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As he passed among the groups
of buyers and sellers he discovered that those who came from
countries on the confines of Asia manifested great uneasiness.
Their trade was visibly suffering. Another symptom also was marked.
In Russia military uniforms appear on every occasion. Soldiers are
wont to mix freely with the crowd, the police agents being almost
invariably aided by a number of Cossacks, who, lance on shoulder,
keep order in the crowd of three hundred thousand strangers.
But on this occasion the soldiers, Cossacks and the rest, did not put
in an appearance at the great market. Doubtless, a sudden order
to move having been foreseen, they were restricted to their barracks.
Moreover, while no soldiers were to be seen, it was not so with
their officers. Since the evening before, aides-decamp, leaving the
governor's palace, galloped in every direction. An unusual movement was
going forward which a serious state of affairs could alone account for.
There were innumerable couriers on the roads both to Wladimir
and to the Ural Mountains. The exchange of telegraphic dispatches
with Moscow was incessant.
Michael Strogoff found himself in the central square when the report
spread that the head of police had been summoned by a courier to
the palace of the governor-general. An important dispatch from Moscow,
it was said, was the cause of it.
"The fair is to be closed," said one.
"The regiment of Nijni-Novgorod has received the route," declared another.
"They say that the Tartars menace Tomsk!"
"Here is the head of police!" was shouted on every side.
A loud clapping of hands was suddenly raised, which subsided
by degrees, and finally was succeeded by absolute silence.
The head of police arrived in the middle of the central square,
and it was seen by all that he held in his hand a dispatch.
Then, in a loud voice, he read the following announcements:
"By order of the Governor of Nijni-Novgorod.
"1st. All Russian subjects are forbidden to quit the province
upon any pretext whatsoever.
"2nd. All strangers of Asiatic origin are commanded to leave
the province within twenty-four hours."
CHAPTER VI BROTHER AND SISTER
HOWEVER disastrous these measures might be to private interests,
they were, under the circumstances, perfectly justifiable.
"All Russian subjects are forbidden to leave the province;"
if Ivan Ogareff was still in the province, this would at
any rate prevent him, unless with the greatest difficulty,
from rejoining Feofar-Khan, and becoming a very formidable
lieutenant to the Tartar chief.
"All foreigners of Asiatic origin are ordered to leave the province in
four-and-twenty hours;" this would send off in a body all the traders from
Central Asia, as well as the bands of Bohemians, gipsies, etc., having
more or less sympathy with the Tartars. So many heads, so many spies--
undoubtedly affairs required their expulsion.
It is easy to understand the effect produced by these two thunder-claps
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