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MADAME SWETCHINE , 385
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
— I .— In Our Last Number We Reviewed Th...
exile of tlie General to any obscure part of the Russian provinces which lie might fancyso that it was far enough from Moscow or
, St . Petersburgli ! This order took the form of a sentence , and purported to "be based on misconduct of which he had been guilty thirty
years previously , under the reign of the Emperor Paul ! This decree reached Paris in the heart of winter .
Madame Swetchine made up her mind not to resist hy flight or any measure of overt opposition . She had always refused to listen
to her friends when they had advised her to realise her fortune and transport it into France , saying : _"I wish to leave my inheritance
intact to my sister and her children ; but even if none of them remained alive , I would not any the sooner break the last link which
would then bind me to my native country , casting aside utterly the serfs whom Providence committed to my care , and strengthening in
the Emperor's mind the fatal notion that in leaving the Russian Church one cannot remain a good Russian subject . " She was now
put to cruel proof , witness a pitiful letter written hy her at this time to a friend ; and she suffered more for tlie General than for herself .
He was twenty-five years older , being * fclien seventy-seven ; and for this poor old man to leave his pleasant sunny Parisian _honiein
, that gay delightful street of St . Dominique , with its stately hotels , backed by green leafy gardens , stretching * away almost to the Barriere ,
and wander off to some dreary provincial town in the heart of Russiathere to end his days eating' the bread of bitternesswas indeed
tence a fri , ghtful and she doom had . some It was difficult his wife y in who making had him to tell comprehend him , of the . " sen He
would , believe I had made a mistake . / 7 Then for a moment he would not hear of her going away with him , but she would not hear
of being left behind ; and so only writing * to beg that they might wait until milder weather , they made up their minds to obey ; and
what is sufficiently remarkable is , that Madame Swetchine tried to prevent the story getting abroad for as long a time as possible , and
46 in In her pride misfortune as a Russian I will subject not forget would that permit I am herself a Russian no comp in laint the .
midst my of the French . " Then she alludes sadly to the " household gods" — " Our furnituremy picturesmy booksnone of these things
, , , can be transported hy _j : ) eople who are about to travel to a distance of eiht hundred leaguesand who wander , so to speakat the mercy
g , , of accidents , feeling * themselves too old , too afflicted , too discouraged , to think of forming an establishment . When we have realty obeyed
this decree , we shall only be living on from day to day , pitching a tentas it wereand awaiting the hour when they will take down
the , canvas to make , us a shroud . I am very sure , however , that however scantily we may be provided for , we shall not feel wanting
in luxuries , for when one is very wretched one has but few needs . Adieu ! ma Men chhre _amze , if you do not weary of asking' grace for
_iis at St . Petersburgh , my prayers for you shall be equally unwearying as long as I live . Everybody must pay their debts in their own
coin . "
Madame Swetchine , 385
MADAME SWETCHINE , 385
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1860, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081860/page/25/
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