By selling what little property I have left, I shall raise two or three
hundred rubles."

"Scarcely sufficient for a quarter of the journey. Do you know the
distance from here to Tobolsk, my poor girl?"

"Yes, sire--about eight hundred French leagues."

"And how will you get over the five or six hundred leagues you will
still have to travel when your last ruble is spent?"

"There are towns on the road, sire. When I reach a town I will work till
I have enough to continue my journey to the next."

"That may do as far as Perm," replied the Emperor; "but after that you
have the Ural mountains, and you are at the end of Europe. After that
nothing but a few scattered villages; no inns upon the road; large
rivers without bridges or ferries, and which must be traversed by
dangerous fords, whence men and horses are frequently swept away."

"Sire, when I reach the rivers they will be frozen; for I am told that
in those regions the winter begins earlier than at St Petersburg."

"What!" cried the Emperor, astonished, "do you think of setting out
now--of performing such a journey in winter?"

"It is during the winter that _his_ solitude must be most intolerable."

"It is impossible. You must be mad to think of it."