That night Ferdinand was at the theatre at Carlsbad, laughing with an unusual gaiety. He found time to send a hypocritical message of sympathy to the widow of the dead statesman, and directed that floral offerings should be sent to the funeral; message and flowers were alike refused. A few days later the _Svoboda_ (_Liberty_) openly accused Ferdinand of direct and full responsibility for the murder of Stambuloff, an accusation which is supported by such a mass of evidence as would hang any man, prince or commoner, in a community such as our own. But it must be remembered that Ferdinand loves flowers, is kind to animals, and wept when he saw the first Bulgarian wounded in the Balkan War. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE DEAD HAND “_Wherever you are, in your goings out and your comings in, the blood of Stambuloff will be with you; in your home, among your family, in church and in office, the shadow of Stambuloff will follow you, and will leave you in the world never more._” —“SVOBODA.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IX THE DEAD HAND In a little house in Sofia lives the widow of Stambuloff, once the most brilliant and beautiful woman in Sofia, now a withered crone who continues to live on for a cherished purpose. Her most treasured possession is the withered hand of a dead man; the hand of Stambuloff, the Bismarck of the Balkans. The woman and the dead hand wait Christian burial until the day when vengeance shall have been exacted from his murderer, Ferdinand, Czar of Bulgaria. The evidence that fixes the moral guilt for the murder upon Ferdinand is unassailable. It was not adduced after the crime, but months before it took place. In an interview published at the beginning of 1895, the victim told the _Cologne Gazette_ from his own mouth the manner and the very place of his death. For months beforehand the _Svoboda_, the Sofiote organ of the Stambulovists, had warned the Government what would take place, and declared that when it happened the moral guilt would lie upon the Prince and his Ministers. On the day after the murder, the paper accused the Prince of the moral guilt of the crime in unmistakable words that still ring through Europe when the death of Stambuloff is recalled. “Who are the murderers of Stambuloff?” the _Svoboda_ asked. “Who took the life of such a man as Bulgaria will never see again? Who lifted the yataghan against him? “They are officially unknown, but all Bulgaria knows them. For the last seven months we have repeatedly and openly declared that the Government was keeping the assassins of Beltcheff and Vulkovitch to murder Stambuloff. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Natchevitch, has given some of these men posts under Government, and daily receives them in his house.