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

cautious in any steps you may take in his favour, as well as in your language respecting the affair.'

' But what will decide his guilt ?' I exclaimed. ' It will be first of all necessary to see him, to know

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to what he attributes this arrest, and to ask him what can be said or done for him.'

' You forget the country we are in,' answered

M. R: ' he is in a dungeon ; how could we get

access to him ? the thing is impossible.'

' What is also impossible,' I replied, rising, ' is that Frenchmen — that any men, should leave their countryman in a critical situation, without even inquiring the cause of his misfortune.'

On leaving this very prudent travelling companion, I began to think the case more serious than I had at first supposed; and I considered that, to understand the true position of the prisoner, I ought to address myself to the French consul. Being obliged to wait the usual hour for seeing that personage, I ordered back my post-horses, to the great surprise and displeasure of the feldj·ager, as they were already at the door when I cave the countermand.

At ten o'clock, I made to the French consul the above relation of facts; and found that official protector of the French full as prudent, and yet more

cold, than Doctor Rhad appeared to me. Since

he has lived in Moscow, this consul has become almost a Russian. I could not make out whether his answers were dictated by a fear founded on a knowledge of the usages of the country, or by a sentiment of wounded self- love, of ill-understood personal dignity.

'M. Pernet,' he said, 'passed six months in Moscow and its environs, without having thought fit, during all that time, to make the smallest approach towards the consul of France. M. Pernet must look, therefore, to himself alone to get out of the situation N 5

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in which his heedlessness has involved him. This answer,' added the consul, ' is perhaps not sufficiently distinct.' He then concluded by repeating that he neither ought, nor could, nor would, mix himself up with the affair.

In vain did I represent to him, that, in his capacity as our consul, he owed to every Frenchman, without distinction of persons, and even if they failed in the laws of etiquette, his aid and protection ; that the present question was not one of ceremony, but of the liberty and perhaps the life of a fellow countryman ; and that, under such a misfortune, all resentment should be at least suspended till the danger was over. I could not extract one word, not one single expression of interest in favour of the prisoner; nor even, when I reasoned on public grounds, and spoke of the dignity of France, and the safety of all Frenclmien who travelled in Russia, could 1 make any impression ; in short, this second attempt aided the cause no better than the first.

Nevertheless, though I had not even known M. Pernet by name, and though I had no motive to take any personal interest in him, yet, as chance had made me acquainted with his misfortune, it seemed to me that it was no more than my duty to give him all the aid that lay in my power. I was at this moment strongly struck with a truth which is no doubt often present to the thoughts of others, but which had only until then vaguely and fleetingly passed before my mind—the truth that imagination serves to extend the sphere of pity, and to render it more active. I went even so far as to conclude in my own mind, that a man without imagination would be absolutely

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devoid of feeling. All my imaginative or creative faculties were busy in presenting to me, in spite of myself, this unhappy, unknown man, surrounded by the phantoms of his prison solitude : I suffered with him, I felt his feelings, I shared his fears; I saw him, forsaken by all the world, discovering that his state was hopeless: for who would ever interest themselves in a prisoner in this land, so distant and so different from ours, in a society where friends meet together for enjoyment, and separate in adversity. What a stimulus was this thought to my commiseration! 'c You believe yourself to be alone in the world ; you are unjust towards Providence, which sends you a friend and a brother.' These were the words which I mentally addressed to the victim.

Meanwhile, the unhappy man would hope for no succour, and every hour that passed in his dreadful silence and monotony would plunge him deeper in despair: night would come with its train of spectres; and then what terrors, what regrets would seize upon him! How did I pant to tell him that the zeal >>i a stranger should replace the loss of the faithless protectors on whom he had a right to depend. But all means of communication were impossible : the dismal hallucinations of the dungeon pursued me in the light of the sun, and, notwithstanding the bright arch of heaven above my head, shut me up in dark, dank vaults; for in my distress, forgetting that the Russians apply the classic architecture to the construction even of prisons, I dreamt not of Roman colonnades, but of Gothic subterranes. Had my imagination less deeply impressed me with all these things, I should have been less active and persevering in my efforts in favour of

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an unknown individual. I was followed by a spectre, and to rid myself of it, no efforts could have been too great.

To haye insisted on entering the prison would have been a step no less useless than dangerous. After long and painful doubt, I thought of another plan : I had made the acquaintance of several of the most influential people in Moscow ; and though I had two days ago taken leave of every body, I resolved to risk giving my confidence to the man for whom I had, among all the others, conceived the highest opinion.

Not only must I here avoid using his name, I must also take care not to allude to him in any way by which he could be identified.

When he saw me enter his room he at once guessed the business that brought me, and without giving me time to explain myself, he told me that by a singular chance he knew M. Pernet personally, and believed him innocent, which caused his situation to appear inexplicable ; but that he was sure political considerations could have alone led to such an imprisonment, because the Russian police never unmasks itself unless compelled; that no doubt the existence of this foreigner had been supposed to have been altogether unknown in Moscow; but that now the blow was struck, his friends could only injure him by showing themselves; for if it were known that parties were interested in him, it would render his position far worse, as he would be removed to avoid all discovery and to stifle all complaints: he added therefore, that, for the victim's sake, extreme circumspection was necessary. ' If once he departs for Siberia, God only can say

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when he will return,' exclaimed my counsellor; who afterwards endeavoured to make me understand that he could not openly avow the interest he took in a suspected Frenchman ; for, being himself suspected of liberal