The young

and liberated two hundred of the peasants prince did not live for more than six weeks, and when he died Alexis Yourivitch took to his bed, and for two days ate nothing, and spoke scarcely a word. The mother, in the midst of her grief for her child, had to console the grandfather, who, however, was for a long time inconsolable.

About a year after the arrival of Boris and his wife at Zaboria, news was received that the King of Prussia was moving, and that there would certainly be war. As Prince Boris was in the military service, he prepared to take his departure, and the Princess Varvara would have accompanied him, had not Alexis Yourivitch entreated her, with tears in his eyes, to remain. Boris joined his prayers to his father's, representing to Varvara that it would be impossible for her to accompany the army, until at last she consented to stay at Zaboria.

The leave-taking was very painful and very solemn. After the service for persons setting out on a journey had been performed in the church, Prince Alexis Yourivitch gave his son his blessing, together with a holy image. He then embraced him, and exhorted him to fight bravely, not to spare himself, but to shed his blood freely, and, if necessary, give up his life for his mother, the Empress. As for his wife, he told him not to grieve for her; that she should be cared for, whatever happened to him.

The princess was so unhappy at the loss of her husband, that, after his departure, no sort of entertainment was given at Zaboria until letters arrived from Prince Boris, containing accounts of the battles in which he had been engaged, and saying that he was not to go further into the Prussian territory: he had in fact been appointed to the command of Memel, which was now in the hands of the Russians. Then there was a little more animation in the village, and visitors were again entertained by Prince Alexis, but still in the most quiet and orderly manner.

At last "Satan grew weary of the prince's good beha

viour." Alexis Yourivitch had a terrible scene with his beautiful daughter-in-law, which ended by her attempting to leave the room and fainting. After this the nature of the brutal monster again asserted itself. The cat-o'-ninetails was brought out afresh, the orgies recommenced, and the palace of Zaboria was once more a tavern.

In the prince's court-yard was a bandit, who, finding himself the last of his gang, had left the woods and come to Zaboria. Alexis Yourivitch liked the man, and had attached him to his own person. He was an excellent spy, and kept his master well informed about everything that took place in the village. One day the robber brought the prince a letter which he had just intercepted: it was from the Princess Varvara to her husband. His Highness looked gloomy, ferocious, and walked about the house with his hands behind his back, whistling. The next day a letter arrived from Zimogorsk, announcing a visit from the Voievod and Governor in consequence of a letter they had received from the Princess Varvara. All that night the prince and the brigand (Grishka Chatoun was his euphonious name) remained closeted together. The next morning the servants were told to get the Princess Varvara's clothes together, as she was about to start for Memel to see her husband. In the evening the carriage was in readiness. The princess took farewell of every one, and it was observed that when she kissed Prince Alexis Yourivitch's hand, she trembled all over, and nearly fell. with you, God be with you," said the prince. into the carriage!"

"God be

"Hand her

That night the prince went into the pavilion, and remained there a long time. When he came out he locked the door, and drew the key into the Volga. All the gates leading to the garden were nailed up, and orders were given that no one should go near the place.

At the same time Arina, a poor woman who had been ill for four weeks with the ague, disappeared. It had been thought that she could not possibly recover, when all at

once she somehow or other went away, and was never seen again.

In about a fortnight, Grishka Chatoun, and two women who had accompanied the Princess Varvara, returned with the news that she had died on the road from fatigue. Chatoun brought a letter from the doctor and another from the priest who had buried her. The prince took both documents, and locked them up in his desk.

Alexis Yourivitch had in fact sent away Arina, who in due time died on the road of her ague, and was interred as the Princess Varvara. The unhappy Varvara, in the meanwhile, had been walled-up in the pavilion.

Chatoun and his assistants were sent the next day for an excursion on the Volga in a leaky boat. The river was full of ice, and the wind was blowing hard. The prince stood on one of the hills by the river side and looked on. As the boat sank he made the sign of the cross, and then went to the monastery to have prayers said for the soul of the departed princess.

