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

CHANGE IN THE AUTHOR'S PLANS. 227

the misfortune of their position from the innocent victims of their love ? Would not the native refinement of their parents inspire these young savages with ideas that they could never realise ? What danger, what momentary torment for them, and what insupportable constraint for their mother! This mental torture, added to such a load of physical sufferings, haunts me like a hideous dream from which I cannot awake. Since yesterday morning it has pursued me ineessantly, whispering at every moment of the day — What is the Princess Troubetzkoi now doing ?—what is she saying to her children ? —with what look is she watching over them ?—what prayer is she addressing to God for these beings, damned ere they were born by the providence of the Eussians ? This punishment inflicted upon an innocent generation disgraces an entire people !

I shall finish my journey, but without going to Borodino; without being present at the arrival of the court at the Kremlin; without speaking more of the Emperor. What can I say of tins prince that the reader does not now know as well as I ? To form an idea of men and things in this land, it is necessary to remember that plenty of occurrences similar to the one I have related take place here, though they remain unknown. It required an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances to reveal to me the facts which my conscience obliges me here to record.

I am about to place in one sealed packet all the papers that I have written since my arrival in Russia, including the present chapter, and to deposit them in safe hands; things which are not easily found in Petersburg. I shall then finish the day by writing an l 6