"If you are at leisure, Herr Fischer," I began,
" to examine the specimens which——"

"Hold your tongue!" thundered the man of
science. " It will be your duty to give respectful
answers to the interrogations which I shall
presently put to you, and fortunate will you be if
by obedience and respect you can get your name
off my list!"

So saying, he caught up a hand-bell, and rang
it furiously. I started up, imagining that the
curator had suddenly become insane; but in the
next moment there was a tramp of heavy boots
and a clanking of steel scabbards, and four or
five Russian gendarmes, followed by a greffier,
or clerk, in professional black, hurried into the
room.

"Arrest him!" said the curator of the Prague
Museum; and I found myself a prisoner in the
grasp of two of the policemen.

"There is some mistake!" cried I, struggling.
"I came to see Herr Fischer, of Prague, and I
have no doubt intruded upon—— "

"Colonel Stronow, of the imperial Russian
service, Prefect of Police for Poland, very much
at your service," said the pretended German.
"But console yourself; you have done your
errand faithfully, and Lieutenant Gregovitch will
not fail to thank you for the care you have taken
of his invaluable birds."

"Gregovitch!" I gasped out, with a sickly
feeling of dismay.

"Yes, Lieutenant Alexis Gregovitch, better
known to you as Prevoust, the wine merchant's
clerk," coolly returned the dreaded chief of the
police; and then harshly added, " The examination
will now begin. Greffier, note his replies.
Prisoner, your wisest course will be to tell all
you know of the plots and projects of Prince
Adam Sapieha."

"I never heard of such a person!" said I,
indignantly; "your spy, if Prevoust be really
the rascal you represent him, might have
informed you—— "

"That your assistant-surveyor, Monsieur —
Monsieur— ah! M. O'Dwyer, was no other than
that audacious young rebel and traitor to the
emperor, and that his secret presence in Poland
is connected with the conspiracy for a general
rising against my imperial master's authority.
This young man has a daring and adroitness
unusual at his years, and to convict him of treason
will prove a service which—— Greffier, are you
ready?"

I felt stunned, bewildered. In what an
atmosphere of deception had I been living for months,
and how keenly I felt my own blindness in not
penetrating the disguise of those who had been
my constant companions. I now remembered
the Obermann's agitation on first catching sight
of my newly-arrived assistant— an agitation
explicable enough when I recollected that the man
had been born on the Sapieha estates, which
lay within a few miles of Sandomir. I
remembered O'Dwyer's wonderful influence over
the workmen, his knowledge of their language,
his frequent confabulations with them, and much
more. Him I could not blame, for his
purpose had been a noble one, and its objects pure
and sacred in my English eyes, but as for the
treacherous naturalist——

But here a hearty shake from the hard-fisted
gendarmes put an end to my reverie, and I found
that the Russian prefect was shouting forth
angry questions, and foaming with rage at their
remaining unanswered.

I never hope to pass such a half-hour again as
the one that followed. Colonel Stronow could
make nothing of me, for my very soul within me
was stirred into indignant resistance against the
vile system and its villanous tools, and I refused
to give the slightest information regarding
O'Dwyer— or, more accurately, the young
Prince Adam Sapieha. I said boldly that I
was an Englishman, guilty of no offence, and
bade him remember that my country had both
the will and the power to avenge any maltreatment
of even one so humble as I was. Stronow
bullied and blustered, cajoled and promised, by
turns. He loaded me with abuse and curses,
shook his fist in my face, and swore that I should
be subjected to the "stick," ironed, flung into a
dungeon, fed on black bread, sent to Siberia,
even shot. I have no doubt that he would
willingly have put in force every one of these
menaces had he but dared, and sometimes I half
fancied his rage would master his reason, and
that I should pay dearly for my stubbornness.

The matter ended in my being hustled out of
the room and locked up in another apartment,
the prefect's last words being a savage assurance
that my contumacy should not protect my
"Polish accomplice," who would be brought
into Lublin, tied neck and heels, before sundown,
and who was known to be too feeble after
his recent fever for flight or resistance.

"And he," snarled out Stronow, with the grin
of a vicious dog— " he, at least, has no British
government to back his insolence. Martial law
has been proclaimed, and a garrison court-martial
can be summoned at any hour. Half a dozen
cartridges have seldom been bestowed to better
purpose. Remove the Englishman."

The room into which I was now thrust was a
comfortless chamber on the second story,
absolutely bare of furniture, and of wretched
appearance. The plaster of the ceiling had fallen away
through damp, the boards of the floor were loose
and imperfect, and the rat-gnawed wainscot was
breached and rotten. But the door had a strong
lock, and after satisfying themselves that the
drop from the window was such as no man could
take without certain injury to neck or limbs, my
escort left me to my own reflections.

Sad enough were these. My own plight, to
do myself justice, by no means engrossed my
thoughts. The scrape in which the scoundrel
Gregovitch had involved me was disagreeable,
but not dangerous. My release was certain,
though, during my detention of a few days or
weeks, according to the temper and prudence of
the authorities, I should probably have to suffer
many insults and petty annoyances. But I could
not but feel the utmost concern for the poor lad
I had left, weak and suffering, at Podlowitz, and