, you people will turn it into a

case of armed resistance/^

* * ♦ ♦ ♦

When Orlovsky learned of Clara's and Olga's arrest,
one of his first thoughts was about notifying Pavel, of whose
relations toward Clara he had by this time been informed.
It appeared that the only man he knew who had " imder-
ground '^ connections in the two capitals and was in position
to communicate with BoulatofE was the former leader of the
Miroslav Circle, Elkin. This, however, did not stop Or-
lovsky. To Elkin he went and explained the situation to
him.

" Elkin, darling, you know you are a soul of a fellow,'*
he implored him. " Pavel is either in St. Petersburg or in
Moscow, and you are the only man who could get at him/*

Elkin stood, thinking glumly, at the window for a few
minutes, and then said:

" Very well, I am going.'*

He started on the same day, accompanied by a spy. That
evening Orlovsky, the judge and several other members
of the Miroslav Circle, were arrested at Orlovsky's house,
and a few days later news came from Moscow that Pavel
and Elkin had been taken in a caf 6, while Makar had fallen
into a " trap '* at the house of an old friend of Elkin%
who had been seized several hours before.

Digitized

by Google

CHAPTER XLIII.

A MESSAGE THROUGH THE WALL.

MONTHS had passed. Spring was three or four
weeks old, but cell No. — on the first floor of the
Trubetzkoy Bastion, Portress of Peter and Paul,
had not yet tasted its caressing breath. It was a rather
spacious, high-ceiled vault, but being quite close to the
stone fence outside, it was practically without the range of
sunshine and breeze. Its window, which was high overhead,
at the top of a sloping stretch of sill, sent down twilight
at noonday and left it in the grip of night two or three
hours after. The chill, damp air was laden with a stifling
odour of must. The lower part of the walls was covered
with a thick layer of mould which looked like a broad band
of heavy tapestry of a dark-greenish hue.

The solitary inmate of this pit was walking back and
forth diagonally, from comer to comer. He wore a loose,
shapeless cloak of coarse but flimsy material, which he was
continually wrapping about his slim, emaciated figure. He
was shivering. As he walked to and fro, his head was for
the most part thrown back, his eyes raised to the window,
whose sloping sill he could have scarcely touched with the
tips of his fingers. Now and then he paused and turned
toward one of the walls, as though listening for some
sounds, and then, with an air of nerveless disappointment,
he would resume his walk,

423

Digitized

by Google

424 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

It was Pavel.

The spy who accompanied Elkin from Miroslav to Moscow
had shadowed him in the ancient city imtil he saw him with
Prince Boulatoflf and then with Makar and a university
student, in whose room the four revolutionists were ar-
rested, shortly after, in the course of a heated debate be-
tween Makar and Elkin on the riots and the question of
emigration to America.

During the first few weeks of PavePs stay in the fortress
the guards, who had been converted to revolutionary sym-
pathies by a celebrated political prisoner named NechayefE,
had carried communications not only from prisoner to pris-
oner, but also from them to the revolutionists at large; so
that the Will of the People was at one time partly edited
from this fortress, and a bold plot was even planned by
Nechayeff to have the Czar locked up in a cell while he
visited its cathedral. But these relations between the
guards and the revolutionists, which lasted about a year,
had finally been disclosed, and since then Pavel and the
inmates of the other cells had been treated with brutal
stringency.

PaveFs trial was not likely to take place for another year
or two, but his fate was clear to him : death, probably com-
muted to life-imprisonment, which actually amounted to
slow death in a spacious grave like this vault, or in the
mines of Siberia, was the usual doom of men charged with
"crimes'' like his. His future yawned before him in the
form of a black, boundless cavern charged with dull, gnaw-
ing pain, like the pain that was choking him at this mo-
ment. The worst part of his torture was his solitude. The .
most inhuman physical suffering seemed easier to bear than
this speechless, endless, excruciatingly monotonous solitude
of his. "Oath-men" as the swom-in attendants of the

Digitized

by Google

A MESSAGE THROUGH THE WALL. 425

prison were called (under-sized, comical looking fellows,
most of them) came into his cell three or four times a day
— ^with food, or to put things to rights hastily — but neither
they nor the gendarmes who invariably accompanied them
ever answered his questions. One morning, in an access
of self-conmiiseration and resentment at their stolid taci-
turnity, he had spat in the face of a gendarme. He had
done so, at the peril of being flogged, in the hope of hear-
ing him curse, at least ; but the gendarme merely wiped his
bewhiskered face and went on watching the "oath-man^*
silently.

