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

by Astolphe De Custine

  the governor of Nijni. The reader may recollect that

  his physiognomy had been to me a subject for medi

  tation. Again to stumble upon this personage, in

  connection with the event of the night, appeared

  to me quite a circumstance for a novel, and I could

  scarcely believe what I heard : nevertheless I imme

  diately rose, and sought the waiter myself, to hear

  from his own lips the version of the story, and to

  ascertain beyond doubt the correctness of the name

  of M. R, whose identity I was particularly de

  sirous of ascertaining. The waiter told me, that

  having been sent on an errand by a foreigner about

  to leave Moscow, he was at Ivopp's hotel at the mo

  ment when the police left it, and he added that M.

  Kopp had related to him the affair, which he re

  counted in words that exactly accorded with the

  statement of Antonio.

  N 4

  272 CONDUCT OF HIS FELLOW TRAVELLER.

  As soon as I was dressed, I repaired to M. E,,

  and found, true enough, that it was the bronze-com-plexioned man of Nijni. The only difference was, that at Moseow he had an agitated air, very different from his former immobility. I found him out of bed ; we reeognised each other in a moment; but when I told him the objeet of my very early morning call, he appeared embarrassed.

  " It is true that I have travelled," he said, " with M. Pernet, but it was by mere chance ; we met at Archangel, and from thence have proceeded in company : he has a very poor constitution, and his weak health gave me much uneasiness during the journey: I rendered him the sendees that humanity ealled for, but nothing more; I am not one of his friends ; I know nothing of him."

  " I know still less of him," I replied; " but we are all three Frenchmen, and we owe eaeh other mutual aid in a eountry where our liberty and our life may be menaced any moment by a power which eannot be seen till it strikes."

  " Perhaps M. Pernet," replied M. R, " has

  got himself into this serape by some imprudence. A stranger as well as he is, and without credit, what can I do ? If he is innocent, the arrest will be followed by no serious consequenees ; if he is culpable, he will have to submit to the punishment. I ean do nothing for him, I owe him nothing ; and I advise you, sir, to be yourself very cautious in any steps you may take in his favour, as well as in your language respecting the affair."

  " But what will decide his guilt ?" I exclaimed. " It will be first of all necessary to see him, to know

  THE FRENCH CONSUL ЛТ MOSCOW.273

  to what he attributes this arrest, and to ask him what can be said or done for him."

  " You forget the country we are in," answered

  M. R: " he is in a dungeon ; how could we get

  access to him ? the thing is impossible."

  " What is also impossible," I replied, rising, " is that Frenchmen — that any men, should leave their countryman in a critical situation, without even inquiring the cause of his misfortune."

  On leaving this very prudent travelling companion, I began to think the case more serious than I had at first supposed; and I considered that, to understand the true position of the prisoner, I ought to address myself to the French consul. Being obliged to wait the usual hour for seeing that personage, I ordered back my post-horses, to the great surprise and displeasure of the feldj·äger, as they were already at the door when I cave the countermand.

  At ten o'clock, I made to the French consul the above relation of facts; and found that official protector of the French full as prudent, and yet more

  cold, than Doctor Rhad appeared to me. Since

  he has lived in Moscow, this consul has become almost a Russian. I could not make out whether his answers were dictated by a fear founded on a knowledge of the usages of the country, or by a sentiment of wounded self-love, of ill-understood personal dignity.

  "M. Pernet," he said, "passed six months in Moscow and its environs, without having thought fit, during all that time, to make the smallest approach towards the consul of France. M. Pernet must look, therefore, to himself alone to get out of the situation N 5

  274

  EFFECTS OF

  in which his heedlessness has involved him. This answer," added the consul, " is perhaps not sufficiently distinct." He then concluded by repeating that he neither ought, nor could, nor would, mix himself up with the affair.

  In vain did I represent to him, that, in his capacity as our consul, he owed to every Frenchman, without distinction of persons, and even if they failed in the laws of etiquette, his aid and protection ; that the present question was not one of ceremony, but of the liberty and perhaps the life of a fellow countryman ; and that, under such a misfortune, all resentment should be at least suspended till the danger was over. I could not extract one word, not one single expression of interest in favour of the prisoner; nor even, when I reasoned on public grounds, and spoke of the dignity of France, and the safety of all Frenclmien who travelled in Russia, could 1 make any impression ; in short, this second attempt aided the cause no better than the first.

  Nevertheless, though I had not even known M. Pernet by name, and though I had no motive to take any personal interest in him, yet, as chance had made me acquainted with his misfortune, it seemed to me that it was no more than my duty to give him all the aid that lay in my power. I was at this moment strongly struck with a truth which is no doubt often present to the thoughts of others, but which had only until then vaguely and fleetingly passed before my mind—the truth that imagination serves to extend the sphere of pity, and to render it more active. I went even so far as to conclude in my own mind, that a man without imagination would be absolutely

  IMAGINATION.275

  devoid of feeling. All my imaginative or creative faculties were busy in presenting to me, in spite of myself, this unhappy, unknown man, surrounded by the phantoms of his prison solitude : I suffered with him, I felt his feelings, I shared his fears; I saw him, forsaken by all the world, discovering that his state was hopeless: for who would ever interest themselves in a prisoner in this land, so distant and so different from ours, in a society where friends meet together for enjoyment, and separate in adversity. What a stimulus was this thought to my commiseration! 'c You believe yourself to be alone in the world ; you are unjust towards Providence, which sends you a friend and a brother." These were the words which I mentally addressed to the victim.

