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    386 MADAME SWETCHINE.

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    — I .— In Our Last Number We Reviewed Th...

    Such , was the state of misery into which , the Emperor whom we fought and conquered at Sebastopolcould throw two elderly people

    , whom , at all events in his capacity of sovereign , he had never seen in his life and who had certainly never injured or even disobeyed

    him or his ; father . As a matter of fact they did not go into exile ; but the nervous shockand the anxiety which they suffered during

    many months , was in _, itself a horrible torture . On the first day Madame Swetchine implies that she feared her husband would go

    mad and commit suicide . Finally , what actually occurred was this ; their friends at St . Petersburg !! obtained a respite , which Madame

    Swetchine employed in traversing Europe to plead , in person , her husband ' s cause . She left Paris in the evening of the 16 th of

    August , 1834 , and arrived at St . Petersburg ]! on the 19 th of SeptemberIt was the 16 th of November before the aim of her

    . courageous efforts was attained . She was then fifty years of age , and always in bad healthshe was now so far shaken that she

    could not quit Russia until , the month of February . Her homeward journey must have been full of cruel suffering at that cold

    season ; but she reached Paris at six o ' clock of the morning on the 4 th of March , being the first day of Lent ; , 1835 . Stopping her

    carriage at the chaj ) el of St . Vincent de Paul in the Rue Montholon , she entered and rendered up thanks for her safe return ; and arriving

    at last at the threshold of her beloved home in the Rue St . Dominiqueshe sank exhausted on to a bed of sickness , where she lay for

    , three months hovering between life and death . In 1836-7 Madame Swetchine lost her adopted daughter Nadine _,

    and also her brother-in-law the Prince Gagarin , who had exchanged the embassy of Rome for that of Munich ; and the Princess Gagarin ,

    thenceforth residing in Moscow with her _iive sons , was separated widely from the tender elder sister who had been to her as a mother .

    These losses made her more and more detached from the world , and more devoted to her reliious duties and to charity . A letter is given

    from one of her servant g s , detailing how all those morning hours which she nominally reserved to herself were taken up by

    consecutive _ajDplicants requiring help and advice of various kinds . " She knew so well how to comfort the poor in their needsand the rich in

    their domestic troubles ; how to call up the moral , energies of the unfortunate , and sustain mothers of families who came to consult

    her about their children . Of those who came to her to seek consolationI saw each quit her room with an expression of peace . She

    liked , to mark any day of special rejoicing by an especial act of charity . Once , when she received a letter from her sister which put

    an end to a long period of anxiety , she sent Cloppet out on a benevolent missionand when he came back successfulhis mistress said

    joyfully , " My , dear Cloppet , we will call the household , you have visited to-day after ma sceur . " On the day when peace was

    proclaimed at Sebastopol she sent him out on a similar errand , and

    this time the / scene of his exertions was christened la Paix . She

    386 Madame Swetchine.

    386 MADAME SWETCHINE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1860, page 386, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081860/page/26/