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

NOBLE CONDUCT OF JEROME.43

What a scene had she to encounter on returning to her own residence ! The house bare and desolate, the seals yet on the doors, and I in the kitchen, still deaf and imbecile, in consequence of the malady that had so nearly ended in my death. My mother had remained firm before the terror of the scaffold, but she sank under this misery. The day after her return she was attacked with jaundice, which lasted fiye months, and left an affection of the liver, from which she suffered throughout her life.

At the end of six months, the small part of the estate of her husband that had remained unsold, was restored to her. We were then both recovered.

" On what does my lady imagine she has lived, since she left the prison ? " asked Nanette, one day.

" I do not know; you must have sold the plate, the linen, or the jewels."

" There were none left to sell."

" Well then, on what ? "

" On money which Jerome forwarded to me every week, with the express command that I was not to mention it to my lady ; but now that she can return it, I will tell her the real fact."

My mother had the gratification of saving the life of this man, when proscribed with the terrorists. She concealed him, and aided his escape to America.

He returned under the consulate, with a little fortune which he had made in the United States, and which he afterwards augmented by speculations in Paris. My mother treated him as a friend, and her family loaded him with marks of grateful kindness ; yet he would never form one of our society. He used to say to my mother, " I will come and sec you