d he thenceforth holds his head as
high as the greatest. No one of these is regarded as more important than
his neighbor. Dumouriez, having casually spoken to Nicholas of one of
the considerable personages at court, received the reply:

"You must learn, sir, that the only considerable person here is the one
to whom I am speaking, and that only as long as I am speaking to
him."[4]

Hence, we rarely find a Russian noble who is proud of his ancestry or of
his ancient name. It is wealth and power, momentary distinction and
royal favor that make him of worth. When, therefore, Paul Drentell,
because of his valuable services in raising a loan which enabled Russia
to engage in war with one of her less powerful neighbors, was elevated
to the nobility, it caused no surprise, and the banker at once began a
life of pomp and extravagance which he thought suited to his new
station. His wealth was fabulous, and was for the greater part invested
in large estates, comprising confiscated lands, formerly the property of
less fortunate nobles, who, deprived of their rank, were now atoning for
their sins in the frozen North. His possessions included about twenty
thousand male serfs; consequently, more than forty thousand souls.

Dimitri, upon his father's elevation, was sent to the army, where he
distinguished himself in nocturnal debauches and adventures such as we
have related, and where, thanks to his father's influence, he shortly
rose to the rank of lieutenant.

About five years before the beginning of this story, Paul Drentell died
and his vast estates, as well as his title of Count, descended to
Dimitri, who now found himself one of the richest men in the Empire. He
was, moreover, a personal friend of the young Czarewitch, Alexander, in
whose regiment he served. To such a man, a notable future was open:
great honors as Governor of a province or exile to Siberia as a
dangerous power. One of the features of public life in Russia is the
comparative ease with which either of these distinctions may be
obtained.

Count Drentell was haughty and arrogant, caring for naught but his own
personal advantage, consulting only his own tastes and pleasures. He was
a stern officer to his soldiers, a cruel taskmaster to the serfs he had
inherited, and a bitter foe of the Jews whom he had offended.

Very different was his wife, Louise. A Georgian by birth, her beauty and
ingenuousness had won her great popularity at the court of St.
Petersburg,