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346 Y ORDER OF THE CZAK.

CHAPTER XLV.

THE COUNTESS TELLS HER STORY TO THE BROTHER- HOOD AND PHILIP.

THE foreign quarter of London with which the public is supposed to be most familiar is in truth the least known of the many mysterious districts of the great metropolis.

Soho, in its own peculiar way, possesses as many strange ramifications as the black circle of Whitechapel, which environs the tragic footsteps of the most terrible of modern assassins. The police have the key to many of the retreats in which political exiles and foreign conspira- tors meet to hold friendly intercourse, and to hatch plots of social regeneration and personal vengeance. But Scot- land Yard has no special reason for interfering with the meetings of these continental outcasts, so long as they do not offend the English laws.

The liberty of the subject in these islands covers the stranger as well as the native. To plot against the life of potentate, statesman or private citizen, however, of this or any other country would, of course, bring conspirators under legal restraint ; but it is not the business of the London police to act the part of spies upon political exiles ; and who is to interpret the secret thoughts of the solemn mysterious men and women who live quiet lives in the regions of Soho, or report to the police the spoken words of their private gatherings ?

England, America and Switzerland have for many years been the plotting grounds of Nihilists and Social -Demo- crats.