BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 67
lived through her terrible punishment, and escaped Siberia, or were vouchsafed years enough to pass the ordeal of both knout and Siberia, he would do something towards making the remainder of her life bearable. And he recalled to mind the case of Madame Lapukin, who, some hundred years before, was flogged almost to death, her tongue torn out, and then skillfully saved from death to be sent to Siberia, whence she was released by Peter the Third when she was an old woman.
This awful example gave the count a passing hope that if Anna did not die, as he prayed she might, he would, in some way, be able to help her, if it were only to make her a witness of the downfall and punishment of Petronovitch ; for of the Governor's ultimate ruin and death he felt a moral certainty, and he humbly asked God to save him a red hand in this.
They all prayed, you will observe, on whichever side they were. Even Petronovitch knelt publicly and helped the priest to give thanks for the discovery of plots against the Czar and the punishment of the instigators thereof. If the Divine Power were one that could be influenced by th^se miscellaneous petitions, what a complication of investigation would be involved in the answering of their conflicting requests ? But God's laws against tyranny, persecution, murder, are irrevocable ; they are often slow of operation, but in the end the wrongdoers are punished. The end may seem to us long in coming ; it is not so when we remember what atoms we are, and that our lives are only as a moment in the longevity of God and the great world
Stravensky, among other things, came to the conclusion that his life and work would be of more value to the cause of Liberty, and his chance of success against Petronovitch greater, if he lived in St. Petersburg ; and when he reached his estate and sat down to converse with his steward he
