having received the casket containing them,
the officer, not without a certain degree of
hesitation, proceeded to state that his further
orders were to see that the party dismounted
from their carriages, and took their places in
covered carts which had been brought for
the purpose.

From this moment Mentchikoff appears,
like Wolsey in his disgrace, to have thrown
off the last remains of pride, and to have
resumed the carelessness and cheerfulness
which, in his original station, belonged to him.
He stepped lightly from his splendid chariot,
while his wife, his son, and two daughters
were made to alight and to take their places
in the mean conveyances allotted them, each
being kept separate, and he not even aware
that they were near him. "I am prepared
for all events," he observed to the officer;
"do your duty without reserve; I have no
feeling except of pity towards those who will
profit by my spoliation."

The whole of his train of horses, carriages,
and attendants was then driven back to
St. Petersburg, while he and his family were
sent on in their altered state towards
Rennebourg, which was situated at the distance of
no less than two hundred and fifty leagues
from the capital, between the kingdom of
Kazan and the province of the Ukraine. The
castle which the Prince had built and fortified
there was a perfect city in itself, like most
Russian residences. A fair had been
established by him, which every year in the
month of June attracted merchants from the
Tartars, the Kozáks, and other neighbouring
tribes, who brought their furs and costly
wares to a ready sale. When therefore he
reflected, during his long journey, on the
benefits he had conferred on this region,
which exclusively belonged to him, the exiled
prince dwelt with complacency on the life of
philosophical retirement which he saw still
in store for him, and which he resolved at
once to content himself with, considering it
well exchanged for all the pomp and power
which had so suddenly slipped from his
grasp. But the permission granted to him
by his enemies to retain this portion of his
vast possessions, and to embrace a life of
retirement at a distance from the court, was
merely a blind to conceal their hostile
intentions for the present.

When the plans of his enemies were
matured, the devoted victim, now totally
powerless to resist, was disturbed in what he
imagined to be his last retreat, and the
sentence announced to him which decreed that
the remainder of his career should be passed
in a horrible desert beyond Siberia, called
Yakoutsk, fifteen hundred leagues from the
civilised world. He was allowed to take
with him no more than eight domestics; he
was forced to relinquish the habit he had
long worn, and to resume the coarse garb of
a Muscovite peasant; the same costume
was given to his wife, a woman of high
family; and to his son and daughters, one of
whom had been destined by her father to
share the throne of the Czar. The sufferings
of his tender and heroic wife, who bore
her afflictions with great courage, were
soon ended; unable from her natural delicacy
of constitution to endure the frightful
hardships of the journey, she died in his
arms before they reached Kazan. Here she
was buried by her sorrowing husband, by
whom her many virtues had always been
appreciated; and the sad and diminished
party continued their route by water to
obolsk. Arrived in this capital of the
desolate region to which he was condemned,
Mentchikoff was the object of premeditated
insult and scorn; being received with every
indignity by the people, and in particular being
loaded with obloquy by two exiled noblemen
whom he had himself caused to be
banished. To one of these he remarked
calmly that his reproaches were just, and he
added: "In the state in which you now see
me I can yield you no other revenge than
invective; satisfy yourself therefore. Know
also, that in sacrificing you to my policy, I
did so because your integrity and honesty
were in my way. But as for you," he
continued, addressing the other, "I was ignorant
of your fate. The order for your banishment
must have been obtained falsely, for I
frequently inquired why I saw you no more.
You have others to blame for your misfortunes;
nevertheless, if to revenge them upon
me can satisfy you, take your fill of such
vengeance." His courage however gave
way, and he burst into tears, when a third
wronged man covered his unfortunate
daughters with mud, and reviled them in
opprobrious language.

The mercy of the Czar allowed him a
certain sum of money at Tobolsk, where he
was lodged for a time in prison, and this he
expended in articles of necessity for his exile,
such as implements of labour, which he knew
would be required in the desert home to
which he was conducting his children.

When the melancholy cortége of exiles left
Tobolsk, they were no longer sheltered by
covered wagons, but were exposed in open
ones, drawn sometimes by a single horse and
sometimes by dogs; and in this manner it
took five months to travel from the capital of
Siberia to Yakoutsk, through storm and ice
and cheerless fog and snows. No incident
interrupted the dreadful gloom of monotony which
they endured, until they one day halted at the
miserable cabin of a Siberian peasant. While
waiting the pleasure of their escort, an officer
travelling from Kamchatska entered the same
cabin. In him Mentchikoff at once recognised
a personage he had himself dispatched during
the reign of Peter the Great on a mission
connected with the discoveries of Behring in
the sea of Amur. This officer had formerly
been one of his aides-de-camp; but, his
costume, his long beard, and the circumstances