was a dream, such a
dream of disaster and calamity as no earthly despot had ever dreamt
before.

Four paces from the table they were halted, the Tsar in the centre,
facing his unknown judge, and his servants on either side of him. He
recognised Natasha, Anna Ornovski, Arnold, and Tremayne, but the
recognition only added to his bewilderment.

There was a slight flush on the face of Natas, and an angry gleam in
his dark magnetic eyes, as he watched his captives approach; but when
he spoke his tones were calm and passionless, the tones of the
conqueror and the judge, rather than of the deeply injured man and a
personal enemy. As the prisoners were halted in front of the table,
and the rifle-butts of the guards rang sharply on the stone pavement,
so deep a hush fell upon the vast throng in the Cathedral, that men
seemed to hold their breath rather than break it until the Master of
the Terror began to speak.

"Alexander Romanoff, late Tsar of the Russias, and now prisoner of
the Executive of the Brotherhood of Freedom, otherwise known to you
as the Terrorists--you have been brought here with your advisers and
the ministers of your tyranny that your crimes may be recounted in
the presence of this congregation, and to receive sentence of such
punishment as it is possible for human justice to mete out to you"--

[Illustration: "Two bayonets crossed in front of him with a sharp
clash."

_See page 359._]

"I deny both your justice and your right to judge. It is you who are
the criminals, conspirators, and enemies of Society. I am a crowned
King, and above all earthly laws"--

Before he could say any more two bayonets crossed in front of him
with a sharp clash, and he was instantly thrust back into his place.

"Silence!" said Natas, in a tone of such stern command that even he
instinctively obeyed. "As for our justice, let that be decided
between you and me when we stand before a more awful tribunal than
this. My right to judge even a crowned king who has no longer a
crown, rests, as your own authority and that of all earthly rulers
has ever done, upon the power to enforce my sentence, and I can and
will enforce it upon you, you heir of a usurping murderess, whose
throne was founded in blood and supported by the bayonets of her
hired assassins. You have appealed to the arbitration of battle, and
it has decided against you; you must therefore abide by its decision.

"You have waged a war of merciless conquest at the bi