She had gone after him--thither where even the Czars of All the Russias do not grant, but must entreat, pardon. * * * * * The last locks of hair were severed from the head of Ghedimin, no longer a prince. This is the tonsure of those condemned to death. He stood alone. He had no one to mourn his fate. The old servant, concealed behind the stove, sobbed uninterruptedly over the shameful operation. Ivan was not even permitted to raise his dead grandmother from the ground. A condemned rebel has henceforth no family either among the living or the dead. They fettered him hand and foot with the heavy iron fetters, of which the Counsellor of Enlightenment was wont to say, "Never you fear, you won't have to pay for them!" And, being an officer of high rank, he had received as distinction a heavy ball fastened to the end of his chain, which he was compelled to drag along at every step. "Now, shoulder arms! The prisoner in the middle! Forward--march!" But in the doorway their advance was hindered by some one with the words: "In the name of the Czar!" It was Zeneida Ilmarinen. Chevalier Galban looked at her in astonishment. "Ah, Fräulein, you still at large?" "As you see. I come from the Czar." "How could you get to him?" "Did not my countrymen, the Kalevaines, take the son, mother, and wife of the Czar under their protection to-day?" "I see; it was they who gave you admission to the Czar. And then?" "The Czar has pardoned Ivan Maximovitch Ghedimin. Here is his pardon." "Ah! you have saved Ivan Ghedimin from the scaffold?" "And also from the mines. The Czar is graciously pleased to exile him to Tobolsk among the sable-hunters, whither he will go at once." "On foot, it is to be hoped." "Not so--in his own sledge, and alone!" "And all this has been effected by your dark eyes, fair lady? But allow me, an instant. At the time that the Czar signed this pardon he was not aware that 'the green book' had been discovered." "What 'green book?'" "Ah, my charming _diva_, you are playing the unconscious innocent! But the part does not suit you. This time I fear I shall have to hiss. Do you not know that the key to your secret roulette-bank is in the hands of the police?" "I know; and then?" "And this time the police will not be fooled as I once was, when Michael Turgenieff said, '_Je suis un président sans phrase. Messieurs, faites vos jeux._' 'The green book' has been found!" "As far as I know a _yellow_ book has been found." "And in it the conspirators had signed their names to the Constitution, and the several schemes of rebellion were traced." "In it were the names of those gentlemen who remained debtors to the banker of the roulette-table and those whose debts of honor were unredeemed." "You act comedy well, exceedingly well, Fräulein; but, all the same, you will be hissed off the stage. _Written characters_ must witness against you."