agent, I am at your service.’  But that day, at Krestowsky, destiny prevented my rejoining Natacha; and I must attribute it to destiny, which would not permit the loss of that man.  Michael Nikolaievitch, who was a traitor, was too much in the ‘combination,’ and if he had been rejected he would have ruined everything.  I caused him to disappear!  The great misfortune then was that Natacha, holding me responsible for the death of a man she believed innocent, never wished to see me again, and, when she did see me, refused to have any conversation with me because I proposed that I take Michael’s place for her with the revolutionaries.  She would have nothing to do with me in order to protect her secret.  Meantime, the Nihilists believed they were betrayed by Natacha when they learned of the death of Michael, and they undertook to avenge him.  They seized Natacha, and bore her off by force.  The unhappy girl learned then, that same evening, of the attack which destroyed the datcha and, happily, still spared her father.  This time she reached a definite understanding with the revolutionary party.  Her bargain was made.  I offer you for proof of it only her attitude when she was arrested, and, even in that moment, her sublime silence.”

While Rouletabille urged his view, the Emperor let him talk on and on, and now his eyes were dim.

“Is it possible that Natacha has not been the accomplice, in all, of Michael Nikolaievitch?” he demanded.  “It was she who opened her father’s house to him that night.  If she was not his accomplice she would have mistrusted him, she would have watched him.”

“Sire, Michael Nikolaievitch was a very clever man.  He knew so well how to play upon Natacha, and Annouchka, in whom she placed all her hope.  It was from Annouchka that she wished to hold the life of her father.  It was the word, the signature of Annouchka that she demanded before giving her own.  The evening Michael Nikolaievitch died, he was charged to bring her that signature.  I know it, myself, because, pretending drunkenness, I was able to overhear enough of a conversation between Annouchka and a man whose name I must conceal.  Yes, that last evening, Michael Nikolaievitch, when he entered the datcha, had the signature in his pocket, but also he carried the weapon or the poison with which he already had attempted and was resolved to reach the father of her whom he believed was assuredly to be his wife.”

“You speak now of a paper, very precious, that I regret not to possess, monsieur,” said the Tsar coldly, “because that paper alone would have proved to me the innocence of your protegee.”

“If you have not it, Sire, you know well that it is because I have wished you to have it.  The corpse had been searched by Katharina, the little Bohemian, and I, Sire, prevented Koupriane from finding that signature in Katharina’s possession.  In saving the secret I have saved General Trebassof’s life, who would have preferred to die rather than accept such an arrangement.”