force in his right arm, and breathed without pain, and was free to go back to the world of the living without danger.
Mean while, Europe rang for a space with his attempted assassination. A Queen's Messenger could not have been left for murdered, and English state papers of the first and most secret importance been waylaid by so singular and trained a conspiracy, without the outrage being of import, and rousing alike the wrath of his government and the speculations of all other Powers. That those who had stopped him were no ordinary assassins and marauders the object of their plunder showed; common banditti would have menaced his money, not his despatches. It seemed evident that his enemies had been men of considerable resources and power, that they had been well acquainted with his movements, and that their object had been political. Southern Europe was in the throes of revolt, and much of central and eastern Europe seething in intrigue; political gamesters would have counted one man's assassination a very little cost for the gain of political information and advantage in their unscrupulous rouge et noir.
Amidst all, the criminals remained untracked. Moldavia said she did all she could to discover and
