Lying upon the rug before the fireplace was the General. Blood was upon his hands, and a brief examination showed that he had been shot in the breast with a revolver. He was still breathing, and as I lifted his head upon my arm he gasped the one word in Russian, “Revenge!”
The respiration immediately became fainter, and in a few seconds he died.
The chief spy had been assassinated. His papers were in disorder, and the fact that a bureau had been broken open showed that the murderer had searched for something he particularly desired.
I quickly summoned medical aid, and was afterwards closely examined by the juge d’instruction, but as I kept Shiryàlov’s identity a secret, and could throw no light upon the mysterious crime, I was set at liberty.
The tragedy created a great sensation throughout Paris, especially when it became known that General Martianoff, who was popular in society and supposed to be a retired officer possessed of ample means, was in reality Chief of the French Section of Secret Police. The funeral took place at Père Lachaise a week afterwards, but neither the mouchards of M. Goron nor the spies of the Tzar discovered the murderer.
Information by some means, however, reached the police that Shiryàlov had not returned to the club in the Rue Royale. He was at once suspected, especially when it was discovered that immediately after the murder he had left for Brussels. But the far-reaching influence of Nihilism had already been set in motion, and although the police of Europe were watching for the fugitive, yet they were baffled at every turn. He moved from place to place with an alacrity almost incredible. Secret information we received showed that after leaving Paris he fled to Namur, thence to Brussels, Antwerp, London, Palermo, Malta, and Gibraltar. While at the latter place he became despondent, and a fiasco nearly resulted. So rapidly had he travelled that the money collected for him in Geneva and London did not reach him, consequently he found himself at the “Rock” penniless and starving. In this condition he was walking the streets and had determined to give himself up to the English authorities, when a delegate from the Paris Circle found him, and supplied him with funds, by which he was enabled to sail for America.
For several months nothing further was heard of him, although a member of the La Glacière colony, who was connected with the Havas Press Agency, from time to time circulated reports as to the movements of the fugitive, in order to place the police on false scents.
One morning, however, the papers published what appeared to be an authentic account of Shiryàlov’s suicide, which had taken place in a remote village in Texas. The pistol with which he had shot himself bore the name of a well-known Paris politician, who was known to have aided the criminal in his flight. Photographs that were afterwards forwarded to France were those of Shiryàlov. Moreover, some of the lists of Revolutionists resident in the French capital, which were abstracted from the spy’s bureau, were found upon the body, together with a written confession of the crime.
No doubt was therefore entertained by the police as to the suicide’s identity, and the search for the assassin was consequently relinquished.