and cardinals and monsignors, and the rest of them, meant
nothing at all to me. In a word, I showed him that I was not
going to give way. He looked at me with an air of infinite
resentment. Then he snatched up my passport, and departed with
it upstairs. A minute later the passport had been visaed! Here
it is now, if you care to see it,"--and I pulled out the
document, and exhibited the Roman visa.

"But--" the General began.

"What really saved you was the fact that you proclaimed
yourself a heretic and a barbarian," remarked the Frenchman with
a smile. "Cela n'etait pas si bete."

"But is that how Russian subjects ought to be treated? Why,
when they settle here they dare not utter even a word--they are
ready even to deny the fact that they are Russians! At all
events, at my hotel in Paris I received far more attention from
the company after I had told them about the fracas with the
sacristan. A fat Polish nobleman, who had been the most
offensive of all who were present at the table d'hote, at once
went upstairs, while some of the Frenchmen were simply disgusted
when I told them that two years ago I had encountered a man at
whom, in 1812, a French 'hero' fired for the mere fun of
discharging his musket. That man was then a boy of ten and his
family are still residing in Moscow."

"Impossible!" the Frenchman spluttered. "No French soldier
would fire at a child!"