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read the Russian telegrams O Lord God! Thou hast contelling of successes; agonies of quered me, and I will humble fear when the audacious offens- my pride and confess my sin. ive of the Japanese was anI should have waited patiently nounced; agonies of disap- for this day, whether I should pointment as, day after day, see it or not; and what have the news of his heroes' triumph I done? I have blasphemed still failed to come. Thy name, because my faith was dead in my heart. But now I feel that it lives again, stronger than it ever was. I believe in Thee, and since Thou hast granted that I should see this day, I believe, too, that Thou wilt pardon all the past."

It came at length. I shall long remember that day, and the rapture of joy in his voice when he cried out to me, "At last, at last, my boy! Retribution has swooped down on them at last! Oh, it was a long time coming, but no matter; twenty millions of Poles will welcome it as I do. Banzai! Daï Nippon Banzaï!" he shouted, boy - like, whilst tears of ecstasy filled his eyes.

"They cannot stand after this blow," he went on to say; "it is impossible. A hundred thousand killed and wounded, forty thousand prisoners! Magnificent! Yet their satanic pride-I know them well, and am sure of it-will urge them on in spite of all,-on, on to the edge of the pit, and over. And we shall be sated with vengeance, we shall be glutted with it. Ah!"

He caught his breath suddenly and lay silent for a time, an expression which I could not understand now irradiating his face. Then he spoke, with his head bowed upon his chest; his tones were very grave and earnest. "And if we are avenged, then I was wrong. I have been wrong all these years: there is there is a God in Heaven after all! And He has done mighty things with the strength of His arm! . . .

He turned to his niece, who stood by his bedside astounded, and scarce sure that she had heard aright. "Dear Vanda, I beg you go at once and bring a priest here; I must confess my deadly sin. I should like

Is Father Venceslaus still living? Then let him come. He was himself in the Siberian mines for ten years; he will understand."

The old woman hobbled towards the door in great and breathless haste, without saying a word, and possibly afraid lest her uncle might change his mind before she was out of doors. Then he spoke to me, who was sitting by, considerably embarrassed and taken aback at this sudden and quite unforeseen outburst of religious fervour. never yet said a word on the subject since his declaration, made a year ago, and I had thought such a change of mind on his part to be absolutely impossible.

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He had

Naturally you are astonished," he said. "Well, I have been a fool these forty years, and now I see it, that is all.

Vengeance was bound to come, and it has come. It has been delayed, but God can wait: it is we, poor wretches, who are impatient because our life is so short. And I had hoped so much, and seen such horrible sights, and lived through such fearful misery, that I could not, no, I could not, be reconciled to a God who seemed to have joined our enemies. It broke my heart even to hear His name, who I thought had forgotten their iniquities and only remembered ours. But

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And then, triumphant, we to the foul blasphemer

Shall make reply: For ever God was, God is!"

A little while afterwards the priest entered the room, when I, of course, withdrew, in company with the old woman, who trembled for joy, and ascribed her uncle's conversion to the masses and novenas offered on his behalf. I had no theory on that point; but of the sincerity of his conversion no one could doubt. When the old priest took leave of us, his eyes were red. Though the man had lived forty years in rebellion against

the fundamental dogma of his Church, Father Venceslaus had surely not dealt with him very severely. A priest does not cease to be a Pole; and Father Venceslaus' body still bore the marks of the knout.

The next day Brontoski sent for his lawyer to draw up another will. Instead of leaving all his fortune (with the exception of an annuity to his niece) to the poor of his people, he bequeathed one-third of it to the widows and orphans of the Japanese fallen in the war, "in token," he said, "of my gratitude to that great nation." The inscription on his tombstone was also to be changed, and to be as follows: "Because I have seen, I have believed.”

I was one of the witnesses to this will. When the lawyer had retired the old man (though now scarce able to speak) said to me, "Now I can die quiet." Being now less confident than he, I hinted at the dangers which the Baltic Fleet might bring. He laughed at my fears.

"And besides," he said, "no matter what happens now, Russia's supremacy is gone for ever,-vanished in one short year's space! The miracles I once hoped for are not more wonderful than the things I have lived to see. God is just, and has raised up for us an avenger in His own good time, and where we least expected to find one. As to the rest-as to the resurrection of our country-His Will be done!"

He expired that very evening most peacefully, holding my hand, and smiling.

Thenceforth he began to show a little hope now and then; the Mikado's army had proved itself not less trustworthy than his fleet. Yet often and often he would say, "These successes can only continue for a time; the tide will turn at last, and the Muscovites will be victorious." But the tidings came of one battle after another, ever with the same result, and ever showing to greater advantage the strategy and tactics and heroism of Russia's foes. And with him there was an invariable succession of contrary passions: the telegrams always telling of Russian success in the first part, and of a retreat to avoid disaster in the second, first filled him with sorrow and anger, and then with grim, scornful mirth.

guine expectation. And I must not omit one incident that took place about this time. As he was reading aloud the telegrams of the Sha-ho battle, and had come to one which set the Russian losses at 50,000 men: "Jesu Maria!" his niece exclaimed, and then suddenly remembering herself, bit her lips and cast a terrified glance in his direction. I saw him start violently and change colour, and I expected an outbreak like what I had already witnessed in February. It did not come, but his lively flow of talk was checked for that evening. He said no more about the war, but sat taciturn and abstracted, only replying in few words to such remarks as I or his niece addressed to him. He had the look of a man who was painfully turning over some question within his mind.

