2i 6 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.
While Ferrari had many disguises, the countess had only two, and they were hers by right ; they infringed upon the personality of no other being ; she was the countess, and she was Anna Klosstock. As the countess, she was what we have seen, a lady of position, recognized by the Russian Court, and in the very highest European society. As Anna Klosstock, she was the friend and accomplice of that very Brotherhood of which Ferrari had spoken to the count on that never-to-be-forgotten day, when he had ridden into Czarovna to see if he could be of any assist- ance to the Klosstocks and their co-religionists. At the time when Philip was singing his lullaby ditties at Westbury Lodge, Anna Klosstock. in the guise of a poor Jewess, was sitting in council with three members of the Brotherhood, and they were congratulating themselves upon the vast extension of the military conspiracy which had that day been chronicled in the English papers ; the fact that the plot had been discovered was atoned for by the proof of its immense ramifications all over the Empire.
" You are a Russian born, Paul," said Anna, addressing one of the three, a tall, picturesque-looking man of fifty, muscular, with a flat face, sallow complexion, fiery eyes, gray hair, and a mouth that seemed to smile on one side of his face and sneer on the other; "you were born in Russia, in Moscow ? "
" Yes, sister ; my father was born there, and my mother too, and there were five of us in family."
" And you are the only one left ? "
"That is so."
11 Siberia and the knout only spared you because you got away ? "
" If there is work to do it is not necessary to remind me of these things ; I never forget them, nor my oaths nor my pleasure."
At this last remark both sides of his mouth seemed to smile.
