So far no hostilities had occurred. Successive couriers arriving at intervals of every half-hour continued to report that the Russian forces still preserved their position of the previous afternoon,--a position about a mile distant from the Czernovese border. There was no movement on their part suggestive of coming invasion. The more hopeful of the ministers, therefore, began to pluck up courage, and tried to believe that the Czar's army had really mustered for the customary autumn manoeuvres, and not for the purpose of preventing the coronation. Zabern did not share in these hopeful views; none knew better than he did the magnitude of the peril that overhung Czernova. In reporting the cardinal's death to the princess Zabern had suppressed some details, and hence Barbara was unaware that a dove had flown off to Zamoska bearing a letter, which, if it should reach the Czar's hands, would most assuredly result in her dethronement. From very pity he withheld the fact. "She will learn it soon enough," he thought. "Why add to evil the anticipation of it?" During the course of the breakfast many comments were made upon the murder of Cardinal Ravenna. "A terrible and mysterious affair!" said Radzivil, greatly shocked by the tragedy, and completely ignorant as to its authors. "The physicians assert that there are no less than eighteen wounds upon the body." "Five less than Julius Cæsar received," commented Zabern irrelevantly. "You offer a reward, I presume, for any information that shall lead to the detection of the assassins?" said the premier to Zabern, who, as Minister for Justice, was head of the department that took cognizance of crime. "Not a rouble note," replied Zabern bluntly. "That's contrary to your usual practice." "Why should I offer a reward when I know who the--ah!--assassins are? There were three of them to the deed." "You know them? And yet they have not been seized!" "I have weighty reasons for deferring their arrest." "Delay may end in their escape." "The chief assassin cannot escape from me. The police know him and have their eye upon him whenever he walks abroad. I can put my finger upon him as easily as I now lay hand upon this coat," said Zabern smiling, and suiting the action to the word. Radzivil was about to press for further enlightenment, but Barbara checked him. "The subject is distressing to me," she said with a look that confirmed her words. "Your Highness, I crave pardon," said the premier. Though Barbara fully believed that no one had ever merited death more than Ravenna, yet the deed lay heavy on her mind. Not even the thought of the many maidens, her own sister among the number, sacrificed to the unholy desires of the cardinal, could blind her to the fact that in sending Zabern to slay him she had committed a crime. No such scruple, however, troubled the conscience of the marshal, whose only regret was that he had not despatched the duke likewise, while it lay in his power to do so.