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

THE PRINCESS TROTJBETZKOI.219

From the fear then of exasperating certain influential families, the government yielded to a kind of prudent compassion. The princess departed with her husband the convict, and, which is more extraordinary, she reached her destination. The journey was alone a frightful trial: hundreds, — thousands of leagues in a telega, a little open cart without springs, over roads that break both carriages and human bodies. The unhappy woman supported these and many other hardships and privations, which I shall not describe for want of the precise details : for I wish to add nothing to the strict truth of tliis history.

Her conduct will appear the more heroic when it is known that, · until the husband's ruin, the married pair had lived somewhat coldly together. But is not a fervent devotion a substitute for love ? Or rather, is it not love itself? Love flows from many sources, and of these, self-sacrifice is the most abundant.

They had never had children at Petersburg; they had five in Siberia.

This man, rendered glorious by the generosity of his wife, had become a sacred object in the eyes of all who approached him. Who indeed would not venerate the object of an affection so sacred ?

However criminal the Prince Troubetzkoi may have been, his pardon, which the Emperor will perhaps never grant, for he believes that he owes it both to his people and himself to maintain an implacable severity, has been doubtless accorded by the King of Kings. The almost supernatural virtues of a wife could appease the wrath of a God, they could not l 2