ntense. A commission of public safety, with authority to
preserve order at any cost, was at once appointed, with General Melikoff
at the head.

On the second day of March, during the festival, General Melikoff was
shot at as he alighted from his carriage. The would-be assassin was so
close that the General struck him in the face, and the man was arrested.

At the trial it was discovered that the malefactor was a baptized Jew,
by the name of Wadetsky Minsk. The trial excited universal interest. The
culprit was asked by the judge why he had deserted his faith.

"Because I found it impossible to live as a Jew," he replied, bitterly.
"You took from me my children to send them to the army; you deprived me
of the lands I had cultivated and left me penniless; you despised and
degraded me, and when I had suffered until the fibres of my heart were
torn, you showed me a glowing picture of the happiness that awaited me
here and in heaven if I became a Christian. I allowed myself to be
baptized."

Minsk paused, and the expression of his face showed the mental anguish
he was at that moment enduring. Suddenly, he continued, with great
vehemence:

"Yes, I became a Christian, or rather a godless hypocrite, who had
bartered away the sympathy of his co-religionists as well as his
self-respect. How did you treat me after I had embraced your faith?
Humiliations, worse than any I had experienced as a Jew, were showered
upon me. I was regarded as something impure, shunned and execrated. It
was too late to turn back, and in spite of your treatment, I remained a
Christian, I adhered to the glorious faith which teaches 'Peace on earth
and good-will to men.' In sheer desperation, I joined the band of
unfortunates as reckless as myself, whose self-imposed mission it is to
pave the way to liberty."

Minsk preserved a defiant demeanor throughout the trial. He made no
defence, nor did he endeavor to have his punishment mitigated. His
condemnation followed, as a matter of course.

The scaffold found him unsubdued.

"My attempt has failed," he cried, "but think not that General Melikoff
is safe! After me will come a second, and after him a third. Melikoff
must fall, and the Czar will not long survive him."

The fifth of March witnessed his death struggles upon the scaffold.

Darker and darker it grew in Israel. The sun of its brief prosperity was
gradually becoming obscured by heavy clouds of intolerance and
fanaticism, clouds which did no