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2 hotel, where no one asked me for it, I thought such a course
3 unnecessary. This reply seemed unsatisfactory to the governor.
4 He dwelt upon the fact, that as I knew fourteen different
5 languages, I ought to be acquainted with the Russian, for I
6 was then conversing with him in French ; he also said that
7 as I had asserted I was an European Christian, clad in oriental
8 costume, I must enter the category of spies, especially as I had
9 been audacious enough to attempt to injure one of the most re-
10 spectable mercantile-houses, by casting a blemish on its character,
11 and for which he would himself be security. I was led back
12 again to the police-office as a prisoner, where I was detained
13 from nine o’clock in the morning till three in the afternoon,
14 without their offering me so much as a seat. Meanwhile a
15 police-officer was dispatched to the hotel, where my room was
16 opened, and everything rummaged, but they could find nothing
17 suspicious. -Whilst they were thus engaged in the examination
18 of my effects, my horse arrived, and was put in the stable.
19 When the police officer saw my horse, he came to me and pressed
20 me to sell it to him, but I declared that having destined it as a
21 present to my legitimate sovereign, I would not sell it for any
22 price. At three o’clock, I was informed that the passport which
23 they gave me at Orenburg, and which ought to have been
24 sufficient to convey me to my native country, must remain at
25 the police-office, and instead of that, I was to receive an official
26 certificate, with which I was ordered to depart for Moscow
27 within twenty-four hours. After having left the police-office, I
28 waited on some of my German friends, who pressed me to leave
29 Nishni-Nowgorod as soon as possible, as a rumor was current
30 that the emperor had arrived at Moscow, and that post-horses
31 had already been ordered to bring him to Nowgorod ; so that
32 the greatest danger menaced me, namely, being shut up in a
33 dungeon, to prevent my making complaints to the monarch.
34 These friends accompanied me to my hotel ; but how great was
35 our astonishment on seeing the door of my room open, and
36 a part of my effects stolen ! But that astonishment reached its
37 height when, on going into the stable to speak to the groom,