“Markoff lied when he denounced them as revolutionists!” I cried angrily. “They were my friends, and I know them very intimately. Let me here declare, Sire, that no subject of Your Majesty was more loyal than those two ladies. Surely the agent-provocateur has been at work again.”
“Unfortunately I am bound to believe the word of the head of my political police,” he said rather briefly.
I knew, alas! how fierce and bitter was the Emperor’s hatred of those who plotted against his life. A single word against man or woman was sufficient to cause them to be arrested and sent to the other side of Asia, never again to return.
“And where have the ladies been sent?” I inquired. The Emperor consulted a slip of paper, and then replied:
“To Parotovsk.”
“The most far-distant and dreaded of all the Arctic penal settlements!” I cried. “It is cruel and unjust! It is death to send a woman there, where it is winter for nine months in the year, and where darkness reigns five months out of the twelve.”
“I regret,” replied the Emperor, with a slight gesture of the hand. “But they were conspirators.”
“With all respect to Your Majesty, I beg to express an entirely different opinion. Markoff has long been Madame de Rosen’s enemy.”
His Majesty made a quick imperious gesture of impatience and said:
“Please do not let us discuss the matter further—at least, until you are in a position to prove your allegation.”