t. For more than
twenty years I have lived solely for the attainment of one object,
the removal of the blot of Russian tyranny upon European
civilisation, and the necessary punishment of those who were guilty
of the unspeakable crime of maintaining it at such a fearful expense
of human life and suffering.

"That object has now been accomplished; the soldiers of freedom have
met the hirelings of despotism on the field of the world's
Armageddon, and the God of Battles has decided between them. Our
motives may have been mistaken by those who only saw the bare outward
appearance without knowing their inward intention, and our ends have
naturally been misjudged by those who fancied that their
accomplishment meant their own ruin.

"Yet, as the events have proved, and will prove in the ages to come,
we have been but as intelligent instruments in the hands of that
eternal wisdom and justice which, though it may seem to sleep for a
season, and permit the evildoer to pursue his wickedness for a space,
never closes the eye of watchfulness or sheathes the sword of
judgment. The empire of the earth has been given into the hands of
the Anglo-Saxon race, and therefore it is fitting that the supreme
control of affairs should rest in the hands of one of Anglo-Saxon
blood and lineage.

"For that reason I now surrender the power which I have so far
exercised as the Master of the Brotherhood of Freedom into the hands
of Alan Tremayne, known in Britain as Earl of Alanmere and Baron
Tremayne, and from this moment the Brotherhood of Freedom ceases to
exist as such, for its ends are attained, and the objects for which
it was founded have been accomplished.

"With the confidence born of intimate knowledge, I give this power
into his keeping, and those who have shared his counsels and executed
his commands in the past will in the future assist him as the Supreme
Council, which will form the ultimate tribunal to which the disputes
of nations will henceforth be submitted, instead of to the barbarous
and bloody arbitration of battle.

"No such power has ever been delivered into the hands of a single
body of men before; but those who will hold it have been well tried,
and they may be trusted to wield it without pride and without
selfishness, the twin curses that have hitherto afflicted the divided
nations of the earth, because, with the fate of humanity in their
hands and the wealth of earth at their disposal, it will be
impossible to tempt