they have known it beforehand, and where do they wish to go?
Those are suspicious people, and it seems to me that to them
the government proclamation must be more useful than injurious."

But these reflections were completely dispelled by another
which drove every other thought out of Michael's mind.
He forgot the Zingaris, their suspicious words, the strange
coincidence which resulted from the proclamation.
The remembrance of the young Livonian girl suddenly rushed
into his mind. "Poor child!" he thought to himself.
"She cannot now cross the frontier."

In truth the young girl was from Riga; she was Livonian,
consequently Russian, and now could not leave Russian territory!
The permit which had been given her before the new
measures had been promulgated was no longer available.
All the routes to Siberia had just been pitilessly closed
to her, and, whatever the motive taking her to Irkutsk,
she was now forbidden to go there.

This thought greatly occupied Michael Strogoff. He said to himself,
vaguely at first, that, without neglecting anything of what was due
to his important mission, it would perhaps be possible for him to be
of some use to this brave girl; and this idea pleased him. Knowing how
serious were the dangers which he, an energetic and vigorous man,
would have personally to encounter, he could not conceal from himself
how infinitely greater they would prove to a young unprotected girl.
As she was going to Irkutsk, she would be obliged to follow the same
road as himself, she would have to pass through the bands of invaders,
as he was about to attempt doing himself. If, moreover, she had