The double-headed eagle was
everywhere, and the people sat silent and brooding beneath its black
shadow.
"There will be an uprising here before long," declared the German
confidentially, as we were taking tea one day on the wooden balcony of
the hotel where the sea and the low-lying islands stretched out before
us in the pale yellow of the autumn sundown. "The people will revolt, as
they did in Poland. The Finnish Government can only appeal to the Czar
through the Governor-General, and one can easily imagine that their
suggestions never reach the Emperor. It is said here that the harsher
and more corrupt the official, the greater honor does he receive from
Petersburg. But trouble is brewing for Russia," he added. "A very
serious trouble--depend upon it."
I looked upon the gray dismal scene, the empty port, the silent quay,
the dark line of gloomy pine forest away beyond the town, the broken
coast and the wide expanse of water glittering in the northern sunset.
Yes. The very silence seemed to forbode evil and mystery.
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