at last!

_Password._ Vae tyrannis!

_Answer._ Vae victis!

(_Enter MICHAEL STROGANOFF._)

PRES.[8] Michael, the regicide! Brothers, let us do honour to a man who
has killed a king.

[9]VERA (_aside_). Oh, he will come yet.[9]

PRES. Michael, you have saved Russia.

MICH. Ay, Russia was free for a moment [10]when the tyrant fell, but the
sun of liberty has set again like that false dawn which cheats our eyes
in autumn.

PRES. The dread night of tyranny is not yet past for Russia.

MICH. (_clutching his knife_).[10] One more blow, and the end is come
indeed.

VERA (_aside_). One more blow! What does he mean? Oh, impossible! but
why is he not with us? Alexis! Alexis! why are you not here?

PRES. But how did you escape, Michael? They said you had been seized.

MICH. I was dressed in the uniform of the Imperial Guard. The Colonel on
duty was a brother, and gave me the password. I drove through the troops
in safety with it, and, thanks to my good horse, reached the walls
before the gates were closed.

PRES. What a chance his coming out on the balcony was!

MICH. A chance? There is no such thing as chance. It was God's finger
led him there.

PRES. And where have you been these three days?

MICH. Hiding in the house of the priest Nicholas at the cross-roads.

PRES. Nicholas is an honest man.

MICH. Ay, honest enough for a priest. I am here now for vengeance on a
traitor!

VERA (_aside_). O God, will he never come? Alexis! why are you not here?
You cannot have turned traitor!

MICH. (_seeing PRINCE PAUL_). Prince Paul Maraloffski here! By St.
George, a lucky capture! This must have been Vera's doing. She is the
only one who could have lured that serpent into the trap.

PRES. Prince Paul has just taken the oath.

VERA. Alexis, the Czar, has banished him from Russia.

MICH. Bah! A blind to cheat us. We will keep Prince Paul here, [11]and
find some office for him in our reign of terror.[11] He is well
accustomed by this time to bloody work.

PRINCE PAUL (_approaching MICHAEL_). That was a long shot of yours, mon
camarade.

MICH. I have had a good deal of practice shooting, since I have been a
boy, off your Highness's wild boars.

PRINCE PAUL. Are my gamekeepers like moles, then, always asleep?

MICH. No, Prince. I am one of them; but, like you, I am fond of robbing
what I am put to watch.

PRES. This must be a new atmosphere for you, Prince Paul. We speak the
truth to one another here.

PRIN