Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/101

Rh went now, with a contrite heart and humble countenance, to visit those holy places. When he returned at night, all beaming with joy, he related to his comrades how his heart had thrilled when he approached those cousins-german of the Everlasting, how many times he had fallen on his knees, how he had prayed, and how the priest had taken the cap from the head of a saint and put it on his, &c. His comrades listened to him, sighed, and envied him his happiness.

The Major brought also visitors with him, two Russian Generals and a French physician. The latter, so far as I could judge from his manners and knowledge, had scarcely been a barber in his own country. Russia swarms with barbers and other people of that sort, who come from France and become tutors, physicians, or secretaries to the first families in St. Petersburg and Moscow. When these gentlemen had left us, a courier unexpectedly arrived from St. Petersburg, sent by Alexis–Nikolaiewicz Samoilow, the Grand Procurator and Minister of the