shall read them. [18]How fair he looks?[18] Methinks he never
seemed so noble as to-night. Liberty is blessed in having such a lover.

ALEX. Well, President, what are you deep in?

MICH. We are thinking of the best way of killing bears. (_Whispers to
PRESIDENT and leads him aside._)

PROF. (_to VERA_). And the letters [19]from our brothers at Paris and
Berlin. What answer shall we send to them?[19]

VERA (_takes them mechanically_). Had I not strangled nature, sworn
neither to love nor be loved, methinks[20] I might have loved him. Oh, I
am a fool, a traitor myself, a traitor myself! But why did he come
amongst us with his bright[21] young face, his heart aflame for liberty,
his pure white soul? Why does he make me feel at times as if I would
have him as my king, Republican though I be? Oh, fool, fool, fool! False
to your oath! weak as water! Have done! Remember what you are--a
Nihilist, a Nihilist!

PRES. (_to MICHAEL_). But you will be seized, Michael.

MICH. I think not. I will wear the uniform of the Imperial Guard, and
the Colonel on duty is one of us. It is on the first floor, you
remember; so I can take a long shot.

PRES. Shall I tell the brethren?

[22]MICH. Not a word, not a word! There is a traitor amongst us.

VERA. Come, are these the proclamations? Yes, they will do; yes, they
will do. Send five hundred to Kiev and Odessa and Novgorod, five
hundred to Warsaw, and have twice the number distributed among the
Southern Provinces, though these dull Russian peasants care little for
our proclamations, and less for our martyrdoms. When the blow is struck,
it must be from the town, not from the country.

MICH. Ay, and by the sword not by the goose-quill.

VERA. Where are the letters from Poland?

PROF. Here.

VERA. Unhappy Poland! The eagles of Russia have fed on her heart. We
must not forget our brothers there.[22]

PRES. Is this true, Michael?

MICH. Ay, I stake my life on it.

PRES. [23]Let the doors be locked, then.[23] Alexis Ivanacievitch
entered on our roll of the brothers as a Student of the School of
Medicine at Moscow. Why did you not tell us of this bloody scheme[24] of
martial law?

ALEX. I, President?

MICH. Ay, you! You knew it, none better. Such weapons as these are not
forged in a day. Why did you not tell us of it? A week ago there had
been time [25]to lay the mine, to raise the barricade, to strike one
blow at least for liberty.[25] But now the hour is past. It is too late,