much energy, and one rarely finds it developed to such a
point."[31]

The irony of fate rarely executes itself quite so humorously. Although
perfectly familiar with Nechayeff's philosophy of action for over a
year, the viciousness of it appeared to Bakounin only when he himself
became a victim. When Nechayeff arrived in London he began the
publication of a Russian journal, the _Commune_, where he bitterly
attacked Bakounin and his views. Early in the seventies, he was arrested
and taken back to Russia, where he and over eighty others, mostly young
men and women students, were tried for belonging to secret societies.
For the first time in Russian history the court proceeding took place
before a jury and in public. Most of those arrested were condemned for
long periods to the mines of Siberia at forced labor, while Nechayeff
was kept in solitary imprisonment until his death, some years later.

Bakounin, on the other hand, remained in Switzerland and became the very
soul of that element in Italy, Spain, and Switzerland which fought the
policies of Marx in the International. At the same time he was training
a group of youngsters to carry out in Western Europe the principles of
revolution as laid down in his Russian publications. Over young
middle-class youths, especially, Bakounin's magnetic power was
extraordinary, and his followers were the faithful of the faithful. A
very striking picture of Bakounin's hypnotic influence over this circle
is to be found in the memoirs of Madame A. Bauler. She tells us of some
Sundays she spent with Bakounin and his friends.

"At the beginning," she says, "being unfamiliar with the Italian
language, I did not even understand the general drift of the
conversation, but, observing the faces of those present, I had the
impression that something extraordinarily grave and solemn was taking
place. The atmosphere of these conferences imbued me; it created in me a
state of mind which I shall call, for want of a better term, an '_etat
de grace_.' Faith increased; doubts vanished. The value of Bakounin
became clear to me. His personality enlarged. I saw that his strength
was in the power of taking possession of human souls. Beyond a doubt,
all these men who were listening to him were ready to undertake
anything, at the slightest word from him. I could picture to myself
another gathering, less intimate, that of a great crowd, and I realized
that there the influence of Bakounin would be the same. On