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

nessed through the chinks of the door, which the baron had locked upon him, all the circumstances of the murder. The instant afterwards he acted with the presence of mind before related, which deceived the assassin, and saved his life. After the baron had retired he rose, dressed, and, in spite of the fever that was upon him, let himself down from the window by cords, detached a skiff which he found fastened at the foot of the rampart, and pushed out to sea, steering towards the mainland, which he reached without accident, and where he immediately proclaimed the crime that he had witnessed.

" The absence of the sick man was soon noticed in the castle of Dago. The baron, blinded by the infatuation of crime, imagined at first that he had cast himself into the sea while under the delirium of fever. Entirely occupied in searching for his body, he thought not of flight, although the cord attached to the window and the disappearance of the skiff were irrefragable proofs of the real fact.

" Convinced, at length, by these evidences, he was beginning to prepare for escape, when he found his castle surrounded by troops which had been instantly despatched against him. For one moment he thought of defence, but his people all forsook him. He was taken and sentenced by the Emperor Paul to hard labour for life in Siberia.

" It was there he died, and such was the end of a man who once shone alike by the powers of his mind, and the elegance of his manners, in the most polished circles of Europe. Our mothers can yet recollect him as having been everything that was agreeable.

" I should not have related to you this romantic