The surgeon major, at whose house I stopped, was not at home, and in order to wait for him, I was conducted into a most filthy habitation. The desire of not being known, and the uncertainty I was in respecting my wound, induced me not to announce myself to the governor. In the afternoon I returned to the surgeon’s, but to no purpose. Impatient of suffering, without knowing what might be the effect of my wound, I asked if there was no one else who could assist me, and they mentioned a _podleker_, or surgeon’s mate, who, after many difficulties on his part, came to me. His address gave me no favourable impression respecting his talents and sobriety; it had all the bluntness and tottering gait of a drunken man. In the mean time the necessity of having my wound probed, overcame the repugnance I felt of trusting myself to such hands; but the wretch had forgotten his instruments. Who would suppose that a pin was the probe he borrowed? Having examined it, he informed me, in a fluttering manner, that my skull was laid open, but not at all fractured, and that with the application of brandy and water I might continue my journey; he then advised me to be blooded. The idea of trusting my arm to such a drunkard made me shudder. Having thanked, paid, and dismissed him, I got into my carriage, happy to be rid both of the operation and the operator. Nijenei-novogorod is situated, as every one knows, upon the Wolga, and is similar to all the Russian towns. When I passed through it, it boasted of the honour of having a company of national comedians. Leaving Vladimer, I came to Moscow. M. de Boffe was anxious to have my wound examined by the most skillful surgeons. Their report gave me confidence, though the pains in my head were tolerably acute. I found myself the more consoled by the removal of my fears, as I learned at the same time a circumstance very much calculated to increase them. M. de Boffe told me that my father was not at Petersburg: if therefore I had been dangerously wounded, and this town had been the termination of my career, I should have been deprived of the consolation of ending my life in the arms of him to whom I owed it. My carriage being in a shattered condition, I left it at Moscow, and sat off in one of the common post carriages; but they were so small and so incommodious, as not even to shelter me from the rain. I passed by Tver, Vonischnei-volotschok, Novogorod, and Sophia near Tsarskocelo[116], and I entered Petersburg in the night of 22 September, having travelled six thousand wersts in forty days, eight of which were lost in the unavoidable delays I had experienced.