CHAPTER XI.
[A POLITICAL MEETING.]
The same evening Jacob set out to seek a friend of Ivas, who had been his comrade at the university, and had become a very important person in the present agitation. This man, a modest employé of the government, exercised a powerful influence on the young men and in circles where politics were the order of the day. He possessed superior intelligence, rare executive ability, great energy and activity, and his character was at the same time pliant and firm. Without being leader of any party, he went from one to another, and the timid as well as the bold bowed everywhere to his incontestable authority. Yet no one could have said that Kruder--that was his name--belonged to the fire-eaters, to the liberals, or to the conservatives, nor if he was red, blue, or white.
With the excited he was all fire and flame; with the cool reasoners he was calm and logical; with the prudent and timorous he was full of discretion and consideration.
All listened to his objections; all followed his counsels. He knew how to smooth all difficulties, conceal divergences, and to lead to the same end contradictory views.
Amid such diversity of opinions he alone could maintain order, and command sufficient confidence to subject all differences of opinion to discipline, in advance of the coming revolution; for to do this was his ambition, his only ambition.
He had friends in both camps; these precipitated the movement, those retarded it. His intimate relations with both parties put him in the way of hearing the opinions and knowing the situation thoroughly. Nothing could happen without his cognizance. In his work of centralization it was important to be well informed, so as to prevent errors, or to correct them as well as he could.
To attract less notice and to more easily escape suspicion, Kruder inhabited an unfrequented neighbourhood. He usually remained at home until ten in the morning, the hour at which he went to his office. When he had finished his government work, he commenced his active and errant life, and this was prolonged late into the night. If he had to meet any one, he made an appointment, sometimes at a café, sometimes in a friend's house. To meet him, Jacob went to the dwelling of a young Jew, Bartold by name, the proprietor of a manufactory and a hardware merchant. His place was full of visitors every day, a fact which could be easily explained by the importance of his business.
Well brought up and honest, he was not, however, a believer like Jacob. In religious matters he was satisfied to select the morals and repudiate the dogmas, but yet he proclaimed himself a Jew with a certain boastfulness. It pleased him to say: "If the European aristocracy are proud of tracing their origin back to the Crusades, I ought to be very proud of mine, which goes back much farther. I am a descendant of the tribe of Levi. That takes the place of arms or crests. My ancestors guarded the Ark of the Covenant in Solomon's temple; it is, at least, as great an honour as to have fought with the Saracens."
Public agitation naturally increased the number of visitors at Bartold's, and he had put at their disposal two large rooms of his house. It was a neutral ground for political discussions. It was a place of reunion sheltered from the police. Bartold took a great interest in these meetings, for, in spite of his Israelitish genealogy, he was a Pole at heart. He was thirty years old, tall, muscular, and well formed. His eyes shone with more than ordinary intelligence. His manner disclosed the serenity of an honest man who followed the right path, and whose conscience was clear. He loved to laugh and to joke, but under all this he concealed a warm, humane, and charitable heart. He received Jacob with cries of joy and open arms.