glishwomen as soon as dinner is served. The English worship their
muscle; they think of it, talk of it. If I had time, I should like to
write a book on their ways. And then their executions, which they go to
see as a pleasure!"

I asked which nation was a model, in his opinion.

"The French," he answered, which seemed to me inconsistent, when he told
of the execution which he had witnessed in Paris, where a father had
lifted up his little child that it might have a good view of the horrors
of the guillotine.

"Defective as is Russian civilization in many respects," he said, "you
will never find the Russian peasant like that. He abhors deliberate
murder, like an execution."

"Yet he will himself commit murder," I objected. "There has been a
perfect flood of murders reported in the newspapers this very spring.
Those perpetrated in town were all by men of the peasant class; and most
of them were by lads under twenty years of age."

He insisted that I must have misread the papers. So I proceeded to
inquire, "What will a peasant do in case of an execution?"

"He will murder, but without premeditation. What he will do in case of
an execution I can illustrate for you by something which occurred in
this very neighborhood some years ago.

"The regimental secretary of a regiment stationed at Z. was persecuted
by one of his officers, who found fault with him continually, and even
placed him under arrest for days at a time, when the man had only obeyed
his own orders. At last the secretary's patience failed him, and one day
he struck the officer. A court-martial followed. I was chosen to defend
him. He was sentenced to death. I appealed to the Emperor through Madame
A.,--you know her. For some reason she spoke to one of the ministers.
'You have not stated the number of his regiment; that is indispensable,'
was the reply. Evidently this was a subterfuge, that time might be
consumed in correspondence, and the pardon might arrive too late. The
reason for this was, in all probability, that just at this time a
soldier had struck an officer in Moscow and had been condemned. If one
were pardoned, in justice the other must be also. Otherwise discipline
would suffer. This coincidence was awkward for the secretary, strong as
his case was, and he was shot.

"The adjutant's hands trembled so with emotion that he could not apply
the bandage to the prisoner's eyes. Others tried and gave it up. Well,
as soon as that man was buried his gr