[26]it is too late![26] Why did you keep it a secret from us, I say?

ALEX. Now by the hand of freedom, Michael, my brother, you wrong me. I
knew nothing of this hideous law. By my soul, my brothers, I knew not of
it! How should I know?

MICH. Because you are a traitor! Where did you go when you left us the
night of our last meeting here?

[27]ALEX. To mine own house, Michael.[27]

MICH. Liar! I was on your track. You left here an hour after midnight.
Wrapped in a large cloak, you crossed the river in a boat a mile below
the second bridge, and gave the ferryman a gold piece, you, the poor
student of medicine! You doubled back twice, and hid in an archway so
long that I had almost made up my mind to stab you at once, only that I
am fond of hunting. So! you thought that you had baffled all pursuit,
did you? Fool! I am a bloodhound that never loses the scent. I followed
you from street to street. At last I saw you pass swiftly across the
Place St. Isaac, whisper to the guards the secret password, enter the
palace by a private door with your own key.

CONSPIRATORS. The palace!

VERA. Alexis!

MICH. I waited. All through the dreary watches of our long Russian night
I waited, that I might kill you with your Judas hire still hot in your
hand. But you never came out; you never left that palace at all. I saw
the blood-red sun rise through the yellow fog over the murky town; I saw
a new day of oppression dawn on Russia; but you never came out. So you
pass nights in the palace, do you? You know the password for the guards!
you have a key to a secret door. Oh, you are a spy--you are a spy! I
never trusted you, [28]with your soft white hands, your curled hair,
your pretty graces.[28] You have no mark of suffering about you; you
cannot be of the people. You are a spy--[29]a spy--traitor.[29]

OMNES. Kill him! Kill him! (_draw their knives_.)

VERA (_rushing in front of ALEXIS_). Stand back, I say, Michael! Stand
back all! [30]Do not dare[30] lay a hand upon him! He is the noblest
heart amongst us.

OMNES. Kill him! Kill him! He is a spy!

VERA. Dare to lay a finger on him, and I leave you all to yourselves.

PRES. Vera, did you not hear what Michael said of him? He stayed all
night in the Czar's palace. He has a password and a private key. What
else should he be but a spy?

VERA. Bah! I do not believe Michael. It is a lie! It is[31] a lie!
Alexis, say it is a lie!

ALEX. It is true. Michael has told what he saw. I