THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 77 



per cent., and he should take back his goods, and return me 

 my money. But he was not willing to yield to either one or 

 the other, so I could only follow the advice of my friends, 

 and inform the police of the fraud, in order to get back my 

 money. Whilst at the police-office, I was, to ray surprise, 

 arrested by an order of the governor, and taken before him. 

 The first inquiry he made was about my passport ; I pro- 

 duced it, and after a strict examination of its contents, he 

 began to question me, why I had let seven days pass without 

 having presented it to the legal authorities? I simply replied, 

 that living in a public hotel, where no one asked me for 

 it, I thought such a course unnecessary. This reply seemed 

 unsatisfactory to the governor. He dwelt upon the fact, 

 that as I knew fourteen different languages, I ought to 

 be acquainted with the Russian, for I was then conversing 

 with him in French •, he also said that as I had asserted 

 I was an European Christian, clad in oriental costume, 

 I must enter the category of spies, especially as I had been 

 audacious enough to attempt to injure one of the most 

 respectable mercantile-houses, by casting a blemish on 

 its character, and for which he would himself be security. 

 I was led back again to the police-office as a prisoner, 

 where I was detained from nine o'clock in the morning till 

 three in the afternoon, without thc'r offering me so much 

 as a seat. Meanwhile a police officer was dispatched to 

 the hotel, where my room was opened, and everything 

 rummaged, but they could find nothing suspicious. Whilst 

 they were thus engaged in the examination of mv effects, 

 my horse arrived, and was put in the stable. When the 

 police officer -saw my horse, he came to me and pressed me 

 to sell it to him, but I declared that having destined it 

 as a present to my legitimate sovereign, 1 would not sell 

 it for any price. At three o'clock, I was informed that the 

 passport which they gave me at Orenburg, and which 

 ought to have been sufficient to convey me to my native 

 country, must remain at the police-office, and instead of 

 that, I was to receive an official certificate, with which I 

 was ordered to depart for Moscow within twenty-four 