Then came the fall of Port Arthur, rumoured, confirmed, officially announced. After the first transports, however, I noticed that he became very grave; and during the whole day-for on that day I happened not to have any lessons

As the prestige of Russia on sea and land crumbled away, so did the body of this nonagenarian take fresh forces, until the physician who attended him and had foretold his death unwillingly confessed that in all his experience he had not met with so striking a case. Liaoyang and the Sha-ho, I may say, set him on his legs, for he was now I perceived that he was much able to hobble about the room. preoccupied, and, as I fancied, The look of desolation which engaged in an internal struggle had so deeply impressed me at of some sort. When he spoke my first visit was changed, again his tone was extremely his wrinkles notwithstanding, pessimistic, at least as much into an air of boyish animation so as in the first months of the and enthusiasm, very strange war; and I somehow had an in one so old. By night he idea that he was unconsciously dreamed of the Japanese, by exaggerating, forcing himself day he talked of them,-at as it were not to believe in times with despondency, when Japan's triumph, which he detheir advance did not keep sired so ardently. To what pace with his fiery ardour, purpose? that I could not but mostly with bright san- guess; but all he said was a

mere echo of those among the French and German papers that most obstinately maintained the inferiority of Japanese strategy. One might almost have taken him-him, of all men !—for a Russophil.

It was by this time midwinter, and that long stoppage of active military operations had begun, which ended as all know now, but as no one could guess then. Brontoski was once more confined to his bed, perhaps because of a nervous reaction from continual excitement, perhaps because the long waiting for news that never came had made him weary. At any rate he was evidently again much feebler. Together with this bodily weakness, he was also a prey to great anxiety of mind. He was tormented by the thought that Kuropatkin might (as was persistently rumoured) have profited by the long respite to mass troops in numbers sufficiently great to drive and sweep all before them: this fear he was constantly expressing, and he seemed to regard it almost as a foregone conclusion. Again, he laboured under the apprehension that he might perhaps not be above ground when the decisive battle was fought; and he would prefer, he said, to know that the Japanese were beaten than to die in such a state of suspense. Besides these, I conceived that there was yet another source of trouble and conflict in his mind which he would confide to no one. I could only guess at its existence, and give a docbtful surmise as to its natare There would often pass

over his face a puzzled and bewildered expression, such as I have more than once noticed when a mathematician, after solving a problem to his entire satisfaction, finds that his solution is apparently wrong; or when a philosopher is suddenly confronted with a difficulty that he cannot see his way to answer, save by denying the views he has always held: and I accordingly supposed he too was revolving in his brain some problem especially hard to solve. It was, of course, something in connection with the war; but my conjectures went no further. The main cause of his mental sufferings, besides, was quite plain: suspense, and the apprehension that death might come before the approaching battle was fought out. Now was he indeed changed from what he was a year since, when he had so earnestly longed to die. He knew by the movements of the troops that a great, probably a decisive, conflict was close at hand; he knew that one side or the other might, and very likely would, be totally defeated; and he felt like a gambler about to win or to lose a fortune.

In a few days it was clear that he was sinking. The doctor, though he this time took good care not to commit himself again by any prediction, was evidently of opinion that his patient could not hold out long. The battle of Mukden had begun. During the whole of that awful week Brontoski had to go through worse than bodily agonies,— agonies of distress when he

read the Russian telegrams telling of successes; agonies of fear when the audacious offensive of the Japanese was announced; agonies of disappointment as, day after day, the news of his heroes' triumph still failed to come.

It came at length. I shall long remember that day, and the rapture of joy in his voice when he cried out to me, "At last, at last, my boy! Retribution has swooped down on them at last! Oh, it was a long time coming, but no matter; twenty millions of Poles will welcome it as I do. Banzai! Daï Nippon Banzaï!" he shouted, boy-like, whilst tears of ecstasy filled his

eyes.

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They cannot stand after this blow," he went on to say; "it is impossible. A hundred thousand killed and wounded, forty thousand prisoners! Magnificent! Yet their satanic pride-I know them well, and am sure of it-will urge them on in spite of all,-on, on to the edge of the pit, and over. And we shall be sated with vengeance, we shall be glutted with it. Ah!"

He caught his breath suddenly and lay silent for a time, an expression which I could not understand now irradiating his face. Then he spoke, with his head bowed upon his chest; his tones were very grave and earnest.

"And if we are avenged, then I was wrong. I have been wrong all these years: there is there is a God in Heaven after all! And He has done mighty things with the strength of His arm! . . .

O Lord God! Thou hast conquered me, and I will humble my pride and confess my sin. I should have waited patiently for this day, whether I should see it or not; and what have I done? I have blasphemed Thy name, because my faith was dead in my heart. But now I feel that it lives again, stronger than it ever was. I believe in Thee, and since Thou hast granted that I should see this day, I believe, too, that Thou wilt pardon all the past."

He turned to his niece, who stood by his bedside astounded, and scarce sure that she had heard aright. "Dear Vanda, I beg you go at once and bring a priest here; I must confess my deadly sin. I should like

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Is Father Venceslaus still living? Then let him come. He was himself in the Siberian mines for ten years; he will understand."

The old woman hobbled towards the door in great and breathless haste, without saying a word, and possibly afraid lest her uncle might change his mind before she was out of doors. Then he spoke to me, who was sitting by, considerably embarrassed and taken aback at this sudden and quite unforeseen outburst of religious fervour. never yet said a word on the subject since his declaration, made a year ago, and I had thought such a change of mind on his part to be absolutely impossible.

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Naturally you are astonished," he said. "Well, I have been a fool these forty years, and now I see it,—that is all.

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