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

96THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.

sides, they advance tinder cover. The ignorance in which they leave us blinds our view; our sincerity enlightens theirs ; we suffer from all the evils of idle talking, they have all the advantages of secrecy ; and herein lies all their skill and ability.

THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.*

The estates of Princehad been for several years

managed by a steward, named Thelenef. The prince, occupied with other matters, seldom thought of his domains. Disappointed in his ambitious views, he had travelled for a long time, in the hope of dissipating his chagrin as a disgraced courtier. At length, weary of seeking from the arts and from nature, consolation for his failure in politics, he returned to his own country, in order again to approach the court, and to endeavour by dint of care and diligence to recover the favour of the sovereign.

But while fruitlessly wasting his life and fortune in ](laying by turns the courtier at Petersburg, and the virtuoso in Southern Etirope, he lost the attachment of his peasants, exasperated by the ill-usage of Thelenef. This man ruled as a king in the extensive estates of Vologda, where his manner of exercising the lordly atithority made him generally execrated.

Thelenef had, however, a charming daughter, called

* I have purposely changed the names of the persons and places, with the especial objeet of disguising the true ones ; and I have also taken the liberty of correcting, in the style, a few I'xpressions foreign to the genius of our language.