On reaching home, Alexis Yourivitch had a barrel of vodka brought into the drawing-room, and drank with his peasants for a fortnight. He gave to one a diamond ring, to another a piece of rich velvet, and behaved generally like a madman. At last an officer and some soldiers arrived. The prince put on his general's uniform with the cavalry scarf across his breast, called to his servants for the cat-o'-nine-tails, and prepared to receive his visitors. When they entered, the prince scarcely rose from his seat. “We have come to institute a very strict inquiry respecting your conduct to the Princess Varvara, and in regard to your behaviour generally," said the major.

"And how dare you show your menial faces here?" roared the prince. "You shall be flogged, and so shall the Voievod, who sent you, if he dares to come."

"Be calm, prince," said the officer. "I have an escort of dragoons, and I come not from the Voievod, but from the Empress."

The prince, on hearing these words, trembled all over, and cried out, I am lost, I am lost," knelt at the major's feet, begged him to accept twenty thousand roubles and go, and abased himself in every way.

The officer commenced questioning him, but Alexis Yourivitch rolled his eyes like a maniac, answered incoherently; and the major, seeing that he was not in possession of his senses, determined to postpone the inquiry until the next day. The prince entered the picture-gallery, but stopped and started when he saw the portrait of the Princess Varvara. He fancied he saw the head move, and fell senseless to the ground. When he recovered a little he ordered the servants to cover the face with black paint. He was carried to bed, and a surgeon bled him. He then asked whether the face had been painted out, and, being answered in the affirmative, died.

The family of the Princess of Zaboria is now extinct.

Prince Alexis Yourivitch was at one time so rich, that he used to reckon his plate by hundredweights, and his silver roubles by barrels. But his reckless expenditure was naturally not without its effect on the estate, and his son, Boris Alexeievitch, on coming into possession of it, found it much encumbered. Nevertheless, the property was so enormous, that it was impossible to squander it all in two generations. Boris did his best towards that result, and lived as if he had been engaged to ruin the estate," but the task was too great for him. He went through life like "a fine old Russian gentleman, all of the olden time," and died of indigestion, after a sumptuous dinner at his club. His successor, Daniel Borisovitch, inherited three thousand "souls." He endeavoured at first to mend up the fortunes of the family, but that was impossible, especially as the new seigneur had himself expensive tastes, or rather ideas. He lived for many years in France with Prince Vorontsoff's embassy, fell into the same mysticism with which the Emperor Alexander was inspired by Madame de Krudener,

subscribed large sums of money to masonic lodges, and to the Russian Bible Society, and thus got rid of about eight hundred souls. The daughter of the interesting Daniel, the Princess Natalie Danielovna, on the death of her parent, set off to take the waters; and from Germany proceeded to Italy, where she lived twenty-five years. When a box enclosing the remains of the princess was forwarded from Rome to Zaboria, the family coffers contained the sum of twelve roubles and fifty copeiks, and the debts of the estate were reckoned at about a million. The defunct had no near relations, and among the distant ones there were none who loved her sufficiently to accept Zaboria, and with it her Italian debts. The end of the affair was this. The estate was brought to the hammer, the son of a former waiter at the village tavern became the proprietor of the mansion and land of the once illustrious Princes of Zaboria, and the creditors of the princess were paid sixtyfive copeiks in the rouble-that is to say, sixty-five per cent. "O Gedemine* and Minnegoul," exclaims the author, "how did you receive the last scion of your noble and prolific race, the Princess Natalie Danielovna? Prince Alexis Yourivitch, too, how did you welcome her, my father? How you must have regretted you did not meet your great grand-daughter in this world, where you would have dealt with her after your own fashion!"

CHAPTER VII.

POLITICAL COMEDIES.

How

The Russian calendar is twelve days behind ours. far is Russia behind us in other respects? The question is not answered very easily; for in some things we are centuries ahead, in others only a few years, in others a

* The best Russian families are descended either from Ruric, the Norman (or his companions), or from Gedemine, the Lithuanian.