Paul accompanied Zabern at his request to the Vistula Palace, and entered the apartments lately tenanted by Trevisa. Beneath a catafalque of black velvet, surrounded by lighted tapers set in tall silver candlesticks, reposed the body of Trevisa, his hands folded across his breast, and holding within them lilies placed there by Katina. "A sad fatality!" murmured Zabern, his somewhat grim and hard nature touched by Trevisa's early and mournful ending. "A sad fatality! And partly of my own causing, too!" "How so?" "The cipher-despatch which I entrusted to his care has occasioned his death." "You mean that he was assassinated in order to prevent him from deciphering it?" "Precisely. The duke hesitates at nothing to conceal his treason." "What proof have you of his complicity in this affair?" "Actual proof--none, else would the headsman be now putting edge to his axe. But here are matters that have a suspicious aspect. Not till yester-morn did the duke learn that Russakoff was a prisoner in the Citadel, and that Trevisa was occupied with the document found on the spy. I did my best to keep the affair a secret, but our premier, unthinkingly, revealed it; and, according to him, the duke, on hearing of Russakoff's imprisonment, looked ill at ease. Why, unless the matter concerned him? Subsequently the duke paid a visit to the Citadel--in his official capacity, of course; but, mark the result! Two hours afterwards Russakoff's cell was found empty. How? Great is the power of the rouble-note!" "Why, then, send the duke to the Citadel, since the itching palm that opened the gate for Russakoff may do the like for Bora?" "I have thought of that, and therefore I have appointed some of my own troopers--fellows whom I can trust--to be the duke's jailers. But to return to the cipher letter," continued Zabern, in a tone of profound dejection. "It still keeps its secret. And Trevisa had just hit on the clue! Did he speak of the matter at all on the way to Slavowitz? Did he give you any hint?" "None." But scarcely had Paul given this reply than he started, as he suddenly recalled Trevisa's dying utterance. "Marshal, I believe he tried to make a communication to me in his last moment. His words were 'Remember the furies!'" "Passing strange! what meaning can there be in that?" The two men puzzled themselves to no purpose over the singular saying. "That cipher letter," said Zabern, reflectively, "was perhaps the last thing in Trevisa's mind. With that sudden intuition which sometimes belongs to the dying, he recognized why he had been assassinated, and tried to give you a clue. 'Remember the furies!' Humph! here's an enigma indeed!" He paced the apartment gloomily, while Paul, looking down upon the face of his dead friend, breathed a silent prayer for justice upon all who had part in the cruel deed.