e how desperate suffering has made us. There
is no room here for a nature like yours. You must not come again.

ALEX. Why do you think so poorly of me? Why should I live while my
brothers suffer?

VERA. You spake to me of your mother once. You said you loved her. Oh,
think of her!

ALEX. I have no mother now but Russia, my life is hers to take or give
away; but to-night I am here to see you. They tell me you are leaving
for Novgorod to-morrow.

VERA. I must. They are getting faint-hearted there, and I would fan the
flame of this revolution into such a blaze that the eyes of all kings in
Europe shall be blinded. If martial law is passed they will need me all
the more there. There is no limit, it seems, to the tyranny of one man;
but there shall be a limit to the suffering of a whole people.

ALEX. God knows it, I am with you. But you must not go. [15]The police
are watching every train for you.[15] When you are seized they have
orders to place you without trial in the lowest dungeon of the
palace.[16] I know it--no matter how. [17]Oh, think how without you the
sun goes from our life, how the people will lose their leader and
liberty her priestess.[17] Vera, you must not go!

VERA. If you wish it, I will stay. I would live a little longer for
freedom, a little longer for Russia.

ALEX. When you die then Russia is smitten indeed; when you die then I
shall lose all hope--all.... Vera, this is fearful news you
bring--martial law--it is too terrible. I knew it not, by my soul, I
knew it not!

VERA. How could you have known it? It is too well laid a plot for that.
This great White Czar, whose hands are red with the blood of the people
he has murdered, whose soul is black with his iniquity, is the cleverest
conspirator of us all. Oh, how could Russia bear two hearts like yours
and his!

ALEX. Vera, the Emperor was not always like this. There was a time when
he loved the people. It is that devil, whom God curse, Prince Paul
Maraloffski who has brought him to this. To-morrow, I swear it, I shall
plead for the people to the Emperor.

VERA. Plead to the Czar! Foolish boy, it is only those who are
sentenced to death that ever see our Czar. Besides, what should he care
for a voice that pleads for mercy? The cry of a strong nation in its
agony has not moved that heart of stone.

ALEX. (_aside_). Yet shall I plead to him. They can but kill me.

PROF. Here are the proclamations, Vera. Do you think they will do?

VERA. I