Michael Strogoff | Page 6

journey through the Siberian provinces, the object of which
remains unknown?"
"He did."
"And have the police lost trace of him since?"
"No, sire; for an offender only becomes really dangerous from the day
he has received his pardon."
The Czar frowned. Perhaps the chief of police feared that he had gone
rather too far, though the stubbornness of his ideas was at least equal to
the boundless devotion he felt for his master. But the Czar, disdaining
to reply to these indirect reproaches cast on his policy, continued his
questions. "Where was Ogareff last heard of?"
"In the province of Perm."
"In what town?"
"At Perm itself."
"What was he doing?"
"He appeared unoccupied, and there was nothing suspicious in his
conduct."
"Then he was not under the surveillance of the secret police?"
"No, sire."
"When did he leave Perm?"
"About the month of March?"
"To go...?"
"Where, is unknown."

"And it is not known what has become of him?"
"No, sire; it is not known."
"Well, then, I myself know," answered the Czar. "I have received
anonymous communications which did not pass through the police
department; and, in the face of events now taking place beyond the
frontier, I have every reason to believe that they are correct."
"Do you mean, sire," cried the chief of police, "that Ivan Ogareff has a
hand in this Tartar rebellion?"
"Indeed I do; and I will now tell you something which you are ignorant
of. After leaving Perm, Ivan Ogareff crossed the Ural mountains,
entered Siberia, and penetrated the Kirghiz steppes, and there
endeavored, not without success, to foment rebellion amongst their
nomadic population. He then went so far south as free Turkestan; there,
in the provinces of Bokhara, Khokhand, and Koondooz, he found chiefs
willing to pour their Tartar hordes into Siberia, and excite a general
rising in Asiatic Russia. The storm has been silently gathering, but it
has at last burst like a thunderclap, and now all means of
communication between Eastern and Western Siberia have been
stopped. Moreover, Ivan Ogareff, thirsting for vengeance, aims at the
life of my brother!"
The Czar had become excited whilst speaking, and now paced up and
down with hurried steps. The chief of police said nothing, but he
thought to himself that, during the time when the emperors of Russia
never pardoned an exile, schemes such as those of Ivan Ogareff could
never have been realized. Approaching the Czar, who had thrown
himself into an armchair, he asked, "Your majesty has of course given
orders so that this rebellion may be suppressed as soon as possible?"
"Yes," answered the Czar. "The last telegram which reached
Nijni-Udinsk would set in motion the troops in the governments of
Yenisei, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, as well as those in the provinces of the
Amoor and Lake Baikal. At the same time, the regiments from Perm
and Nijni-Novgorod, and the Cossacks from the frontier, are advancing

by forced marches towards the Ural Mountains; but some weeks must
pass before they can attack the Tartars."
"And your majesty's brother, his Highness the Grand Duke, is now
isolated in the government of Irkutsk, and is no longer in direct
communication with Moscow?"
"That is so."
"But by the last dispatches, he must know what measures have been
taken by your majesty, and what help he may expect from the
governments nearest Irkutsk?"
"He knows that," answered the Czar; "but what he does not know is,
that Ivan Ogareff, as well as being a rebel, is also playing the part of a
traitor, and that in him he has a personal and bitter enemy. It is to the
Grand Duke that Ogareff owes his first disgrace; and what is more
serious is, that this man is not known to him. Ogareff's plan, therefore,
is to go to Irkutsk, and, under an assumed name, offer his services to
the Grand Duke. Then, after gaining his confidence, when the Tartars
have invested Irkutsk, he will betray the town, and with it my brother,
whose life he seeks. This is what I have learned from my secret
intelligence; this is what the Grand Duke does not know; and this is
what he must know!"
"Well, sire, an intelligent, courageous courier . . ."
"I momentarily expect one."
"And it is to be hoped he will be expeditious," added the chief of police;
"for, allow me to add, sire, that Siberia is a favorable land for
rebellions."
"Do you mean to say. General, that the exiles would make common
cause with the rebels?" exclaimed the Czar.
"Excuse me, your majesty," stammered the chief of police, for that was
really the idea suggested to him by his uneasy and suspicious mind.

"I believe in their patriotism," returned the Czar.
"There are other offenders besides political exiles in Siberia," said