  Meanwhile, the unhappy man would hope for no succour, and every hour that passed in his dreadful silence and monotony would plunge him deeper in despair: night would come with its train of spectres; and then what terrors, what regrets would seize upon him! How did I pant to tell him that the zeal >>i a stranger should replace the loss of the faithless protectors on whom he had a right to depend. But all means of communication were impossible : the dismal hallucinations of the dungeon pursued me in the light of the sun, and, notwithstanding the bright arch of heaven above my head, shut me up in dark, dank vaults; for in my distress, forgetting that the Russians apply the classic architecture to the construction even of prisons, I dreamt not of Roman colonnades, but of Gothic subterranes. Had my imagination less deeply impressed me with all these things, I should have been less active and persevering in my efforts in favour of

  N G

  276ADVICE OF

  an unknown individual. I was followed by a spectre, and to rid myself of it, no efforts could have been too great.

  To haye insisted on entering the prison would have been a step no less useless than dangerous. After long and painful doubt, I thought of another plan : I had made the acquaintance of several of the most influential people in Moscow ; and though I had two days ago taken leave of every body, I resolved to risk giving my confidence to the man for whom I had, among all the others, conceived the highest opinion.

  Not only must I here avoid using his name, I must also take care no
t to allude to him in any way by which he could be identified.

  When he saw me enter his room he at once guessed the business that brought me, and without giving me time to explain myself, he told me that by a singular chance he knew M. Pernet personally, and believed him innocent, which caused his situation to appear inexplicable ; but that he was sure political considerations could have alone led to such an imprisonment, because the Russian police never unmasks itself unless compelled; that no doubt the existence of this foreigner had been supposed to have been altogether unknown in Moscow; but that now the blow was struck, his friends could only injure him by showing themselves; for if it were known that parties were interested in him, it would render his position far worse, as he would be removed to avoid all discovery and to stifle all complaints: he added therefore, that, for the victim's sake, extreme circumspection was necessary. " If once he departs for Siberia, God only can say

  A RUSSIAN.277

  when he will return," exclaimed my counsellor; who afterwards endeavoured to make me understand that he could not openly avow the interest he took in a suspected Frenchman ; for, being himself suspected of liberal principles, a word from him, saying merely that he knew the prisoner, would suffice to exile the latter to the farther end of the world. He concluded by saying, " You are neither his relation nor his friend ; you only take in him the interest that you believe you ought to take in a countryman, in a man whom you know to be in trouble; you have already acquitted yourself of the duty that this praiseworthy sentiment imposes on you ; you have spoken to your consul: you had now, believe me, better abstain from any further steps; it will do no good, and you will compromise yourself for the man whose defence you gratuitously undertake. He does not know you, he expects nothing from you; continue, then, your journey, you will disappoint no hopes that he has conceived ; I will keep my eye on him ; I cannot appear in the affair, but I have indirect means which may be useful, and I promise to employ them to the utmost of my power. Once again, then, follow my advice, and pursue your journey."

  " If I wTere to set out," I exclaimed, " I should not have a moment's peace ; I should be pursued by a feeling that would amount to remorse, when I recollected that the unfortunate man has me only to befriend him, and that I have abandoned him without doing any thing."

  i( Your presence here," he answered, " will not even serve to console him, as he is and must continue wholly ignorant of the interest you take in him."

  278ADVICE OF A RUSSIAN.

  " There are, then, no means of gaining access to the dungeon ?"

  " ]STone," replied the individual addressed, not without some marks of impatience at my thus persisting. " Vere you his brother you could do no more for him here than you have done. Your presence at Petersburg may, on the contrary, be useful to M. Pernet. You can inform the French ambassador all that you know about this imprisonment; for I doubt whether he will hear any thing of it from your consul. A representation made to the minister by a personage in the position of your ambassador, and by a man possessing the character of M. de Barante, will do more to hasten the deliverance of your countryman than you, and I, and any twenty others could do in Moscow."

  " But the emperor and his ministers are at Borodino or at Moscow," I answered, unwilling to take a refusal.

  " All the ministers have not followed his Majesty," he replied, still in a polite tone, but with increasing and scarcely-concealed ill-humour. '£ Besides, at the worst, their return must be waited. You have, I repeat, no other course to take, unless you would injure the man whom you wish to save, and expose yourself also to many unpleasant surmises, or perhaps to something worse," he added, in a significant manner.

  Had the person to whom I addressed myself been a placeman, I should have already fancied I saw the cossacks advancing to seize and convey me to a dungeon like that of M. Pernet's.

