Michael Strogoff

r and

e to private interests, they were, under

the province, this would at any rate prevent him, unless with the greatest difficulty,

off in a body all the traders from Central Asia, as well as the bands of Bohemians, gipsies, etc., having more

the province for a time at least. The tenor of the first article of the order was express; it admitted of no exception. All private interests must yield to the public weal. As to the second article of the proclamation, the order of expulsion which it contained admitted of no evasion either. It only conc

ed the exodus from the immense plain began. The awnings in front of the stalls were folded up; the theaters were taken to pieces; the fires were put out; the acrobats' ropes were lowered; the old broken-winded

it was evident, be entirely evacuated before the evening, and to th

rbidden, and they would be obliged to hasten to the south of the Caspian Sea, either to Persia, Turkey, or the plains of Turkestan. The post of the Ural, and the mountains which form, as it were

igin, and the words exchanged last evening between those two gipsies of the Zingari race. 'The Father himself sends us where we wish to go,' that old man said. But 'the Father' is the emperor! He is never called anything else among the people. How could

the Zingaris, their suspicious words, the strange coincidence which resulted from the proclamation. The remembrance of the

permit which had been given her before the new measures had been promulgated was no longer available. All the routes to Sibe

dangers which he, an energetic and vigorous man, would have personally to encounter, he could not conceal from himself how infinitely greater they would prove to a young unprotected girl. As she was going to Irkutsk, she would be obliged to follow the same road as himself, she would have to

shall fall in with her. Then, I will watch over her without her suspecting it; and as

ught only of doing a kind action; but now another idea flashed into

e easily guessed to be a courier of the Czar. If, on the contrary, this young girl accompanies me, I shall appear, in the eyes of all, the Nicholas Korpanoff of my podorojna. Therefore, she must accompan

angers, shouts from the agents and Cossacks who were using them so brutally, together made an indescribable uproar. The girl for whom he searched could not be there. It was now nine o'cl

e the crowd was much less considerable. He entered the churches, the natural refug

r look." He wandered about thus for two hours. He went on without stopping, feeling no

h a thunder-clap could not have burst without being heard by all. Evidently interested in knowing the smallest news f

and there some merciless agent would refuse her a passage! At any cos

l thought of presenting his podorojna at the office of the head of police. The proclamation evidently did not concern him, si

he head of police. An immense crowd was collected there; for though all foreigners were ordered t

ld have been able, in a disguise, to pass the frontier - just those whom the order wishe

merchants from Persia, Turkey, India, Turkestan, Chin

shed people, and those who did not set about it soon ran a great risk of not being able to leave the to

t business. However, a word into an inspector's ear and a few judiciously given roubles were powerful enough to gain him a passage. The man, after taking him in

as a girl, prey to a silent despair, although her face could scarcely be seen, the profile alone being vis

it. No doubt she was authorized to go to Irkutsk, but the order was peremptory - it annulled all previous au-thoriza

g her traveling companion. She instinctively rose and, like a dr

Michael on the shoulder, "The hea

e had been searching all day, without reassuring her by even a gestur

ing to whom she could look for help di

gent. In his hand he held his podorojna, which threw open the roads to Siberia for hi

some sudden inspiration prevent

we are authorized to continue our jour

ting her hand into that of Michael Strogoff. And to