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It was not
known whether the traitor, calling in the foreigner to avenge his
personal rancor, had rejoined Feofar-Khan, or whether he was endeavoring
to foment a revolt in the government of Nijni-Novgorod, which at this time
of year contained a population of such diverse elements. Perhaps among
the Persians, Armenians, or Kalmucks, who flocked to the great market,
he had agents, instructed to provoke a rising in the interior.
All this was possible, especially in such a country as Russia. In fact,
this vast empire, 4,000,000 square miles in extent, does not possess
the homogeneousness of the states of Western Europe. The Russian
territory in Europe and Asia contains more than seventy millions
of inhabitants. In it thirty different languages are spoken.
The Sclavonian race predominates, no doubt, but there are
besides Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Courlanders. Add to these,
Finns, Laplanders, Esthonians, several other northern tribes with
unpronounceable names, the Permiaks, the Germans, the Greeks, the Tartars,
the Caucasian tribes, the Mongol, Kalmuck, Samoid, Kamtschatkan,
and Aleutian hordes, and one may understand that the unity of so vast
a state must be difficult to maintain, and that it could only be
the work of time, aided by the wisdom of many successive rulers.
Be that as it may, Ivan Ogareff had hitherto managed to escape
all search, and very probably he might have rejoined the Tartar army.
But at every station where the train stopped, inspectors came
forward who scrutinized the travelers and subjected them all to a
minute examination, as by order of the superintendent of police,
these officials were seeking Ivan Ogareff. The government, in fact,
believed it to be certain that the traitor had not yet been able to quit
European Russia. If there appeared cause to suspect any traveler,
he was carried off to explain himself at the police station,
and in the meantime the train went on its way, no person troubling
himself about the unfortunate one left behind.
With the Russian police, which is very arbitrary, it is absolutely
useless to argue. Military rank is conferred on its employees,
and they act in military fashion. How can anyone, moreover,
help obeying, unhesitatingly, orders which emanate from a monarch
who has the right to employ this formula at the head of his ukase:
"We, by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias
of Moscow, Kiev, Wladimir, and Novgorod, Czar of Kasan and Astrakhan, Czar
of Poland, Czar of Siberia, Czar of the Tauric Chersonese, Seignior
of Pskov, Prince of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volkynia, Podolia,
and Finland, Prince of Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, and of Semigallia,
of Bialystok, Karelia, Sougria, Perm, Viatka, Bulgaria, and many
other countries; Lord and Sovereign Prince of the territory
of Nijni-Novgorod, Tchemigoff, Riazan, Polotsk, Rostov,
Jaroslavl, Bielozersk, Oudoria, Obdoria, Kondinia, Vitepsk,
and of Mstislaf, Governor of the Hyperborean Regions, Lord of
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