GENERAL:

I' faith, your Highness, I was in hopes I had made a good haul of Nihilists.

ALEXIS:

Nihilists in Moscow, General! With you as head of the police! Impossible!

GENERAL:

So I always tell your Imperial father. But I heard at the council to-day that that woman Vera Sabouroff, the head of them, had been seen in this very city. The Emperor's face turned as white as the snow outside. I think I never saw such terror in a man before.

ALEXIS:

She is a dangerous woman, then, this Vera Sabouroff?

GENERAL:

The most dangerous in all Europe.

ALEXIS:

Did you ever see her, General?

GENERAL:

Why, five years ago, when I was a plain Colonel, I remember her, your Highness, a common waiting-girl in an inn. If I had known then what she was going to turn out, I would have flogged her to death on the roadside. She is not a woman at all, she is a sort of devil! For the last eighteen months I have been hunting her, and caught sight of her once last September outside Odessa.

ALEXIS:

How did you let her go, General?

GENERAL:

I was by myself, and she shot one of my horses just as I was gaining on her. If I see her again I shan't miss my chance. The Emperor has put twenty thousand roubles on her head.

ALEXIS:

I hope you will get it, General; but meanwhile you are frightening these honest folk out of their wits, and disturbing the tragedy. Good-night, General.

GENERAL:

Yes; but I should like to see their faces, your Highness.

ALEXIS:

No, General; you must not ask that; you know how these gipsies hate to be stared at.

GENERAL:

Yes. But, your Highness---

ALEXIS:

[(haughtily)] General, they are my friends, that is enough. Good-night. And, General, not a word of my little adventure here, you understand.

GENERAL:

But shall we not see you back to the palace? The State ball is almost over and you are expected.

ALEXIS:

I shall be there; but I shall return alone. Remember, not a word.

GENERAL:

Or your pretty gipsy, eh, Prince? Your pretty gipsy! I' faith, I should like to see her before I go; she has such fine eyes through her mask. Well, good night, your Highness; good night.

ALEXIS:

Good night, General.

Exeunt GENERAL and the soldiers.

VERA:

[(throwing off her mask)]: Saved! and by you!

ALEXIS:

[(clasping her hand)]: Brothers, you trust me now?

Exit.

TABLEAU

ACT DROP ACT TWO

SCENE: Council Chamber in the Emperor's Palace, hung with yellow tapestry. Table, with chair of State, set for the Czar, window behind, opening on to a balcony. As the scene progresses the light outside gets darker.

Present: PRINCE PAUL MARALOFFSKI, PRINCE PETROVITCH, COUNT ROUVALOFF, BARON RAFF, COUNT PETOUCHOF.

PRINCE PETROVITCH:

So our young scatter-brained Czarevitch has been forgiven at last, and is to take his seat here again.

PRINCE PAUL:

Yes; if that is not meant as an extra punishment. For my own part, at least, I find these Cabinet Councils extremely tiring.

PRINCE PETROVITCH:

Naturally, you are always speaking.

PRINCE PAUL:

No; I think it must be that I have to listen sometimes. It is so exhausting not to talk.