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

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£ï 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-