Zabern smiled grimly as he observed the secret glances of rage interchanged between Bora and Lipski. By this manoeuvre on his part they were prevented from learning whether those Poles who had secretly taken the gold of Orloff would vote according to promise. In the Diet of Slavowitz, when voting by ballot, each deputy took from his desk one of a set of discs. These discs were of two colors, white for affirmation, black for negation. Concealing the disc between the fingers and the palm--carrying it openly was forbidden on pain of forfeiture of the vote--each deputy walked past the presidential table, and placing his hand within the mouth of a large bronze urn, dropped the disc. As a precaution against the artifice of giving more than one vote, the names of the deputies were marked on the roll as each person passed by, and the number of counters checked by this arrangement. In prescribed order the deputies quitted their seats, and filed past the table, and for a few moments nothing was heard but the clink of the metallic discs as they fell within the urn. Brunowski took no part in the division, but had the right of a casting-vote. "One hundred and nineteen members have voted," said the chief clerk, looking up from the register, after the last suffrage had been given. This was a record division, being the largest that had ever occurred in the history of the Czernovese Diet. Every deputy, with the exception of Cardinal Ravenna, was present and had voted. The great question was how had they voted? Amid a hush like that in the chamber of the dying when the fatal moment has come, the chief clerk, at a sign from the President, slowly inverted the urn, and poured out the discs upon the red table-cloth. In their excitement the deputies rose and stood upon seats and desks, craning their necks forward, eager to catch the first glimpse of the black and white counters, eager to learn which of the two was the prevailing color. * * * * * To the waiting populace in the Zapolyska Square the time taken in recording the votes and in counting the same seemed unnecessarily long. A great sensation had been created when the officials of the House reported to those near the doors that the princess herself had appeared in the Diet with an appeal for the rejection of the bill. The story gathered in detail as it passed from mouth to mouth, and men on the outskirts of the crowd told how the princess with tears in her eyes had gone down on her knees before the assembly, and how Zabern, sabre in hand, had stalked up and down the chamber threatening to cut the throats of all who would not vote against the bill. And when the hour of midnight began to toll, and Dorislas was seen to fling himself from his charger, and hurry up the steps of the Diet-house, for the purpose of recording his vote within the chamber, the interest grew to fever-heat.