"Prince Mastowix that was, Peter Mastowix that is, this document and the evidence has been placed before our imperial master, the Czar, and by his orders you have been brought here for trial and condemnation. The tribunal adjudges you guilty of treason to the State, and sentences you to death. Remove the prisoner!"
Bowed and completely broken, the guilty wretch, the petty tyrant who had heaped wrong, misery and death upon so many others, was taken from the inquisition, crushed and broken.
Three days later he was led out into the yard of the very prison over which he had long and cruelly held rule, and shot to death by the guard, the very men whom he commanded oft before.
There is neither justice nor pity among the Russian nobles, and no remorse in the hearts of the peasant soldiery who have been brutalized for a thousand years. So this guard shot their late commander as they would have fired upon a dog; indeed, if there was any feeling in their breasts, it was one of revenge for the many brutal wrongs they had suffered at his hands.
It was a severe blow to the Nihilists of Russia, this discovery and death of Mastowix, but as no cause was assigned for it, they were left to conjecture, although they feared the worst.
Mastowix was ambitious; he even had the hardihood to look to the extinction of the royal family at the hands of this powerful order, and trusted to chance to place himself high in power, if not on the very throne of a new dynasty.
And he was of great service to the Nihilists, for he could keep them well posted continually. But that fatal letter cut him off, while yet his hope was in the bud, as well as other prominent members of the order, for eight others whose names were mentioned by Zobriskie were also arrested and sentenced to exile in the terrible mines of Siberia.
CHAPTER V.
SIBERIA.
A glance at the map will show the geographical location of far-away Siberia, but no map, no book will tell you what a hell on earth this northernmost arm of the Russian Empire is.