greatly envied the contentment of this worthy simple man, who, in order to render himself happy, had only to rummage in his pocket and press a small leather button.

“And I,” thought he, “what do I lack to be happy? Nothing that a man can reasonably desire. Accursed vanity, what wilt thou of me? However, the lesson which I have just received ought at last to teach me to restrain the impetuosity of my ambitious aspirations.”

Such was the style of his thoughts when he resumed his journey to return to the bosom of his numerous family. He had been married for twelve years, and he had eleven children, who had always been the freest and the happiest children in the world. We will not say the same for the fourteen hundred families of serfs of which our hero was the lord and master, and for whom it cannot be asserted that he always entertained the feelings of a father. The only persons with regard to whom he was always inclined to passive indulgence were Selifan and Petrushka. They died shortly after their master’s great discomfiture at the elections, possibly in consequence of the profound chagrin caused by the preference, more apparent than real, which Tchitchikoff accorded to the valet and coachman who had accompanied him to town on that occasion. He had, in his character of master, some principles from which he never departed. As he despised tale-bearers, he never punished any faults of which he had not himself been a witness, or by which he had not personally suffered; but then he punished severely, without pausing to consider the degree of gravity of the offence. An imposter, a thief, a drunkard, a libertine, had only to avoid ever coming in Tchitchikoff’s way, to appear perfectly innocent in his eyes, however detestable his reputation might be; but if one of his peasants told him a lie in person, or if one of them passed him on his way from the forest with a load of purloined brushwood on his back; if a third, in replying to him, gave vent to an alcoholic hiccough, or if he caught sight of a fourth courting a village maid in unseemly fashion, even were she his betrothed, then it made no difference —all four were mercilessly condemned to be flogged.

Very few of his peasants were allowed the means of attaining to a state of comfort. Still, some of them, in spite of the thousand obstacles inherent to their condition of serfage, became fairly well off, and besought him to give them their freedom on condition of payment. He invariably refused, without alleging any reason for this course; and he never even consented to allow their daughters to marry freemen. To have subjects, to keep them firmly under his control, to augment as much as possible the revenue of his own private government, such was henceforth his sole ambition.

Any considerations of equity, of social amelioration, or universal morality, the dissemination of knowledge, and intellectual emancipation, affected him but little. They merely served to sadden him, for he considered that, if these nonsensical notions won favour with the public, they would be a very bad omen as regards the prosperity of his offspring, whom he believed he had created in his own image and likeness.

He subscribed to several newspapers, reviews, and illustrated publications, simply because these sheets were all to be met with in the reception-rooms of his neighbours; but he never endeavoured to discover by perusing them what were the needs, the general feeling, the current of ideas, and the aspirations of the new era now dawning. Of the ordinary contents of the Journal des Débats, for instance, he never allowed any mention in his presence, save that it were what came under the heading Assize Court; and then all at once he would exclaim, “What is the use of tribunals which are open to the public? Why confer this name of ‘public’ on the populace? And what is the use of publishing all these horrors, which one hears in the court-room, over and over again in the newspapers?” And more frequently still he was accustomed to say, “You see, you see what abominations daily take place in the West! And yet there are fools who want to Europeanise Russia, when, on the contrary, it is for Europe to Russianise herself, as she ought to do for her own safety; otherwise I predict that she will shortly perish in final impenitence.”

The most important duty which he fulfilled with regard to his six eldest sons, was to accompany them in succession to Petersburg and Moscow in order to install them respectively in the public service—the army, the navy, the departments of finances, justice, foreign and home affairs. The other lads, who were younger, were placed in various educational institutions. That done, he received and opened their