he pawns really count.... The despatches
from the Chancelleries of Europe, how grotesque they can be! Everybody
is always so afraid of everybody else.

Yet while I was thinking these things, K---- was not. He was secretly
worried, as he rode, whether L----'s promise would materialise, or
whether there would be another _impasse_. Somehow I felt certain that
there would be more difficulties, in spite of all assurances. _Ce
n'est pas pour rien qu'on connait les Russes_, as C----, our old
_doyen_, always says....

We passed at length into the Imperial city by the northern entrances,
far away from everybody else, and found ourselves in the midst of a
big Russian encampment, with rows upon rows of guns ranged in regular
formation and lots of tents and horses. All the soldiery here were
taking it very easy on this sunny day; had, indeed, stripped
themselves, and were now engaged in sluicing themselves over with
ice-cold water from a beautiful marble-enclosed canal. These hundreds
upon hundreds of clean white men, with their flaxen hair and their
blue eyes, seemed so strange and out of place in this semi-barbaric
Palace and so indifferent. How curious it was to think that only a few
days ago the Empress and all her _cortege_ had passed here!

We sought out the post commander and told him our purpose. The
difficulties began quickly enough then, as I had anticipated. The
officer explained to us that our request was out of order and
impossible; that no one was allowed inside the inner precincts or had
ever been there; and hinted, incidentally, that we must be mad.
K---- listened to all this in that insulting silence which is a sure
sign of gentility, and then, ransacking his pockets, brought out a
letter and handed it to our man. That produced a change which might
have been highly amusing at other times. There was the complete
_volte-face_ which amuses. The officer suddenly saluted, clicked his
heels, and said in a silky way, like a cat which has tasted milk, that
this order was explicit and made things different; that, indeed, we
might go at once if we liked, only we must be discreet--highly
discreet. He would accompany us himself. Such trivial details were
soon arranged.

We left our ponies and our outriders then and marched forward quickly
on foot. The soldiery around us stared and laughed among themselves as
soon as they saw where we were going. This made me understand that
this excursion had been taken before, probably u