Whenever Pavel was taken out for his 15-minute walk
in a secluded little yard, which was once in two days, the
sentinels he met would turn their backs on him, lest he
should see more faces than was absolutely necessary. The
warden and the prison doctor were the only human beings
whose voices he could hear, and these were brutally laconic
and brutally rude or ironical with him. To be taken to the
prison office for an examination by the procureur was the
one diversion which the near future held out to him; but
then his near future might be a matter of weeks and might
be a matter of months.

Back and forth he walked, at a spiritless, even pace, as
monotonous as his days of gloom and misery, as that dull
pain which was ceaselessly choking his throat and gnawing
at his heart. At one moment he paused and felt his gums
with his fingers. Were they swollen? Was he developing
scurvy? Or was it mere imagination? He also passed his
hand over his cheeks, and it seemed to him that they were
sunken a little more than they had been the day before.
But the great subject of his thoughts to-day was his mother,
and tantalising, heart-crushing thoughts they were. Where
was she? How was she? Was she alive at all? He pictured

Digitized

by Google

426 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

her committing suicide because of his doom, and the cruel
vision persisted. And if she was not dead, her life was little
better than death. He tried to think of something else, but
no, the appealing, reproachful image of his mother, of his
poor dear mother who had scarcely had a day of happiness
since she married, would not leave his mind. As a matter
of fact, his efforts to think of something else were scarcely
sincere. He would not shake that image out of his brain
if he could. It was tearing his heart to pieces, yet he woidd
rather stand all these tortures than shut his mother out of
his thoughts. To talk to somebody was the only thing that
could have saved him from the terrible pang that was har-
rowing him at this moment; but the chimes of the cathe-
dral, which played the quarter-hours as well as the hours,
and the crash of iron bolts at the opening of cells at meal-
time were the only sounds that he could expect to hear to-
day. His heart was writhing within him. Something was
clutching at his brain. He seemed to feel himself going
mad. He was tempted to cry at the top of his voice; to
cry like a wild beast; but, of course, he was not going to
give such satisfaction to the enemy.

He gazed at the sloping window-sill. For the thousandth
time a desire took hold of him to mount it and take a look
through the glass; and for the thousandth time he cast a
hopeless glance at his bed, at the table, the chair, the wash-
stand: they were all nailed to the floor, a large earthen
water-cup and a salt-cellar made of lead being the only
movable things in his room.

Four months ago there had been a prisoner in the adjoin-
ing cell with whom he carried on long conversations by rap-
ping out his words on the wall, but one day their talk had
been interrupted in the middle of a sentence, after which
that man had been removed. The cell had long remained

Digitized

by Google

A MESSAGE THROUGH THE WALL. 427

empty, as could be inferred from the fact that Pavel never
heard its door opened at meal-time. Since a week ago it
had been tenanted again, but all his attempts at conversa-
tion with his new neighbour had so far been futile. His
taps on the wall had been left unanswered.

Suddenly, as he was now pacing his floor, his heart melt-
ing with homesickness and anguish at the thought of his
mother, he heard a rapid succession of fine, dry sounds on
the right wall. He started, and, breathless and flushed with
excitement, he listened. "Who are you?" the mould-grown
wall demanded.

Pavel cast a look at the peephole in the heavy door, and
seeing no eye in it, he took a turn or two up and down the
room and stopped hard by the wall, upon which he rapped
out his reply :

"Boulatoff. Who are you?"

"The Emperor of all Africa," came the answer.

"What?" Pavel asked in perplexity. "You have not
finished your sentence, what were you saying?"

"Begone !" the wall returned. "How dare you doubt my
title? I am the Emperor of all Africa. How dare you
speak to me ? Away with you !"

PaveFs heart sank. It was apparently some political
prisoner who had gone insane in a damp, cold, isolated cell.

"Dear friend, dear comrade!" he implored. "Can't you
try and remember your name?"

