88 BARON DIMSDALE AND INOCULATION CHAP. 



the English doctor, so she told her nobles, had come 

 without making any terms she considered him as a 

 gentleman who paid her a visit, and he should have all 

 the respect she could show him. A large house, sumptu- 

 ously appointed, was set apart for him and his son, and 

 was protected at his request by soldiery for the sake of 

 secrecy and isolation ; a coach and four attended them 

 all day. He dined sometimes at the Empress's private 

 table, and had a general invitation to the Grand Duke's 

 court at all hours and meals, " the oftener the better." 

 The court was brilliant, the palaces magnificent : a great 

 theatre was maintained in one of them at the imperial 

 expense, free to the public, where French and Russian 

 plays, music, masquerades, seemed to be without end. 

 Amid these scenes Dimsdale and his son led an idle and 

 luxurious life ; but all the time Dimsdale's mind was 

 burdened by his errand : " Many corroding cares disturb 

 me, and embitter all this greatness which I am not able 

 to enjoy." 



At a second private interview the Empress, he writes, 

 " told me her resolution was taken to be inoculated, but 

 enjoined the most perfect secrecy. I besought her to 

 let me have the assistance of the physicians, to whom 

 I should communicate my whole plan. Her answer was : 

 ' I know my own constitution very well, and will answer 

 any questions, but have taken a resolution to repose the 

 most absolute confidence in you alone, and insist on no 

 persons being acquainted with my design.' I bowed and 

 promised obedience, but with great anxiety." Just then 

 it came to his ears that some one of repute had said that 

 he wished the English doctor success : that he had a 

 good deal of spirit, but that if he undertook to inoculate 

 either the Empress or the Grand Duke it was more than 

 any man that knew Russia would do. He had indeed a 

 perilous task. Had either case proved fatal Dimsdale's 

 life would have been threatened. Tradition relates that 

 the Empress had arranged for a service of fleet post- 

 horses to convey the doctor out of the kingdom in such 

 an event. 



