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

among the libertines of Moscow, he carries his contempt of opinion to the extent of desiring me to describe him as I see him. In citing several facts related by himself, I have first heard them confirmed by others.

A story of the death of a young man, killed in

the convent of, by the nuns themselves, he told

me yesterday at a full table-d'hôte, before several grave and elderly personages, employes and placemen, who listened with an extraordinary patience to this and several other tales of a similar kind, all very contrary to good manners.

I have surnamed this singular young man, Prince

, the Don Jnan of the Old Testament, so greatly

does the measure of his madness and audacity exceed the ordinary bounds of an abandoned life among modern nations. Nothing is little or moderate in Russia: if the laud is not, as my Italian cicerone calls it, a land of miracles, it is truly a land of giants.

The story in question related to a young man, who, after having passed an entire month concealed within

the convent of , began, at last, to weary of his

excess of happiness to a degree that wearied the holy sisters also. He appeared dying : whereupon the nuns, wishing to be rid of him, but fearing the scandal that might ensue should they send him to die in the world, concluded that it would be better to make an end of him themselves. No sooner said than done : —the mangled remains of the wretched being were found a few days after at the bottom of a well. The affair was hushed up.

If we are to believe the same authorities, there are numerous convents in Moscow in which the rules of