He had no money of course, that is, he had a few thousand francs, enough to pay for the adwrtisement and title-page of a life in London; they were spent at once; but he threw dust in pPople's eyPs, and succeedPd for a few months in living free from care, thanks to the stupid trustfulness of the English, of which foreignPrs have not been able to break them to this day.
But the prince went ahead at full steam. The concerts began.
London was imprPSSPd by the prince's title on the placards, and at the second concert the room (St James's Hall, Piccadilly) was
The Free Russian Press and "The Bell"
541
full. The concert was magnificent. How Golitsyn had succeeded in training the chorus and the orchestra is his own secret, but the concert was absolutely first-rate. Russian songs and prayers, the Kamarinskaya and the Mass, fragments from an opera of Glinka's and from the Gospel ( Our Father)-it all went splendidly.
The ladies could not sufficiently admire the colossal fleshy contours of the handsome Assyrian god, so majestically and gracefully wielding his ivory sceptre ; the old ladies recalled the athletic figure of the Emperor Nicholas,13 who had conquered the London ladies most of all by the tight elk col/ants, white as the Russian snows, of his Horse Guards' uniform.
Golitsyn found the means of making a loss out of this success.
Intoxicated by the applause he sent at the end of the first half of the concert for a basket of bouquets (remember the London prices), and before the beginning of the second part of the programme he appeared on the stage ; two liveried servants carried the basket, and the prince, thanking the singers and choms, presented each with a bouquet. The audience received this act of gallantry on the part of the aristocratic conductor with a storm of applause. My prince, towering to his full height and beaming all over, invited all the musicians to supper at the end of the concert.
At thi s point not only London prices but also London habits must be considered. Unless previous notice is given in the morning, there is no place where one can find supper for fifty persons at eleven o'clock at night.
The Assyrian chief walked valiantly along Regent Street at the head of his musical army, knocking at the doors of various restaurants ; and at last he knocked successfully. A restaurantkeeper, grasping the situation, rose to the occasion with cold meats and mulled wines.
After this there began a series of concerts of his with every possible trick, even with political tendencies. At each of them the orchestra stmck up a Herzen waltz, an Ogarcv quadrille, and then the Emancipation Symphony . . . . compositions with which the prince is very likely even now enchanting Moscow audiences, and which have probably lost nothing in the transfer from Albion, except their names; they could easily be altered to a Potapov waltz, a Mina waltz and Komissarov's Partitur.
With all this noise there was no money; he had nothing to pay 13 The Tsar Nicholas I visited England in i344. (A.S.)
M Y P A S T A N D T H O U G H T S
542
with. His contractors began to murmur. And at horne there began, little by little, Spartacus' revolt of the slaves.
One morning the prince's factotum carne to me, that is, his steward vvho now styled himself his secretary, together with the precentor, a fair-haired, curly-headed Russian lad of two-andtwenty who directed the singers.
'\Ye have come to see you, Alexander Ivanovich, sir.'
'\Yhat has happened?;
'Why, Yury �ikolayevich is treating us very badly. We want to go back to Russia, and we ask him to settle our account-do not betray your own gracious good nature: stand up for us.'
I felt myself surrounded by the atmosphere of 'Horne,' which seemed to rise up like steam in a bath-house.
'\Vhy do you come to me with this request? If you have serious grounds for compla ining of the prince, there is a court of justice here for everyone, a court which will not behave crookedly in favour of any prince or any count.'
'vYe have heard of that indeed, but why go to law? Much better if you will sort it out.'
'What good will it be to you if I do? The prince ""·ill tell me to mind my own business; I shall look like a fool. If you do not want to go to law, go to the ambassador; the Russians in London arc in his care, not in mine . . . .'
'But where should we be then? Once Russian gentlemen are sitting together, what chance can there be of settling with the prince? But you see, you are on the side of the people; so that is why we have come to you. Do be gracious, and take up our cause.'
'\\'hat fellows you are! But the prince won't accept my decision; what will you gain by it? '
'Allow me to report to you, sir,'14 the secretary retorted eagerly, 'he \vill not venture on that, sir, since he has a very great respect for you ; besides, he would be afraid. He would not be pleased to get into The Bell-he has his pride, sir.'
'Well, listen, to waste no more time; here is my decision. If the prince \vill consent to accept my mediation, I will undertake the matter; if not, you must go to law; and since you know neither the language nor the mode of proceeding here, if the prince really is treating you unfairly I shall send you a man who knows English and English ways and speaks Russian.'
'Allow me,' the secretary was beginning.
'No, I won't allow you, my dear fellow. Good-bye.'
H The formula used by soldiers when addressing an officer. (R.)
The Free Russian Press and "The Bell"
543
While they are on their way to the prince I shall say a word or two about them.
The precentor was in no way distinguished except by his musical abilities; he was a well-fed, soft, stupidly handsome, rosy servant-boy; his manner of speaking with a slight burr and his rather sleepy eyes called up before me a whole series, one reflection behind another in the looking-glass, when you are telling fortunes, of Sashkas, Senkas, Aleshkas and Miroshkas.
The secretary, too, was a purely Russian product, but a more striking specimen of his type. He was a man over forty, with an unshaven chin and hollow cheeks, in a greasy coat, unclean himself and soiled inwardly and outwardly, with small, crafty eyes and that peculiar smell of Russian drunkards, made up of the ever-persistent bouquet of corn-spirit fumes mixed with a flavour of onion and cloves to mask it. Every feature of his face encouraged and gave currency to every evil suggestion, which would doubtless have found response and appreciation in his heart, and would if profitable have received assistance from him.
He was the prototype of the Russian petty official, the Russian extortioner, the pettifogging Russian clerk. When I asked him whether he was pleased at the approaching emancipation of the peasants, he answered:
'To be sure, sir-most certainly,' and added with a sigh: 'Good Lord, the lawsuits and examinations in the courts that there will be! And the prince has brought me here as though to make fun of me just at this time.'
Before Golitsyn arrived, this man had said to me with a show of genuine feeling:
'Don't you believe what people will tell you about the prince oppressing the peasants, or how he meant to set them free for a big redemption sum without any land. All that is a story spread by his enemies. It is true he is violent and extravagant, but to make up for that he has a good heart and has been a father to his peasants.'