  I felt that the patience of my adviser was at an

  GREAT NOVGOROD.

  279

  end; I had nothing, in fact, to reply to his arguments: I therefore retired, promising to leave, and gratefully thanking him for his counsel.

  As it is obvious I can do nothing here I will leave at once, I said to myself: but the slow motions of my fekljäger took up the rest of the morning, and it was past four in the afternoon before I was on the road to Petersburg.

  The sulkiness of the courier, the want of horses, felt every where on the road on account of relays being retained for the household of the emperor and for military officers, as well as for couriers proceeding from Borodino to Petersburg, made my journey long and tedious: in my impatience I insisted on travelling all night; but I gained nothing by this haste, being obliged, for want of horses, to pass six whole hours at Great Novgorod, within fifty leagues of Petersburg.

  I was scarcely in a fitting mood to visit the cradle of the Slavonian empire, and which became also the tomb of its liberty. The famous church of Saint Sophia encloses the sepulchres of Vladimir Iaroslawitch, who died in 1051, of his mother Anne, and of an emperor of Constantinople. It resembles the other Eus-sian churches, and perhaps is not more authentic than the pretended ancient cathedral that contains the bones of Minine at Nijni Novgorod. I no longer believe in the dates of any old monuments that are shown me in Russia. But I still believe in the names of its rivers: the VolkofF represents to me the frightful scenes connected with the siege of this republican city, taken, retaken, and decimated by Ivan the Terrible. I could fancy I saw the imperial hyena,

  280SOUVENIRS OF I VAX IV.

  presiding over carnage and pestilence, couched among the ruins of the city; and the bloody corpses of his subjects seemed to issue out of the river that was choked with their bodies, to prove to me the horrors of intestine wars. It is worthy of remark, that the correspondence of the Archbishop Pinen, and of other principal citizens of Novgorod, with the Poles, was the cause which brought the evil on the city, where thirty thousand innocent persons perished in the combat, and in the executions and massacres invented and presided over by the czar. There were days on which six hundred were at once executed before his eyes; and all these horrors were enacted to punish a crime unpardonable from that epoch — the crime of clandestine communication with the Poles. This took place nearly three hundred years ago, in 1570. Great Novgorod lias never recovered the stroke : she could have replaced her dead, but she could not survive the abolition of her democratic institutions : her whitewashed houses are no longer stained with blood; they appear as if they had been built only yesterday; but her streets are deserted, and three parts of her ruins are spread over the plain, beyond the narrow bounds of the actual city, which is but a shadow and a name. This is all that remains of the famous republic of the middle ages. Where are the fruits of the revolutions which never ceased to saturate the now almost desert soil with blood ? Here, all is as silent as it was before the history. God has only too often had to teach us, that objects which men, blinded with pride, viewed as a worthy end of their efforts, were really only a means of employing their superfluous powers in the

  M. DE BARANTE.

  281

  effervescence of youth. Such are the principles of more than one heroic action.

  For three centuries the bell of the vetché* has ceased to summon the people of Novgorod, formerly the most glorious and the most turbulent of the Russian populations, to deliberate upon their affairs. The will of the czars stifles in every heart all sentiments, even regret for the memory of effaced glory. Some years ago, atrocious scenes occurred between the cossacks and the inhabitants of the country in the military colonies established in the vicinity of the decayed city. But the insurrection was stifled, and every thing has returned to its accustomed order, that is, to the silence and peace of the tomb.

  I was very happy to leave this abode, formerly famous for the disorders of liberty, now desolated by what is called good order, — a word which is here equivalent to that of death.

  Although I made all possible haste, I did not reach Petersburg until the fourth day: immediately afte
r leaving my carriage I repaired to M. de Barante's.

  He was quite ignorant of the arrest of M. Pcrnet, and appeared surprised to hear of it through me, especially when he learnt that I had been nearly four days on the road. His astonishment redoubled when I related to him my unavailing endeavours to influence our consul — that official protector of the French—to take some step in favour of the prisoner.

  The attention with which M. de Barante listened to me, the assurance which he gave me that he would neglect nothing to clear up this affair, the importance

  * Popular assembly.

  282SEQUEL OF THE HISTORY

  with which he appeared to invest the smallest facts that could interest the dignity of France and the safety of her citizens, put my conscience at ease, and dissipated the phantoms of my imagination. The fate of M. Pernet was in the hands of his natural protector, whose ability and character became better sureties for the safety of this unfortunate man than my zeal and powerless solicitations. I felt I had done all that I could for him and for the honour of my country. During the twelve or fourteen days that I remained at Petersburg, I purposely abstained from pronouncing the name of Pernet before the ambassador ; and I left Russia without knowing the end of a history which had so much absorbed and interested me.

  But, while journeying rapidly towards France, my mind was often carried back to the dungeons of Moscow. If I had known all that was passing there, it would have been yet more painfully excited.

  Not to leave the reader in the ignorance in -which I remained for nearly six months respecting the fate of the pi`isoner at Moscow, I insert here all that I have learnt since my return to France respecting the imprisonment of M. Pernet, and his deliverance.