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

216ТПЕ PIUNCESS TROUBETZKOI.

we can now prognosticate as inevitable, though we cannot predict the time and the season.

We may not cease to repeat that the Russian revolution, when it does come, will be the more terrible, because it will be in the name of religion. The Russian policy has melted the church into the state, and confounded heaven and earth : a man who sees a god in his master, scarcely hopes for paradise, except through the favour of the emperor.

I shall never get away. Fate seems to interfere. Once more a delay — yet, this time, it is a legitimate one. I was just preparing to enter my carriage when a friend insisted upon seeing me. He brought a letter, which he would have me read at the very moment. But what a letter, gracious God ! It is from the Princess Troubctzkoi, who addresses it to a member of her family charged to show it to the emperor. I wished to copy it in order to print it without changing a syllable, but this I was not permitted to do. " It would go the round of the whole earth," said my friend, alarmed by the effect winch it produced upon me.

" The greater reason to make it known," I replied.

" Impossible. The safety of several individuals would be compromised; besides, it has only been lent me in order to show you on your word of honour, and on condition that it shall be returned in half an hour."

Unhappy land, where every stranger appears as a saviour in the eyes of a herd of oppressed beings, merely because he represents truth, publicity, and liberty among a people deprived of all these blessings.

Before alluding to the contents of this letter, it will be necessary to recount, in a few words, a lamentable