"Begone, or I'll order your arrest, mean slave that you
are!" This was followed by some incoherencies. Pavel
went away from the wall with tears in his eyes.

In the afternoon of the third day he was striding to and
fro, in excellent spirits. He had been in this mood since he
opened his eyes that morning. Nothing but the most en-
couraging moments in the history of his connection with

Digitized

by Google

428 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

the movement would come to his mind to-day. He felt as
though he and all his revolutionary friends were looking
at each other, and conversing mentally, all as cheerful and
happy as he was now. Everything pointed toward the
speedy triumph of their cause. He beheld barricades in
the streets of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa; he saw the
red flag moving; he heard the Marseillaise. He recalled
Makar^s vision of the time when victorious revolutionists
would break into the fortress of Peter and Paul and take
its prisoners out to celebrate the advent of liberty with the
people. He thought of Clara, and his heart went out to
her and to their interrupted honeymoon; he imagined her
on his arm marching with others, he did not know whither,
and whispering words of love and exultation to her, and
once more his heart leaped witii joy. He recalled jokes,
comical situations. He felt like bursting into a roar of
merriment, when there came a shower of taps on the wall.

"Who are you?"

"Boulatoff," Pavel answered, with sadness in his heart.
He expected other absurdities from his insane neighbour.
"And you?"

"Bieliayeff. I am not well. But I feel much better to-
day. My lucid interval, perhaps. I remember everything."

Pavel had met him two years before. They talked of
themselves, of their mutual friends, of the last news that
had reached Bieliayefif through his other wall. It appeared
that BieliayefiPs neighbour on that side of his cell was
EUdn.

Pavel received the information with a thrill of pleasure.
He was going to ask BieliayeflE to convey a message to his
fellow townsman ; but at this he had an instinctive feeling
that there was an eye at the peephole and he dropped his
hand to his side, pretending to be absorbed in thought

Digitized

by Google

A MESSAGE THROUGH THE WALL. 429

They resumed their conversation a quarter of an hour
later.

"Tell Elkin I love him; he is dear to me," Pavel tapped
out. "I feel guilty and miserable. If it were not for me
he would be in America now. Besides, I have been imjust
to him. This oppresses me more than anything else."

These communications through the wall are the most
precious things life has to oflfer in living graves like those
of the fortress of Peter and Paul. The inmate of such a
grave will listen to the messages of his neighbours with the
most strenuous attention, with every faculty in his posses*
sion, with every fibre of his being; and he will convey every
word of a long message as if reading it from a written
memorandum.

After a lapse of five or ten minutes BieliayeflE came back
with Elkin's answer.

"He says he loves you," the tap-tap said, "and that it
is he who ought to apologise. It was he who was imjust.
As to his American scheme, he is happy to be here. It is
sweet to be suffering for liberty, he says."

Makar was at the other end of the same corridor, and a
message from him reached Pavel by way of a dozen walls.

"Hello, old boy !" it said. "At last I have completed the
revolutionary programme I have been so long engaged upon.
It^s a dandy ! It is not the same I spoke to you about in
Moscow. It covers every point beautifully. It would save
the party from every mistake it has ever made or is liable
to make."

One day Pavel learned that Clara had arrived in the for-
tress, after a long confinement and no end of examinations

Digitized

by Google

430 THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED.

in Miroslav. She was in another part of the building and
commnnicating with her was impossible. Pavel scarcely
ever thought of anything else. Could it be true that she
was in the building and he would not even have a chance
to see her ? He was fidgeting and writhing like a bird in
a cage.

At last, on a morning, the wall brought him a message
from her. It had come through walls, floors and ceilings.

"Clanya sends her love," it ran, "and tells him to keep
away from the damp walls as much as possible."

"Tell Clanya I think of her day and night," he rapped
back.

Then a footstep sounded at his door, and with a heart
swelling with emotion he threw himself upon his bed and
buried his face in his hands.

THB END.

Digitized

by Google

Digitized

by Google

T-v*

'■.^^^

\'"^"}

'^V.^

Digitized

by Google

ANNEX LIB. I Q,

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "The White Terror and the Red: A Novel of Revolutionary Russia"

See other formats