_Greg._ Wait! They are all ready now. The peasantry, inspired by the teaching of our martyrs for the last thirty years,--the nobility with awakened conscience,--the workmen, one great body with suspended arms,--the army of the Czar ready to become the army of the people,--all await their leader--you! [_A pause_] Russia is looking but one way--to freedom. To-day you may lead us to victory almost without blood. Let Petrizoff commit this crime in the name of liberty, and to-morrow we shall be like the scattered limbs of a dissevered body. You will not let this be, Lavrov. You will---- _Adr._ No! Let civilization wait another century rather than deliver her flag to the hands of murderers! _Greg._ And where is it now if not in the hands of murderers? _Adr._ It is not in _their_ hands, Gregorief, but in ours, that are yet clean. Do this thing, and it is you, not Petrizoff, who give the greatest blow to freedom. The world is just beginning to understand us---- _Greg._ Yes! Where is that understanding growing strongest? In America. And how does the autocracy propose to meet this new influence? By a secret commercial treaty with the United States. Give any government a pocket interest in the security of another and to the winds with sympathy! Petrizoff has his agents there now, and the burning of Yaltowa is only a part of his scheme to chill the hearts that are warming to us. But he shall not live to do it. You will not let him live, Lavrov. My God, don't you see that your opportunity has come? _Adr._ Yes. My opportunity to point once more to where the sun shall rise. _Greg._ The sun never rises on the blind. You would throw us back into night for another thousand years! _Adr._ What are a thousand years to the soul of man on the right path to the right thing? _Galovkine._ [_Plucking at Gregorief_] Come away. We lose time here. _Greg._ Not until I tell this fool where he stands! You imagine, Lavrov, that you are a friend to freedom, but a greater enemy does not tread Russian soil. Why does the government leave you at work? Because of your power to subdue the spirit in men. It is you--such as you--who forget our shackles and fill the prisons. But thank the Powers that keep the race alive, there are still some of us who believe in manhood--in the virtues of the heart as well as the soul--in courage, honor, justice! [_To the others_] Come up to Breshloff's. We will finish there. [_Enter Korelenko hurriedly_] _Greg._ [_Grasping his hand_] Korelenko! The word? What is it? _Kore._ What you wished. We needed only the consent of the Social Democrats to Petrizoff's death---- _Greg._ Yes, yes! _Kore._ And I have brought their sanction---- _Greg._ [_Almost sobbing_] Thank God! _Kore._ If it is done under the leadership of the Shepherd of Lonz. [_Adrian staggers back against loom_] _Greg._ [_Clutching Korelenko_] Take back that infernal proviso! _Kore._ I thought you wished it. _Greg._ I did, when I believed the man there was human.