PRES. Come, Michael, come. We have no time to cut one another's throats while we have our own heads to save. VOICE. Open in the name of the Emperor! PRES. Brothers, be masked all of you. [34]Michael, open the door. It is our only chance.[34] (_Enter GENERAL KOTEMKIN and soldiers._) GEN. All honest citizens should be in their own houses at an hour before midnight, and not more than five people have a right to meet privately. Have you not noticed the proclamation, fellows? MICH. Ay, you have spoiled every honest[35] wall in Moscow with it. VERA. Peace, Michael, peace. Nay, Sir, we knew it not. We are a company of strolling players travelling from Samara to Moscow to amuse His Imperial Majesty the Czar. GEN. But I heard loud voices before I entered. What was that? VERA. We were rehearsing a new tragedy. GEN. Your answers are too _honest_ to be true. Come, let me see who you are. Take off those players' masks. By St. Nicholas, my beauty, if your face matches your figure, you must be a choice morsel! Come, I say, pretty one; I would sooner see your face than those of all the others. PRES. O God! if he sees it is Vera, we are all lost! GEN. No coquetting, my girl. Come, unmask, I say, or I shall tell my guards to do it for you. ALEX. Stand back, I say, General Kotemkin! GEN. Who are you, fellow, that talk with such a tripping tongue to your betters? (_ALEXIS takes his mask off_.) His Imperial Highness the Czarevitch! OMNES. The Czarevitch! [36]It is all over![36] [37]PRES. He will give us up to the soldiers.[37] MICH. (_to VERA_). Why did you not let me kill him? Come, we must fight to the death for it. VERA. Peace! he will not betray us. ALEX. A whim of mine, General! You know how my father keeps me from the world and imprisons me in the palace. I should really be bored to death if I could not get out at night in disguise sometimes, and have some romantic adventure in town. I fell in with these honest folks a few hours ago. GEN. But, your Highness-- ALEX. Oh, they are excellent actors, I assure you. If you had come in ten minutes ago, you would have witnessed a most interesting scene. GEN. Actors, are they, Prince? ALEX. Ay, and very ambitious actors, too. They only care to play before kings. GEN. I' faith, your Highness, I was in hopes I had made a good haul of Nihilists.[38] ALEX. Nihilists in Moscow, General! with you as head of the police? Impossible! GEN. So I always tell your Imperial father. But I heard at the council to-day that that woman Vera Sabouroff, the head of them, had been seen in this very city. The Emperor's face turned as white as the snow outside. I think I never saw such terror in any man before. ALEX. She is a dangerous woman, then, this Vera Sabouroff? GEN. The most dangerous in all Europe. ALEX. Did you ever see her, General?