n had been his personal
servant for years and years, was entirely devoted to him and stood
answering Oscar's long stare with calm, respectful eyes, evidently
pondering the mystery of the strange riddle.

"Burn that thing," commanded the emperor, "and don't talk about it."

Subsequently Oscar had a long interview with the head of his secret
police, with whom he had lately had every reason to be satisfied: secret
printing-presses of anarchist papers, which were continually being
distributed, had been ferreted out; a plot to wreck the imperial train
on its way from Castel Xaveria, the summer-palace in Xara, to Lipara had
been frustrated; suspicion of being connected with anarchist committees
had fallen upon a clerk in one of the government-offices and even upon a
young officer and it was proved that the suspicion was correct in both
cases. Quite recently the police had discovered a workshop in which men
were taught how to manufacture dynamite-bombs and infernal machines. But
who the insolent miscreants were who succeeded in flinging their
threatening letters into the emperor's own room: this they had not been
able to discover. For a whole week the windows had been watched from the
park and all that time nothing had been seen; it was now a couple of
days since that secret watch had been given up. The head of the secret
police felt convinced that the culprits were lurking in the Imperial
itself and acquainted with the emperor's private habits. Sudden visits
were paid to the rooms of any servants at the Imperial of whom there was
the least doubt; and, when a groom was found to be in possession of an
anarchist leaflet containing words of insult directed against the
emperor, the man was banished to one of the convict sections of the
eastern quick-silver-mines. This banishment was the introduction to
numberless other banishments; they followed one another in quick
succession; the victims were soldiers, sailors, many minor provincial
officials: the press had even ceased to report all the banishments. The
censorship was rendered more severe; newspapers were continually being
suspended, their editors fined and imprisoned; the imperialist papers,
Count Myxila's organs, almost despotically indicated the required tone.
A socialist meeting was dispersed by hussars with drawn swords; serious
disturbances followed in the capital and infected the other large towns,
Thracyna, Xara, even Altara. A strike of dock-labourers filled Lipara
for