going
forward which a serious state of affairs could alone account for. There
were innumerable couriers on the roads both to Wladimir and to the
Ural Mountains. The exchange of telegraphic dispatches with Moscow was
incessant.

Michael Strogoff found himself in the central square when the report
spread that the head of police had been summoned by a courier to the
palace of the governor-general. An important dispatch from Moscow, it
was said, was the cause of it.

"The fair is to be closed," said one.

"The regiment of Nijni-Novgorod has received the route," declared
another.

"They say that the Tartars menace Tomsk!"

"Here is the head of police!" was shouted on every side. A loud clapping
of hands was suddenly raised, which subsided by degrees, and finally was
succeeded by absolute silence. The head of police arrived in the middle
of the central square, and it was seen by all that he held in his hand a
dispatch.

Then, in a loud voice, he read the following announcements: "By order of
the Governor of Nijni-Novgorod.

"1st. All Russian subjects are forbidden to quit the province upon any
pretext whatsoever.

"2nd. All strangers of Asiatic origin are commanded to leave the
province within twenty-four hours."

CHAPTER VI BROTHER AND SISTER

HOWEVER disastrous these measures might be to private interests, they
were, under the circumstances, perfectly justifiable.

"All Russian subjects are forbidden to leave the province;" if Ivan
Ogareff was still in the province, this would at any rate prevent him,
unless with the greatest difficulty, from rejoining Feofar-Khan, and
becoming a very formidable lieutenant to the Tartar chief.

"All foreigners of Asiatic origin are ordered to leave the province in
four-and-twenty hours;" this would send off in a body all the traders
from Central Asia, as well as the bands of Bohemians, gipsies, etc.,
having more or less sympathy with the Tartars. So many heads, so many
spies--undoubtedly affairs required their expulsion.

It is easy to understand the effect produced by these two thunder-claps
bursting over a town like Nijni-Novgorod, so densely crowded with
visitors, and with a commerce so greatly surpassing that of all other
places in Russia. The natives whom business called beyond the Siberian
frontier could not leave the province for a time at least. The tenor of
the first article of the order was express; it admitted of no exception.
All private interests must yie