Going out, the landlord soon returned with a file of Russian journals, and, looking cautiously around, said: “If your lordship cares for news fourteen days old, I have here a file of the English _Times_, and that’s what you won’t find in any other hotel in St. Petersburg. I get them from the English Club, who contrive to have them introduced into Russia without their being seen and ‘blacked’ by the censor. Say nothing about this, or I shall be having a domiciliary visit from the police.” Taking the papers, Wilfrid sat down and began with the file of the _Times_, skimming the contents with a quick eye, in the course of which operation he came across a paragraph that caused him for the space of a full minute to sit dumbfounded with surprise. The paragraph which the Russian censor would certainly have “blacked” out, had the journal in question fallen into his hands, purported to come from the _Times_ correspondent in St. Petersburg, and was worded as follows:— “A strange story, to be received with some caution, is being whispered among political circles here, to the effect that the unfortunate Czar, Ivan VI., whose life, it will be remembered, was spent wholly in a dungeon, contracted a secret marriage with his gaoler’s daughter, a girl of exquisite beauty. “The sole descendant of this union is a grand-daughter, now in her twenty-third year, and said to be of surpassing grace and loveliness. Till lately she has been living at Moscow, carefully concealing the secret of her romantic origin; but, through no act of her own, the story, by some means or other, has transpired. “The Czar Paul is said to be convinced by documentary evidence of her legitimacy and Imperial lineage, a matter to him of grave import, since, as there is no Salic law in Russia, if the rule of primogeniture be followed, this grand-daughter of Ivan VI., as the eldest surviving representative of the House of Romanoff, should now be wearing the diadem of the Czars. “With a view of keeping a watch over her, Paul some months ago removed her from Moscow to his Court at St. Petersburg, conferring upon her the title of Grand Duchess, and placing her among the ladies in immediate attendance upon the Czarina. Assuming that this story is true, he would be a bold prophet who, in view of the gloomy and suspicious nature of Paul, would venture to predict length of days to a lady so dangerous politically to him and his heirs.” The paper fluttered from Wilfrid’s hands. He had no desire to read anything more that day. The political and military affairs of the Continent sank into insignificance beside this startling paragraph. The English readers of _The Times_ might regard the story as a romantic fabrication; Wilfrid had reasons for believing otherwise.