Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

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engineer, and, finally, to a sub-officer commissioned to accompany me, to officiate as my guide and to answer for my safety during the entire journey: a favour which rather reminds one of the janissary with whom they honoured foreigners in Turkey. This protection appears too much like a mark of distrust to flatter me as much as it irks me, and, while crushing in my hands the minister's letter, I think on the justice of the words of the prince, whom I met on the Travemunde steam boat, and with him am ready to exclaim, that 'Kussia is the land of useless formalities ! '

I proceeded to the aide-de-camp general-director, &c. &c. &c. to claim the execution of the supreme command. The director was not at home; I must call to-morrow. Not wishing to lose another day, I persisted, and was told to return in the evening, when I was received with the usual politeness, and after a visit of a quarter of an hour, was dismissed with the necessary orders for the engineer of Schlusselburg, but none for the governor of the castle. In accompanying me to the antechamber, he promised that a sub-officer should be at my door on the morrow, at four o'clock in the morning.

I did not sleep. I became possessed with an idea that will appear sufficiently foolish; the idea that my guard might become my gaoler. If this man, instead of conducting me to Schlusselburg, eighteen leagues from Petersburg, should, when Ave had left the city, exhibit an order to transport me to Siberia, that I might there expiate my inconvenient curiosity, what should I say or do ? It would be necessary, at first, to obey ; and afterwards on arriving at Tobolsk,

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if I ever arrived there, I would claim ..... The manifestations of politeness by no means re-assured me : on the contrary, I had not forgotten the smiles and kind words of Alexander, addressed to one of his ministers, who was seized by the feldjager, at the door, even of the emperor's cabinet, and carried direct from the palace to Siberia,

Many other examples of sentences and executions of this character occurred to justify my presentiments and to disturb my imagination.

The being a foreigner is not sufficient guarantee. I called to mind the carrying off of Kotzebue, who, at the commencement of this century, was also seized by a feldjager, and transported under circumstances similar to mine (for I already felt as if on the road) from Petersburg to Tobolsk. What had been the offence of Kotzebue? He had made himself feared because he had published his opinions, and because they were not thought all equally favourable to the order of things established in Russia. Now, who could assure me that I had not incurred the same reproach ? or, which would be sufficient, the same suspicion ? If I give the least umbrage here, can I hope that they will have more regard for me than they have had for others ? besides, I am watched by spies — every foreigner is. They know, therefore, that I write, and carefully conceal my papers; they are, perhaps, curious to know what these papers are about.

Such were the fancies that possessed me the whole of the night before last; and though I visited yesterday without any aceident the fortress of Schlussel-burg, they are not so entirely unreasonable as to I 3

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make me feel quite beyond all danger for the remainder of my journey. I often say to myself, that the Russian police, prudent, enlightened, well-informed, would not have recourse to any coup d`etat, unless it believed it necessary, and that it would be to attach too much importance to my person and my remarks, to suppose that they could be capable of making uneasy the men who govern this empire. Nevertheless, these reasons for feeling secure, and many others that present themselves, are more specious than solid : experience only too clearly proves the spirit of minutia which actuates those who have too much power: every thing is of importance to him who would conceal the fact that he governs by fear, and whoever depends on opinion, must not despise that of any independent man who writes: a government which lives by mystery, and whose strength lies in dissimulation, is afraid of every thing—every thing appears to it of consequence: in short, my vanity accords with my reflection and my memory of past events, to persuade me that I here run some danger.

If I lay any stress upon these inquietudes, it is simply because they describe the country. As regards my own feelings, they dissipate as soon as it is necessary to act. The phantoms of a sleepless night do not follow me upon the road: I am more adventurous in action than in thought; it is more difficult for me to think than to act with energy. Motion imparts to me as much courage as rest inspires me with doubt.

Yesterday, at five in the morning, I set out in a caliche drawn by four horses harnessed abreast.

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Whenever they journey into the country the Russian coachmen adopt this ancient mode of driving, in which they display much boldness and dexterity. My feldjager placed himself before me by the side of the coachman, and we quickly traversed St. Petersburg, soon leaving behind us the handsome part of the city, and next passing through that of the manufactories, among which are magnificent glass works and immense mills for the spinning of cotton and other fabrics, for the most part directed by Englishmen. This quarter of the city resembles a colony. As a man is only appreciated here according to his standing with the government, the presence of the feldjager on my carriage had a great effect. This mark of supreme protection made me a person of consequence in the eyes of my own coachman, who had driven me the whole of the time that I had been in Petersburg. He appeared suddenly to discover and to glory in the too long concealed dignity of his master; his looks testified a respect that they had never done before: it seemed as though he wished to indemnify me for all the honours of which he had, mentally and in ignorance, hitherto deprived me·.

The people on foot, the drivers of the carts and drowskas, all bowed to the mystic influence of ray sub-officer, who, with a simple sign of his finger, made every obstruction of the road vanish like magic. The crowd was, as it were, annihilated before him, and I could not bnt think, if he had such power to protect me, what would be his power to destroy me if he had received an order to that effect. The clifii-eulty attending an entrance into this country wearies more than it awes me; the difficulty of flying from I 4

176HOUSES OF RUSSIAN PEASANTS.

it would be more formidable. People say, ' To enter Russia the gates are wide, to leave it they become narrow.'

Under the guard of my soldier I rapidly followed the banks of the river; frequent views of which, through alleys of birch trees, with the appearance here and there of busy manufactories, and of wooden hamlets, enlivened