sked, "Your majesty has of course given orders so that this
rebellion may be suppressed as soon as possible?"

"Yes," answered the Czar. "The last telegram which reached Nijni-Udinsk
would set in motion the troops in the governments of Yenisei, Irkutsk,
Yakutsk, as well as those in the provinces of the Amoor and Lake Baikal.
At the same time, the regiments from Perm and Nijni-Novgorod, and the
Cossacks from the frontier, are advancing by forced marches towards
the Ural Mountains; but some weeks must pass before they can attack the
Tartars."

"And your majesty's brother, his Highness the Grand Duke, is now
isolated in the government of Irkutsk, and is no longer in direct
communication with Moscow?"

"That is so."

"But by the last dispatches, he must know what measures have been
taken by your majesty, and what help he may expect from the governments
nearest Irkutsk?"

"He knows that," answered the Czar; "but what he does not know is, that
Ivan Ogareff, as well as being a rebel, is also playing the part of a
traitor, and that in him he has a personal and bitter enemy. It is to
the Grand Duke that Ogareff owes his first disgrace; and what is
more serious is, that this man is not known to him. Ogareff's plan,
therefore, is to go to Irkutsk, and, under an assumed name, offer his
services to the Grand Duke. Then, after gaining his confidence, when the
Tartars have invested Irkutsk, he will betray the town, and with it my
brother, whose life he seeks. This is what I have learned from my secret
intelligence; this is what the Grand Duke does not know; and this is
what he must know!"

"Well, sire, an intelligent, courageous courier..."

"I momentarily expect one."

"And it is to be hoped he will be expeditious," added the chief of
police; "for, allow me to add, sire, that Siberia is a favorable land
for rebellions."

"Do you mean to say. General, that the exiles would make common cause
with the rebels?" exclaimed the Czar.

"Excuse me, your majesty," stammered the chief of police, for that was
really the idea suggested to him by his uneasy and suspicious mind.

"I believe in their patriotism," returned the Czar.

"There are other offenders besides political exiles in Siberia," said
the chief of police.

"The criminals? Oh, General, I give those up to you! They are the
vilest, I grant, of the human race. They belong to no country. But the
insurrection, or rather, the rebellion, is not to oppose the emperor; it
is