neral
Drentell, in consequence, declared Kief, Kharkov and other districts
under martial law.

A stormy scene took place between the Governor and his son Loris, in
which the former, mindful of the latter's past escapades, expressed his
belief that his son was implicated in the plots of his comrades, while
Loris indignantly denied all knowledge of the matter.

"Listen to me, Loris!" said the General, purple with rage. "I saved your
life once, at the risk of losing my own. As true as St. Nicholas hears
us, if ever you repeat your plottings, I shall be as inexorable as
though you were the meanest of the Czar's subjects."

Loris saw that his father was in earnest and recoiled before the wrath
of the stern old soldier. He again asserted his ignorance of any
conspiracy.

Not knowing how many more officers of the regiment were implicated,
Drentell decided to transfer the entire division to another district, in
the hope of severing any connection which might exist between the men
and the Revolutionary Committee.

Loris had to obey the order and accompany his regiment to the steppes of
Central Russia, where he remained until the active disorders in Kief a
year later recalled him.

Nihilism was not to be rooted out by the removal of any particular set
of men. It had spread its branches among all classes and conditions of
society, and the number of its adherents was increasing with alarming
rapidity.

The martyr who unflinchingly faces death for the sake of his faith, the
Nihilist who exposes himself to imprisonment or death in the hope of
attaining constitutional liberty, are examples of the heroic endurance
of minds exalted by principle. The Jew's devotion to his religion has
always been most intense when intolerance and persecution were at their
height. In like manner the love of liberty is developed to its greatest
extent when despotism seeks to stifle it.

"Brightest in dungeons, liberty thou art,
For there the habitation is the heart."

Twenty-one persons were arrested in Kief, and almost as many in Kharkov,
and still Nihilism was not stamped out. Phoenix-like it arose from the
ashes of its martyrs.

On February the 17th, 1880, just as the imperial family were about to
dine, a mine was exploded beneath the winter palace, the guard-room was
demolished, ten soldiers were killed and forty-five wounded; but, the
divinity which sometimes hedges a king preserved the royal family from
harm.

Excitement was i