44 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -X 



wilfully cruel in its prison arrangements as the Western 

 world has been led to think. 



Another interesting Russian was Count Orloff Davi- 

 dofT ; and on my meeting him, just after his return from 

 the Chicago Exposition, at General Annenkoff s table, he 

 entertained me with his experiences. On my asking him 

 what was the most amusing thing he had seen in America, 

 he answered that it was a 1 1 sacred concert, on Sunday, at 

 a church in Colorado Springs, in which the music of 

 Strauss s waltzes and Offenbach s comic songs were lead 

 ing features, the audience taking them all very solemnly. 



In the literary direction I found Prince John Galitzin s 

 readings from French dramas delightful. As to histori 

 cal studies, the most interesting man I found was Profes 

 sor Demetrieff, who was brought to my house by Pobe- 

 donostzeff. I had been reading BillbassofT s &quot;Life of 

 the Empress Catherine&quot;; and, on my asking some ques 

 tions regarding it, the professor said that at the death of 

 the Empress, her son, the Emperor Paul, intrusted the 

 examination of her papers to Rostopchine, who, on going 

 through them, found a casket containing letters and the 

 like, which she had evidently considered especially pre 

 cious, and among these a letter from Orloff, giving the 

 details of the murder of her husband, Peter III, at 

 Ropscha. The letter, in substance, stated that Orloff and 

 his associates, having attempted to seize Peter, who was 

 evidently on his way to St. Petersburg to imprison the 

 Empress Catherine, if not to put her to death, the Em 

 peror had resisted; and that finally, in the struggle, he 

 had been killed. Professor Demetrieff then said that the 

 Emperor Paul showed these papers to his sons Alexander 

 and Nicholas, who afterward succeeded him on the throne, 

 and expressed his devout thankfulness that the killing of 

 Peter III was not intentional, and therefore that their 

 grandmother was not a murderess. 



This reminds me that, at my first visit to St. Peters 

 burg, I often passed, during my walks, the old palace of 

 Paul, and that there was one series of windows carefully 



