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

MEDICAL ADVICE.251

pillars and a pediment; decorations even more out of place in a Tartar than in a Russian town; barracks, cathedrals in the style of temples; nothing, in short, was wanting; and I felt that the whole tiresome architectural repetition was not worth the trouble of prolonging my journey two hundred leagues in order to visit. But the frontiers of Siberia and the recollections of the siege still tempted me. It became necessary, however, to renounce the journey, and to keep quiet for four days.

The governor very politely came to see me in m) humble bed. At last, on the fourth day, feeling my indisposition increase, I determined to call in a doctor. This individual said to me,—

' You have no fever, you are not yet ill, but you will be seriously so if you remain three days longer at Nijni. I know the influence of this air upon certain temperaments; leave it; you will not have travelled ten leagues without finding yourself better, and the day after you will be well again.'

' But I can neither eat, sleep, nor walk, nor even move without severe pains in my head: what will become of me if I am obliged to stop on the road ? '

' Cause yourself to be carried into your coach: the autumn rains have commenced: I repeat, that I cannot answer for you if you remain at isijni.'

This doctor is scientific and experienced : he has passed several years at Paris, after having previously studied in Germany. His look inspired me with confidence ; and the day after I received his advice I entered my carriage, in the midst of a beating rain and an icy wind. It was unpleasant enough to discourage the strongest traveller: nevertheless, at. the M 6

252 RUSSIAN IDEA 0Г FREE GOVERNMENTS.

second stage, the prediction of the doctor was fulfilled; I began to breathe more freely, though fatigue so overpowered me that I was obliged to stop and pass the night in a miserable lodging: the next day I was again in health.

During the time spent in my bed at Nijni, my guardian spy grew tired of om` prolonged stay at the fair, and of his consequent inaction. One morning he came to my valet-de-chambre, and said to him, in German, ' When do we leave ? '

' I cannot tell; Monsieur is ill.'

'Is he ill?'

' Do you suppose that it is to please himself that he keeps his bed in such a room as you found for Mm here?'

' What is the matter with him ? '

' I do not know at all.'

'Why is he ill?'

' Good heavens ! you had better go and ask him.'

This wliy appears to me worthy of being noted.

The man has never forgiven me the scene in the coach. Since that day his manners and his coimte-nance have changed, which proves to me that there always remains some corner for the natural disposition, and for sincerity in even the most profoundly-dis-simulatiii?i characters. I therefore think all the better of him for his rancour : I had believed him incapable of any primitive sentiment.

The Russians, like all new comers in the civilised world, are excessively susceptible: they cannot \n-derstand generalities; they take every thing for personalities : nowhere is France so ill understood. The liberty of thinking and speaking is more incom-

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prehensible than any thing else to these people. Those who pretend to judge our country, say to me, that they do not really believe our king abstains from punishing the writers who daily abuse him in Paris.

' Nevertheless,' I answer them, ' the fact is there to convince you.'

' Yes, yes, you talk of toleration,' they reply, with a knowing air ; ' it is all very well for the multitude and for foreigners : but your government punishes secretly the too audacious journalists.'

When I repeat that every thing is public in France, they laugh sneeringly, politely check themselves; but they do not believe me.

The city of Vladimir is often mentioned in history : its aspect is like all the other Russian cities — that eternal type with which the reader is only too familiar. The country, also, that I have travelled over from Xijni resembles the rest of Russia — a forest without trees, interrupted by towns without life — barracks, raised sometimes upon heaths, sometimes upon marshes, and the spirit of a regiment to animate them. When I tell the Russians that their woods are badly managed, and that their country will in time be without fuel, they laugh me in the face. It has been calculated how many thousands of years it will require to consume the wood which covers the soil of an immense portion of the empire ; and this calculation satisfies every body. It is written in the estimates sent in by each provincial governor, that each province contains so many acres of forests. Upon these data the statistical department goes to work ; but before performing their purely arithmetical

254THE USE OF A FELDJAGEE.

labour of adding sums to make a total, the calculators do not think of visiting those forests upon paper. If they did, they would in most cases find only a few thickets of brushwood, amid plains of fern and rushes. But with their written satisfactory reports, the Russians trouble themselves very little about the want of the only riches proper to their soil. Their woods are immense in the bureau of the minister, and this is sufficient for them. The day may be foreseen when, as a consequence of this administrative supineness and security, the people will warm themselves by the fires made of the old dusty papers accumulated in the public offices: these riches increase daily.

My words may appear bold and even revolting ; for the sensitive self-love of the Russians imposes upon foreigners duties of delicacy and propriety to which I do not submit. My sincerity will render me culpable in the eyes of the men of this country. What ingratitude ! the minister gives me a feldjager; the presence of his uniform spares me all the difficulties of the journey; and therefore am I bound, in the opinion of the Russians, to approve of every thing with them. That foreigner, they think, would outrage all the laws of hospitality if he permitted himself to criticise a country where so much regard has been shown towards him. Notwithstanding all this, T hold myself free to describe what I see, and to pass my opinion upon it.

To appreciate, as I ought to do, the favour accorded me by the director-general of the posts, in furnishing me with a courier, it will at least be right to state the discomforts which his obliging civility has spared me. Had I set out for Nijni with a common servant

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only, we should, however well he might have spoken Russian, have been delayed by the tricks and frauds of the postmasters at nearly every stage. They would at first have refused us horses, and then have showed us empty stables, to convince us there were none. After an hour's parley they would have found us a set that they would pretend belonged to some peasant, who would eondeseend to spare them for twice or thrice the charge established by the imperial post-regulations. We might at first have refused ; the horses would have been taken away ; till at