“This is my errand,” said Varhely. “I have the greatest desire that one of our compatriots, now a prisoner in Warsaw, I think--at all events, arrested at Warsaw a short time ago--should be set at liberty. It is of the utmost importance to me,” he added, his lips turning almost as white as his moustache. “Oh!” said the minister. “I fancy I know whom you mean.” “Count Menko.” “Exactly! Menko was arrested by the Russian police on his arrival at the house of a certain Labanoff, or Ladanoff--almost my name in Russian. This Labanoff, who had lately arrived from Paris, is suspected of a plot against the Czar. He is not a nihilist, but simply a malcontent; and, besides that, his brain is not altogether right. In short, Count Menko is connected in some way, I don’t know how, with this Labanoff. He went to Poland to join him, and the Russian police seized him. I think myself that they were quite right in their action.” “Possibly,” said Varhely; “but I do not care to discuss the right of the Russian police to defend themselves or the Czar. What I have come for is to ask you to use your influence with the Russian Government to obtain Menko’s release.” “Are you very much interested in Menko?” “Very much,” replied Yanski, in a tone which struck the minister as rather peculiar. “Then,” asked Count Ladany with studied slowness, “you would like?--” “A note from you to the Russian ambassador, demanding Menko’s release. Angelo Valla--you know him--Manin’s former minister--” “Yes, I know,” said Count Josef, with his enigmatical smile. “Valla told me of Menko’s arrest. I knew that Menko had left Paris, and I was very anxious to find where he had gone. Valla learned, at the Italian embassy in Paris, of the affair of this Labanoff and of the real or apparent complicity of Michel Menko; and he told me about it. When we were talking over the means of obtaining the release of a man held by Muscovite authority, which is not an easy thing, I know, we thought of you, and I have come to your Excellency as I would have gone to the chief of the Legion of Students to demand his aid in a case of danger!” Yanski Varhely was no diplomat; and his manner of appealing to the memories of the past was excessively disagreeable to the minister, who, however, allowed no signs of his annoyance to appear. Count Ladany was perfectly well acquainted with the Warsaw affair. As an Hungarian was mixed up in it, and an Hungarian of the rank and standing of Count Menko, the Austro-Hungarian authorities had immediately been advised of the whole proceeding. There were probably no proofs of actual complicity against Menko; but, as Josef Ladany had said, it seemed evident that he had come to Poland to join Labanoff. An address given to Menko by Labanoff had been found, and both were soon to depart for St. Petersburg. Labanoff had some doubtful acquaintances in the Russian army: several officers of artillery, who had been arrested and sent to the mines, were said to be his friends.