"If you should hear His Majesty insulted in your presence would you face the man who did it?"
"As surely as effect follows cause."
"Then this man's whole life is an insult to the Czar."
"In what way?"
"He is a Nihilist to his finger-tips. His presence near the throne is a standing menace to the Emperor; his hand is ever raised to seek his Majesty's life; and his whole life is that of a traitor who learns the highest secrets only to betray them to these enemies of God and the Emperor."
"What proof have you?" I asked in the profoundest astonishment. I began to see now how the most secret information leaked out.
"None, boy. Or do you think he would be where he is for an hour?"
"Then how do you know it?"
"If a secret is known to three people, two of whom you know to be as staunch as steel, and yet it gets out—how do you think it happens? If this happens not only once but two or three times, what do you think of the man? This man is a traitor; and as surely as there is a God in Heaven, the Crown is not firmly on my master's head while the man remains alive. Now, will you fight him?"
"The matter is a public, not personal, one: Russian not English. My sword is not a bravo's to be hired for that sort of work."