, also, are no Russian, sir. Judging from your accent, I should take
you for a German."

Heideck assented, and narrated his history in a few words. Having done
so, he could not help expressing his amazement at the attack of which
the Professor had been the victim.

"Never during my whole stay in India have I ever before observed any
outburst of hatred on the part of the Indian natives against the English
clergy," he said.

To this the Professor replied: "Even a few days ago not one of them
would, I should think, have had anything to fear; but in the face of
such terrible upheavals as are now taking place all ideas are thrown
into confusion, all slumbering passions are unfettered. I do not venture
to think of the horrors that will take place throughout the whole of
India now that the bridle that curbed the people has been rent asunder;
and the worst of all is that we have only ourselves to blame."

"Do you mean on account of the carelessness with which the defence of
the country was organised?"

"I do not mean that alone. Our fault is that we have ignored an eternal
truth, the truth that all political questions are only the external
expression, the dress, so to say, of religious questions."

"Pardon me, but I do not quite follow the sense of your words."

"Please consider the slow, steady advance of the Russians in Asia.
Every land that they have brought under their sway--all the immense
territories of Central Asia have become their assured, undisputed
possessions. And why? Because the Russians have known how to win over
the hearts of their subject races, and how to humour their religious
views. The victors and the vanquished thus better assimilate. The
English, on the other hand, have governed India purely from the
political side. The hearts of the various races in India have remained
strange and hostile to us."

"There may be some truth in what you say. But you must allow that the
English have in India substituted a new civilisation in return, that
inculcates a spirit of intellectual progress, and I conceive that no
nation can for any length of time remain blind in the face of higher
ideals. All history forms a continuous chain of evidence for the truth
of this statement."

"The word 'civilisation' has various significations. If it is only a
question of investigating whether the government and administration
of the country have improved, the answer is that the civilisation
we brought to India has, beyond all