“May I ask you a question that must seem impertinent, M. de Brousson?” he said at last. “How did you penetrate the fortress of a Russian house and learn these secrets, when Ramodanofsky is, I know, no friend of yours?” My color rose, but I understood the Jew’s amazement. “I owe my success to my own temerity,” I replied; “the confidence is from my sister’s old governess, Mademoiselle Eudoxie. But if they cannot safely stay here under your wife’s protection, you must tell me at once, so that we can go straight to the Kremlin.” “Are you mad, Brousson?” exclaimed Von Gaden, hastily. “Go to the Kremlin in the midst of such excitement! Sophia is not strong enough to-day to protect the palace from the violence of the mob that she has tried to excite to mutiny ever since the Czar Feodor’s funeral. Zénaïde Feodorovna is welcome to the shelter of my roof as long as I have one. It would be madness to go out again to-night. Vladimir Ramodanofsky will search well for his victim, and he will not let her escape so easily again. These are uncertain times, M. le Vicomte. To-day it looks as if the scale were turning in the favor of the Naryshkins. Matveief is holding a reception at his house, and all the courtiers are carrying presents to him; who can tell whether or not that astute old chancellor may not stem the tide of popular displeasure and establish his former ward’s son firmly upon the throne? In which case,” added Von Gaden, snapping his fingers, “I would not give that for Sophia’s influence at court.” I would not be discouraged. “I differ with you,” I said at once; “I do not believe that forty Matveiefs could turn the tide at this late hour. The thunder of sedition is already rumbling over yonder in the quarters of the Streltsi, and I have seen Basil Galitsyn’s confidence; he is too shrewd a man to plant his feet on sand.” Von Gaden shook his head. However, his interests were with the Naryshkins, and it was natural for him to overestimate their strength. At least I was assured of Zénaïde’s immediate safety; and after a little consultation, Von Gaden went to his wife, and she received mademoiselle and Zénaïde, carrying them away to her portion of the house. It was then that Dr. von Gaden puzzled me by advising me to take no action in the matter for the present. “Let affairs drift with the tide for a day or so,” he said. “There is scarcely a chance of their presence here being discovered; meanwhile, the crisis is approaching, and we shall know which side will hold the balance of power. The old boyar has chosen his time cleverly, to force Zénaïde’s marriage just when interference from the Kremlin was unlikely; but he counted without his host,” he added with a peculiar smile, “and she has shown her father’s spirit in her resistance. I always felt that there was good mettle in her, and that she would fight when the hour came.” I rose to go. “I will leave Pierrot here,” I said, “as an additional safeguard in case of need.”