154 INTERNED. 



This construction of a line of about a hundred and 

 forty miles on a road occupied and rendered impassable 

 by marching troops and transports of war - material 

 and into a beleaguered fortress was a difficult work, 

 which did great credit to my brother Charles, who 

 conducted it, and to his assistants. Financially it 

 certainly ran away with a considerable part of the 

 profits obtained through the construction of the other 

 Russian telegraph lines. 



I myself, after I had as far as possible made all 

 the preparations for the construction of the line to the 

 seat of war as ordered by the Emperor, and had become 

 convinced that it was practicable, desired in July to 

 return to Berlin, where my wife was expecting her 

 second confinement. To my great astonishment I could 

 however not get back my passport from the police, 

 despite repeated applications. When I complained of 

 this to Count Kleinmichel, he declared that I could 

 not be allowed to depart before the lines in course 

 of construction, and particularly that to Sebastopol, 

 were completed. All my remonstrances were in vain. 

 The count would not withdraw the order once given, 

 to withhold the visa of my passport, and I was thus 

 for an indefinite time "interned" - as it is called - 

 in St. Petersburg. 



Then, luckily for me, the prince of Prussia came 

 to St. Petersburg to negotiate, as it was said, con- 

 cerning the neutrality of Prussia in the Crimean war. 

 I determined to use this fortunate circumstance to slip 

 from the semi-imprisonment into which I had fallen. 



