property over to his Catholic subjects spread
upon the breath of the wind, and the populace was not slow to
appropriate its new possessions. The Governors of the various provinces
looked on with folded arms at the barbarities enacted under their eyes.
Occasionally the pleadings of the poor Jews appeared to prevail and the
military was called out; but it was not to protect the Hebrews, but to
prevent them from defending themselves.

The riots were invariably announced for days, often weeks, beforehand,
the police frequently stimulating the people to hatred and violence.

The municipalities, with the consent of the provincial government, had
taken every means to add to the misery of the situation. Mikail's book,
"The Annihilation of the Jews," became the bible of the fanatical
masses. Its sentences were distorted and exaggerated and then read to
the intoxicated wretches at the village _kretschmas_. Petitions were
circulated in the provinces to devise means to drive the Jews out of the
towns in which they had no legal right to live. In other places where no
such restrictions existed, petitions were sent to the authorities
requesting the adoption of measures to prevent the increase of Jewish
residents.

At Kief, the day after the riot, Governor Drentell called an assembly of
his counsellors to form a plan for expelling the Jews. Old documents
were unearthed and a rigid scrutiny instituted to discover what were
the restrictions upon the Jewish population of the city. The laws
enacted under the tyrannical reign of Nicholas were examined and the
discovery was made that nine thousand of the Jews in Kief had no legal
right to live there. For twenty years these laws had slumbered
unenforced. With a cruelty without parallel in the history of the world,
Drentell determined to enforce these ancient edicts and to expel all
Jews in excess of the legal number.

The Jews were accordingly notified that before August the number in
excess of the lawful population would be expected to seek another
domicile.

Wailing and lamentations broke out afresh in Israel. Many families did
not possess the means of departing, having lost everything in the recent
attacks. Others did not know in what direction to turn their weary
steps, for persecutions were reported all through Russia and in Germany
as well. Others again mourned at the thought of leaving behind them aged
relatives, beloved friends, the graves of their cherished dead and the
thousa