The governor was much put about at receiving this answer, and declared he could on no account permit such an infringement of his regulations; but we refused to be lodged separately, and remained firmly planted in the corridor, bag and baggage. The chief of police was now sent for: a perfect Falstaff, and—as it turned out—a very ignorant fellow. He likewise pronounced that we must conform to the regulations; to which we made our former reply, claiming our rights. As we were reasoning with him, one of the ladies happened to mention the word “_goumànnost_” (humanity), and—like the postmaster in Gogol’s immortal comedy, who did not know whether “_mauvais ton_” might not mean something worse than “rascal”—so this good man became uneasy as to whether the unfamiliar word might not contain some offence, and demanded an explanation, with which—repressing our amusement—we furnished him. In the end this functionary decided that a still higher power must be referred to—the governor of the district; meanwhile there next successively appeared the colonel of the gendarmerie and the public prosecutor, to whom we again explained our position. They could find nothing to say against our representations, and after the discussion had lasted a long time—we camping out in the passage all the while, unable to unpack or prepare a meal (although we had eaten nothing since early morning and were fearfully hungry)—at last the good people agreed that, pending the arrival of the governor’s decision, we should make our own arrangements. Next day as we sat at dinner the chief of police appeared in full parade uniform, with his helmet on. “Gentlemen, I am to inform you of the governor’s decision,” he began ceremoniously, when our head-man interrupted him with the request that he would uncover his head. “Gentlemen, you see I am in parade uniform, and the helmet is part of it; I cannot take it off,” he stammered, doubtful if this were not some new form of insult. “We do not care what sort of uniform it is,” answered Làzarev, with imperturbable calm, “when you come into our room you will have the kindness to remove your head-covering.” “Now this is too much. I cannot, I really cannot take off my helmet,” he declared, growing warm. “Do as you please; but in that case we will not listen to the decision of the governor,” said Làzarev. The poor man looked from one to another, hesitated, and finally bared his worthy head and imparted to us the formal decision: the governor granted our desire. I wonder how many officials have had to learn this elementary lesson in politeness from us. * * * * * In Krasnoyarsk our party was diminished to eleven in number. The veterinary surgeon Snigiriòv and the student Korniènko were to remain in the government of Yenisei, and we had to leave Spandoni behind in the prison, as he was ill.