FIFTH CONSPIRATOR: Parbleu, Monsieur le President, I never knew you had one.

CONSPIRATORS: A spy! A spy! Unmask! Unmask! A spy!

PRESIDENT: Let the doors be shut. There are others but Nihilists present.

CONSPIRATORS: Unmask! Unmask! Kill him! kill him! (Masked Conspirator unmasks.) Prince Paul!

VERA: Devil! Who lured you into the lion’s den?

CONSPIRATORS: Kill him! Kill him!

PRINCE PAUL: En vérité, Messieurs, you are not over-hospitable in your welcome.

VERA: Welcome! What welcome should we give you but the dagger or the noose?

PRINCE PAUL: I had no idea really that the Nihilists were so exclusive. Let me assure you that if I had not always had an entree to the very best society, and the very worst conspiracies, I could never have been Prime Minister in Russia.

VERA: The tiger cannot change its nature, nor the snake lose its venom; but are you turned a lover of the people?

PRINCE PAUL: Mon Dieu, non, Mademoiselle! I would much sooner talk scandal in a drawing-room than treason in a cellar. Besides, I hate the common mob, who smell of garlic, smoke bad tobacco, get up early, and dine off one dish.

PRESIDENT: What have you to gain, then, by a revolution?

PRINCE PAUL: Mon ami, I have nothing left to lose. That scatter-brained boy, this new Czar, has banished me.

VERA: To Siberia?

PRINCE PAUL: No, to Paris. He has confiscated my estates, robbed me of my office and my cook. I have nothing left but my decorations. I am here for revenge.

PRESIDENT: Then you have a right to be one of us. We also meet daily for revenge.

PRINCE PAUL: You want money of course. No one ever joins a conspiracy who has any. Here. (Throws money on table.) You have so many spies that I should think you want information. Well, you will find me the best-informed man in Russia on the abuses of our Government. I made them nearly all myself.

VERA: President, I don’t trust this man. He has done us too much harm in Russia to let him go in safety.

PRINCE PAUL: Believe me, Mademoiselle, you are wrong. I will be a most valuable addition to your circle; and as for you, gentlemen, if I had not thought that you would be useful to me I shouldn’t have risked my neck among you, or dined an hour earlier than usual so as to be in time.

PRESIDENT: Ay, if he had wanted to spy on us, Vera, he wouldn’t have come himself.

PRINCE PAUL (aside): No; I should have sent my best friend.

PRESIDENT: Besides, Vera, he is just the man to give us the information we want about some business we have in hand to-night.

VERA: Be it so if you wish it.

PRESIDENT: Brothers, is it your will that Prince Paul Maraloffski be admitted, and take the oath of the Nihilist?

CONSPIRATORS: It is! It is!