The sound of sleigh bells is heard outside.

VOICE:

[(outside)]: Per crucem ad lucem. [(Answer of man on guard)]: Per sanguinem ad libertatem.

MICHAEL:

Who is that?

Enter VERA in a cloak, which she throws off, appearing in full ball dress.

VERA:

God save the people!

PRESIDENT:

Welcome, Vera, welcome! We have been sick at heart till we saw you; but now methinks the star of freedom has come to wake us from the night.

VERA:

It is night, indeed, brother! Night without moon or star! Russia is smitten to the heart! The man Ivan whom men called the Czar strikes now at our mother with a dagger deadlier than any ever forged by tyranny against a people's life!

MICHAEL:

What has the tyrant done now?

VERA:

To-morrow martial law is to be proclaimed over all Russia.

OMNES:

Martial law! We are lost! We are lost!

ALEXIS:

Martial law! Impossible!

MICHAEL:

Fool, nothing is impossible in Russia but reform.

VERA:

Ay, martial law. The last right to which the people clung has been taken from them. Without trial, without appeal, without accuser even, our brothers will be taken from their houses, shot in the streets like dogs, sent away to die in the snow, to starve in the dungeon, to rot in the mine. Do you know what martial law means? It means the strangling of a whole nation. The streets will be filled with soldiers night and day; there will be sentinels at every door. No man dare walk abroad now but the spy or the traitor. Cooped up in the dens we hide in, meeting by stealth, speaking with bated breath; what good can we do now for Russia?

PRESIDENT:

We can suffer at least.

VERA:

We have done that too much already. The hour is now come to annihilate and to revenge.

PRESIDENT:

Up to this the people have borne everything.

VERA:

Because they have understood nothing. But now we, the Nihilists, have given them the tree of knowledge to eat of, and the day of silent suffering is over for Russia.

MICHAEL:

Martial law, Vera! This is fearful tidings you bring.

PRESIDENT:

It is the death-warrant of liberty in Russia.

VERA:

Or the signal for revolution.

MICHAEL:

Are you sure it is true?

VERA:

Here is the proclamation. I stole it myself at the ball to-night from a young fool, one of Prince Paul's secretaries, who had been given it to copy. It was that which made me so late.

VERA hands proclamation to MICHAEL, who reads it.

MICHAEL:

`To ensure the public safety---martial law. By order of the Czar, father of his people.' The father of his people!

VERA:

Ay! a father whose name shall not be hallowed, whose kingdom shall change to a republic, whose trespasses shall not be forgiven him, because he has robbed us of our daily bread; with whom is neither might, nor right, nor glory, now or for ever.

PRESIDENT:

It must be about this time that the council meet to-morrow. It has not yet been signed.

ALEXIS:

It shall not be while I have a tongue to plead with.

MICHAEL:

Or while I have hands to smite with.