MICH. Liar! I was on your track. You left here an hour after midnight. Wrapped in a large cloak, you crossed the river in a boat a mile below the second bridge, and gave the ferryman a gold piece, you, the poor student of medicine! You doubled back twice, and hid in an archway so long that I had almost made up my mind to stab you at once, only that I am fond of hunting. So! you thought that you had baffled all pursuit, did you? Fool! I am a bloodhound that never loses the scent. I followed you from street to street. At last I saw you pass swiftly across the Place St. Isaac, whisper to the guards the secret password, enter the palace by a private door with your own key. CONSPIRATORS. The palace! VERA. Alexis! MICH. I waited. All through the dreary watches of our long Russian night I waited, that I might kill you with your Judas hire still hot in your hand. But you never came out; you never left that palace at all. I saw the blood-red sun rise through the yellow fog over the murky town; I saw a new day of oppression dawn on Russia; but you never came out. So you pass nights in the palace, do you? You know the password for the guards! you have a key to a secret door. Oh, you are a spy--you are a spy! I never trusted you, [28]with your soft white hands, your curled hair, your pretty graces.[28] You have no mark of suffering about you; you cannot be of the people. You are a spy--[29]a spy--traitor.[29] OMNES. Kill him! Kill him! (_draw their knives_.) VERA (_rushing in front of ALEXIS_). Stand back, I say, Michael! Stand back all! [30]Do not dare[30] lay a hand upon him! He is the noblest heart amongst us. OMNES. Kill him! Kill him! He is a spy! VERA. Dare to lay a finger on him, and I leave you all to yourselves. PRES. Vera, did you not hear what Michael said of him? He stayed all night in the Czar's palace. He has a password and a private key. What else should he be but a spy? VERA. Bah! I do not believe Michael. It is a lie! It is[31] a lie! Alexis, say it is a lie! ALEX. It is true. Michael has told what he saw. I did pass that night in the Czar's palace. Michael has spoken the truth. VERA. Stand back, I say; stand back! Alexis, I do not care. I trust you; you would not betray us; you would not sell the people for money. You are honest, true! Oh, say you are no spy! ALEX. Spy? You know I am not. I am with you, my brothers, to the death. MICH. Ay, to your own death. ALEX. Vera, you[32] know I am true. VERA. I know it well. PRES. Why are you here, traitor? ALEX. Because I love the people. MICH. Then you can be a martyr for them? VERA. You must kill me first, Michael, before you lay a finger on him. PRES. Michael, we dare not lose Vera. It is her whim to let this boy live. We can keep him here to-night. Up to this he has not betrayed us. (_Tramp of soldiers outside, knocking at door._)[33] VOICE. Open in the name of the Emperor! MICH. He _has_ betrayed us. This is your doing, spy!