seize and
secure the unfortunate man, and Pomeroff was hurried away to the house
of detention, to await his trial.

Since the beginning of the so-called terrorist period, and the first
attack upon the life of the Czar, a short time before the occurrence of
the above events, the trial of political offenders had been taken from
the civil tribunals and transferred to the military. Even counsel for
the prisoner must be an army officer. The court to try Governor Pomeroff
was hastily convened next morning. Instructions concerning the judgment
to be rendered were telegraphed from St. Petersburg and the military
judges had but to obey their imperial mandate. Under such conditions
the trial was a mere form. The evidence against the prisoner was
positive. Within an hour Pomeroff, who had no opportunity of saying a
word in his defence, was sentenced to death.

"The secret 'council of ten' that once terrorized Venice, and which,
without process of law, condemned men to punishment upon secret charges,
preferred by unknown accusers, often where no crime had been committed,
has long been regarded as the most odious form of injustice. Yet the
Russian system of to-day is quite as repugnant to every idea of justice.
Men who have never been tried, nor perhaps even accused, but who are
simply suspected by the police, are often without the slightest
investigation hurried into exile or death."[15]

On the following morning, Governor Pomeroff, the just and merciful, the
friend and protector of the Jews, was secretly executed in the fortress
of Kief.

Excitement was at fever heat. The Governor was beloved by all. Never had
the province been so well governed as during his administration.

Among the Jews whom Pomeroff had especially befriended the grief was
deep and sincere. Rabbi Mendel Winenki, in an address to his
congregation, fearlessly denounced a system by which an innocent man
could be put to death. In the synagogues the _kaddish_ (prayer for the
dead) was recited as for a beloved parent. In consequence of these
demonstrations the authorities warned the Jews that any further
expressions of disapproval of the Government's course would be severely
punished.

Well might the Jews mourn their friend and protector. With his death
their bright hopes and dreams, their prospects of emancipation, were
rudely dispelled.

Within a week of Pomeroff's execution Count Dimitri Drentell, our old
acquaintance whom we left at Lubny and whom the C