There was still no news. It was the beginning of the year 1781. With the retirement of Prince Gregory Orloff, and the fallen fortunes of the tutor of the Tzarevitch, Pânin, the new counsellors of the Empress Ekaterina, having in view the lessening of the influence of her son, Pavel Petrovitch, advised her to send the Tzarevitch and his wife on a long foreign journey, ostensibly to make the acquaintance of foreign courts. Irena learnt this with a beating heart from Vâra’s letter. Their Imperial Highnesses left the environs of Petersburg on the 19th of September, 1781. Under the name of Count and Countess “du Nord,” they passed the Russian frontier of Poland, at the little town of Oukraine, Vasilkoff, in the middle of October. A young person, dressed in the dark vestments of a nun, who arrived the day before by the Kieff track,[54] was waiting here to meet Nelidova. She was taken into the apartment of Ekaterina Ivanovna. Into this room there entered also, from the garden, the Count and Countess du Nord, as if by accident, whilst the horses were being changed. They remained several minutes, and when they came out, the count was fearfully pale, and the countess in tears. “Poor Penelope,” said Pavel to Nelidova, getting into the carriage, on observing through the trees the dark figure of Irena. The conversation of Ekaterina Ivanovna with the stranger after the departure of the august travellers was so prolonged that the carriage of the maid of honour was much behindhand, according to the _marche-route_, and the horses had to be cruelly driven to catch up the Imperial carriages. “A rose, a rose! Not myrtle!” cried out Nelidova in French,--very mysteriously to all around,--to the stranger, to whom she waved her handkerchief from the carriage window, by way of encouragement. “She is truly a sorrowing Penelope,” said Ekaterina Ivanovna, as, driving away, she lost sight in the distance of the dark motionless figure of Irena. The journey of the Count and Countess du Nord was very interesting. They travelled through all Germany, and spent the New Year in Venice. The 8th of January, 1780, the grand-duke, Pavel Petrovitch, wrapped in the picturesque Italian cloak _Tabaro_, and the grand-duchess, in the graceful Venetian mantilla and the _Cendadi_, visited the picture gallery and the palace of the Doge in the morning, and in the evening went to the theatre of the “Prophet Samuel,” where “Iphigenia in Tauridus,” was to be played in honour of the august visitors, as it was known to be their favourite opera. The celebrated composer Glück himself conducted the orchestra. After the opera, the public poured out, and crowded the square of St. Mark, where a national masquerade had been organised in honour of the Imperial travellers.