commandant, an old officer named Peterson.

He gave me an excellent reception, and after the usual compliments had
passed, said,--

"Do you know a Russian who calls himself Charles Ivanoff?"

"I saw him once at Grenoble."

"It is said that he has escaped from Siberia, and that he is the younger
son of the Duke of Courland."

"So I have heard, but I know no proof of his claim to the title."

"He is at Genoa, where it is said a banker is to give him twenty thousand
crowns. In spite of that, no one would give him a sou here, so I sent him
to Genoa at my own expense, to rid the place of him."

I felt very glad that the Russian had gone away before my arrival. An
officer named Ramini, who was staying at the same inn as myself, asked if
I would mind taking charge of a packet which M. de St. Pierre, the
Spanish consul, had to send to the Marquis Grimaldi, at Genoa. It was the
nobleman I had just seen at Avignon, and I was pleased to execute the
commission. The same officer asked me whether I had ever seen a certain
Madame Stuard.

"She came here a fortnight ago with a man who calls himself her husband.
The poor devils hadn't a penny, and she, a great beauty, enchanted
everybody, but would give no one a smile or a word."