I was thoroughly taken by surprise, and stammered out an apology, urging that I was not aware of committing any offence. "It is an offence, and a grave one," exclaimed the servant, whom I afterwards found was a police spy. "Visitors must not touch the walls in that manner, and we have orders to eject those who break the law." "Oh, very well," I replied, rather ruffled at the man's impertinence, "I have no desire to do anything contrary to this strange law of yours; and, moreover, I'll leave the Palace." With these words, I turned and retraced my steps to the entrance, being closely followed by the sentry and the guide. It was a very small matter and soon passed out of my mind, though it afterwards proved more serious than one would have imagined. Life in St Petersburg was so different from any to be found in Western Europe, that during the few days I awaited the arrival of the man to whom I was to deliver the jewels, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. In the daytime, perhaps the place which has most attraction for the foreigner is the Nevskoi Prospekt. It is the principal thoroughfare, a fine broad street four versts long, with imposing houses and handsome shops, the favourite promenade of the _haut ton_. The bustle and throng is as great as in Regent Street or the Strand on a sunny day, for the endless line of well-appointed equipages, with servants in splendid liveries, and mostly drawn by four horses, roll noiselessly over the asphalte, while upon the pavement stroll princes and generals in uniform, aides-de-camp and staff officers, merchants, mujiks, Greeks, Circassians--indeed, that heterogeneous assortment of sects and races which combine to make up the population of a great city. Russian women, as a rule, are the reverse of prepossessing; but the ladies who shop in the Nevskoi, and afterwards promenade on the English Quay, are even more remarkable for their elegance and beauty than those one sees in the Row or on Parisian boulevards. As it is not my intention, however, to dilate upon Russian manners and customs, except for the purpose of presenting this strange drama in which I played a leading part, I must refrain from commenting on the thousand and one show places, the coffin shops, in the windows of which the grim receptacles for the dead are ticketed, and many other things which strike the stranger as ludicrous and curious. I saw them merely _pour passer le temps_, and they can be of but little interest in the present narrative.