Page:By order of the Czar.djvu/359



BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 347

If it were possible to separate the patriot whose faith and hopes are satisfied by a wholesome agitation, from the patriot whose bitter political programme is one of dagger, dynamite, and violent social upheaval, the Government would no doubt be ready to draw a hard and fast line on the side of pacific operations as against the violence of revolution. But liberty is compelled to allow a large margin for license, and it is better that an occasional cul- prit, who might deserve death or life-long imprisonment, should receive the protection of our shores rather than an unchecked despotism should work its will upon the high- minded agitator, whose only crime is a national enthu- siasm for the regeneration of his country.

And so it comes about that London is the sanctuary of the political exile, not being actually a proved murderer liable to extradition ; though it must be confessed that Soho has sheltered many a conspirator who has been associated with attacks on authority entitled to condem- nation as outside the pale of mere political conspiracy.

Of such was more than one of the persons met together, some two weeks after the Venetian //, at the Parisian Cabaret, in a certain cul-de-sac known as Thomas' Alley, within a stone's throw of Dean Street.

The Parisian Cabaret was a small unpretentious cafe, at the extreme end of Thomas' Alley ; smuggled away in one corner of it, as if it had been built into an uninten- tional architectural vacancy an after-thought in the higgledy-piggledy plan of the original builders. The lower part of the house was occupied with a large bow-window and a quaint doorway, with an over-decoration in the centre of which was a date indicating that the architecture belonged to the picturesque period before the age of stucco and iron. The upper stories were curiously gabled ; and the quaint windows, glazed in much smaller squares than is usual in these days, were prettily deco-