This seems to be the true story ; but the
Russian Government, or police, are anxious to have it believed that the students were arrested before any attempt was made, that the Czar was warned in church, and that, in short, the police were more than a match for the assassins. The gravity of the attempt is, how- ever, acknowledged, and the Sovereigns of Europe do not usually congratulate each other on a mere discovery of plots by the police. The danger must have been nearer than that to provoke such cordial telegrams from great Princes. The Russian Government attributes the attack to the Nihilists, and all the circumstantial evidence confirms that view, the only difficulty being to explain the sudden recrudescence of Nihilism. Canon MacColl, in a letter to a contemporary, says the Terrorist Com- mittee has been quiescent from policy ; but one hardly sees what it had to gain. It is at least as probable, as we have suggested elsewhere, that the police, by good luck or good management, or Colonel Sondathin's treachery—for which he was murdered— contrived to seize a great number of the Terrorist agents, and that the interval has been expended in collecting more. If that is correct, the Czar's danger is great whenever he is compelled to leave Gatschina. The Nihilists are bodied there.
