CHAPTER XXVI 



AS ATTACHE AT ST. PETERSBURG 1854-1855 



WHILE yet an undergraduate at Yale, my favorite 

 studies in history and some little attention to 

 international law led me to take special interest in the 

 diplomatic relations between modern states; but it never 

 occurred to me that I might have anything to do directly 

 with them. 



Having returned to New Haven after my graduation, 

 intending to give myself especially to modern languages 

 as a preparation for travel and historical study abroad, 

 I saw one day, from my window in North College, my 

 friend Gilman, then of the class above mine, since presi- 

 dent of Johns Hopkins University and of the Carnegie 

 Institution, rushing along in great haste, and, on going out 

 to greet him, learned that he had been invited by Governor 

 Seymour of Connecticut, the newly appointed minister 

 to Russia, to go with him as an attache, and that, at his sug- 

 gestion, a similar invitation would be extended to me. 



While in doubt on the matter, I took the train for New 

 York to consult my father, and, entering a car, by a happy 

 chance found the only vacant place at the side of the gov- 

 ernor. I had never seen him, except on the platform at my 

 graduation, three months before ; but on my introducing 

 myself, he spoke kindly of my argument on that occasion, 

 which, as he was " pro-slavery " and I " anti-slavery, " I 

 had supposed he would detest ; then talked pleasantly on 

 various subjects, and, on our separating at New York, in- 

 vited me so cordially to go to Russia with him that I then 



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