of
his time: in many ways even in advance of it. And he had by no means
begun to approach his goal before all the men with whom he came in daily
contact, and many of those considerably above him, had come to stand in
terrible fear of his accurate and tabulated knowledge of things they had
believed to be unsuspected by any human being beyond themselves.

But there was one man in the Empire who, as yet, remained in ignorance
of this trait of his official: who had never felt the faintest scratch
beneath the velvet of his favorite cat's-paw. Thus it was that Michael's
momentary defeat had come about. Czar Nicholas crossed him openly; put
upon him an affront unbearable; lowered him in the eyes of three hundred
puny men and women over whom he had no power for revenge. It was, then,
as a result of this, that treason had begun to surge through the mind of
a brilliantly wicked man. And had he been able to read certain thoughts
passing through his subject's head, it is possible that the Iron One
might have felt a certain uneasiness of mind at possibilities of the
future; and a rather poignant regret at his negligence of the evening
before.

* * * * *

Two hours had gone by since Piotr had carried his master's first meal to
that master's work-room. Michael had finished his letters. His first
anger was gone and his plan of "payment" already under way. With his
mind thus relieved, then, he suddenly began to feel the fatigue of
thirty hours of sleeplessness. With a comforting sense of relaxation, he
ascended to his bedroom, partly undressed himself, lay down on the bed,
and within five minutes had fallen into a sound sleep.

And it was two hours later and Ivan Veliki had rung the hour of eleven,
when the silence of the room was broken by the entrance of Piotr, who,
at sight of his master asleep at this unwonted hour, halted in surprise
and confusion. It took him ten minutes to nerve himself to the waking of
the Prince. But it was only ten more before Michael, who had sworn at
his valet steadily, meantime, for the delay, entered his public office,
fully dressed, to greet General Ryumin, a member of the Imperial staff,
just now sent as an envoy from the Kremlin. Michael, who chose to greet
him with all the courtesy he could command, hurried forward, his hands
out-stretched, and gave the greetings of the day.

"So! I roused you from sleep, Prince? However, I come direct from the
Kremlin; and his Maje