at unutterable things.

"And he," she continued with a shiver, "he loved me, loved me with a
passion that was like madness. He could hardly bear me out of his
sight.

"I killed him, yes, morally, I have no doubt I killed him. He
lavished everything on me, jewels, wealth, all the forms of luxury.
He made a will leaving me the whole of his great fortune. But I could
not endure him, and that killed him. I think," she hesitated and
lowered her voice to a whisper, "I think he killed himself to please
me."

Hardened as I am, I felt a thrill of horror. The Princess was right;
the story was too terrible to be told.

"Then the police came on the scene. From the first they knew well
enough that I was innocent. But they were determined to make me
guilty. The head of the secret service at that time was Baron Kratz.
He had had his eye on me for some time. The Czar, believing in my
guilt, had ordered him not to spare me, and that fatal order gave him
a free hand.

"How he managed it all, I hardly know. The servants were bullied or
bribed into giving false evidence against me. But one part of their
evidence was true enough; even I could not deny that I had hated
Prince Y----, and that his death came as a welcome relief.

"There was a secret trial, and I was condemned. They read out my
sentence. And then, when it was all over, Kratz came to me, and
offered me life and liberty in return for my services as an agent of
the Third Section."

"And to save your life you consented. Well, I do not judge you," I
said.

The Princess glanced at me with a strange smile.

"To save my life! I see you do not yet know our Holy Russia. Shall I
tell you what my sentence was?"

"Was it not death, then?"

"Yes, death--by the knout!"

"My God!"

I gazed at her stupified. Her whole beauty seemed to be focussed in
one passionate protest. Knouted to death! I saw the form before me
stripped, and lashed to the triangles, while the knotted thong,
wielded by the hangman's hands, buried itself in the soft flesh.

I no longer disbelieved. I no longer even doubted. The very horror of
the story had the strength of truth.

For some time neither of us spoke.

"But now, surely, you have made up your mind to break lose from this
thraldom?" I demanded. "And, if so, and you will trust me, I will
undertake to save you."

"You forget, do you not, that you yourself are not free? You surely
do not mean that you would lay aside your work for my sake?"