is already in the
fortress, and the others will soon follow. For your own safety, you must
leave Kief before the arrests are made, or I will not answer for the
consequences."

"But, father, you will be lenient towards them," cried the young man.
"You will not condemn them to death. Remember that whatever may have
been their guilt, had it not been for the death of Pomeroff, you would
not now be Governor of Kief."

"For shame, Loris!" cried the General, red with anger. "Are you so lost
to all sense of honor that you must remind me that I stepped into office
over the corpse of my predecessor and my friend, murdered by my own son?
Do not provoke me too far! Your associates have been guilty of the most
grievous of crimes. They must die. Besides, were they to live they would
denounce you as their leader and even I could not save your life. Go!
Arrange your affairs, avoid further intercourse with your companions. By
this time to-morrow you must be on the way to the frontier while they
will mount the scaffold."

Loris shuddered and for the first time a sentiment of humanity moved
within him.

"I will not go," he said, resolutely. "I have lived and plotted with
them and I shall die with them."

"No, Loris, no," replied his father, softened. "You must depart. There
is no other course. A Drentell must not die a traitor's death. It would
break my heart and kill your mother, who dotes upon you. It will be
better not to see her before your departure. Questionings and
explanations are dangerous. After all this is forgotten, you may return
and work out the career I had hoped for you."

Loris, sorrowful and conscience-stricken, kissed his father's hand and
slowly left the room.

On the morrow, the Seventh Cossack Regiment received orders from St.
Petersburg to proceed to Kothim without delay, and long before nightfall
it was on the march. Next morning twelve conspirators were arrested at
their homes and dragged before the tribunal of judicial inquiry. Their
trial, like that of Pomeroff, was a mockery, for their fate had already
been decided. Defence was useless. The incriminating papers found in the
places designated by the informer Moleska sealed their doom. Governor
Drentell himself pronounced their sentence. Two days afterward they were
secretly executed.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 15: Foulke.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

LOUISE'S PRACTICAL ADVICE.

Tyranny, which for a brief period had slept, was now wide-awake and
aggre