the constraint of man is withdrawn. My theory is that sooner or later the
soil must give way and drag the vast city with it.

We reached Moscow in the time the chevochic had promised. As the same
horses were used for the whole journey, it would have been impossible to
travel mote quickly. A Russian told me that the Empress Elizabeth had
done the journey in fifty-two hours.

"You mean that she issued a ukase to the effect that she had done it,"
said a Russian of the old school; "and if she had liked she could have
travelled more quickly still; it was only a question of the wording of
the ukase."

Even when I was in Russia it was not allowable to doubt the infallibility
of a ukase, and to do so was, equivalent to high treason. One day I was
crossing a canal at St. Petersburg by a small wooden bridge; Melissino
Papanelopulo, and some other Russians were with me. I began to abuse the
wooden bridge, which I characterized as both mean and dangerous. One of
my companions said that on such a day it would be replaced by a fine
stone bridge, as the empress had to pass there on some state occasion.
The day named way three weeks off, and I said plainly that it was
impossible. One of the Russians looked askance at me, and said there was
no doubt about it, as a ukase had been published ordering that the bridge
should be built. I was going to answer him, but Papanelopulo gave my hand
a squeeze, and whispered "Taci!" (hush).

The bridge was not built, but I was not justified, for the empress
published another ukase in which she declared it to be her gracious
pleasure that the bridge should not be built till the following year. If
anyone would see what a pure despotism is like, let him go to Russia.