A SEARCH r ING CROSS-EXAMINATION. 213 



secret agents of the Third Section of His Imperial 

 Majesty's police. 



We were left in that room only ten or fifteen min- 

 utes, and during that brief period a flood of light was 

 let in on my soul, in regard to the methods of the 

 rulers of the Russian people, as brilliant as the light 

 that smote with blindness Saul of Tarsus. There was, 

 however, this difference, that whereas the light that 

 fell upon Saul came from heaven, that which came to 

 me seemed to glare up from the opposite direction ; 

 and while he was temporarily blinded, the partial 

 blindness with which I had hitherto been regarding the 

 affairs of Russia was instantly removed. One of these 

 reports read thus : 



July 16 (our date 28), 1890. 

 / was invited by the priest Ivanovski to be present at 

 his house in the assumed character of a relation of the po- 

 padya (the priest's wife) from Novomoskovski, when the 

 moujik Nicolai Nicolaivitch ivould come to talk about re- 

 ligion. The moujik' s wife came with him and took part 

 in the discussion. During the talk this woman spoke 

 disrespectfully of the Czar. A. K. 



Another one bearing the same date, but a different 

 signature, read : 



I was one of a party in the traktir of Petro Paulovitsch, 

 drinking tea. The party consisted of myself (here came 

 several names which we couldn't remember) ; the con- 

 versation was about the badness of the Jiarvest in the 

 province. A lexander Petrovitsch (or Petrovski) expressed 

 the belief that the Czar would not allow any grain to be 



