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

make me feel quite beyond all danger for the remainder of my journey. I often say to myself, that the Russian police, prudent, enlightened, well-informed, would not have recourse to any coup d`état, unless it believed it necessary, and that it would be to attach too much importance to my person and my remarks, to suppose that they could be capable of making uneasy the men who govern this empire. Nevertheless, these reasons for feeling secure, and many others that present themselves, are more specious than solid : experience only too clearly proves the spirit of minutia which actuates those who have too much power: every thing is of importance to him who would conceal the fact that he governs by fear, and whoever depends on opinion, must not despise that of any independent man who writes: a government which lives by mystery, and whose strength lies in dissimulation, is afraid of every thing—every thing appears to it of consequence: in short, my vanity accords with my reflection and my memory of past events, to persuade me that I here run some danger.

If I lay any stress upon these inquietudes, it is simply because they describe the country. As regards my own feelings, they dissipate as soon as it is necessary to act. The phantoms of a sleepless night do not follow me upon the road: I am more adventurous in action than in thought; it is more difficult for me to think than to act with energy. Motion imparts to me as much courage as rest inspires me with doubt.

Yesterday, at five in the morning, I set out in a caliche drawn by four horses harnessed abreast.