Mich. Because you are a traitor! Where did you go when you left us the night of our last meeting here?
[27]Alex. To mine own house, Michael.[27]
Mich. Liar! I was on your track. You left here an hour after midnight. Wrapped in a large cloak, you crossed the river in a boat a mile below the second bridge, and gave the ferryman a gold piece, you, the poor student of medicine! You doubled back twice, and hid in an archway so long that I had almost made up my mind to stab you at once, only that I am fond of hunting. So! you thought that you had baffled all pursuit, did you? Fool! I am a bloodhound that never loses the scent. I followed you from street to street. At last I saw you pass swiftly across the Place St. Isaac, whisper to the guards the secret password, enter the palace by a private door with your own key.
Conspirators. The palace!
Vera. Alexis!
Mich. I waited. All through the dreary watches of our long Russian night I waited, that I might kill you with your Judas hire still hot in your hand. But you never came out; you never left that palace at all. I saw the blood-red sun rise through the yellow fog over the murky town; I saw a new day of oppression dawn on Russia; but you never came out. So you pass nights in the palace, do you? You know the password for the guards! you have a key to a secret door. Oh, you are a spy—you are a spy! I never trusted you, [28]with your soft white hands, your curled hair, your pretty graces.[28] You have no mark of suffering about you; you cannot be of the people. You are a spy—[29]a spy—traitor.[29]
Omnes. Kill him! Kill him! (draw their knives.)
Vera (rushing in front of Alexis). Stand back, I say, Michael! Stand back all! [30]Do not dare[30] lay a hand upon him! He is the noblest heart amongst us.
Omnes. Kill him! Kill him! He is a spy!
Vera. Dare to lay a finger on him, and I leave you all to yourselves.