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.
Agreeably to the instruction of count de la Perouse, I delivered my packets into the hands of count de Segur, minister plenipotentiary from the court of France to the empress. I had the pleasure of seeing him on his arrival in Russia, and I count it among the happy events of my life that I now found him at Petersburg, to console me for the absence of my father. This minister not only received me in the most gracious manner, but interested himself in my health with every mark of affection. He offered one of his couriers to accompany and take care of me during the remainder of my journey. Meanwhile as the skill of his surgeon had effected my cure, I thanked the count for his obliging offer, but was unwilling to deprive him of a man who might be necessary to him.
Charged with his dispatches, I left Petersburg the 26, between eleven and twelve at night. At Remer, as the weather was foul, I was eight hours in engaging watermen to take me across an arm of the sea called Courich-haff. I slept at Berlin, count d’Esterno, minister plenipotentiary of the king to this court, being also desirous of sending dispatches by me; I was well requited for this trifling delay, by the flattering things which it occasioned me from this minister.
At length I saw my native country, and 17 October at three o’clock in the afternoon, I arrived at Versailles. I alighted at the house of count de la Luzerne, minister and secretary of state for the marine department. I had not the happiness of being known to him, but the very kind reception he gave me, instantly prepared my heart for the gratitude, which on so many accounts I owe him. To his favour, upon which I set the highest value, I am indebted for the honour of having been presented, the same day, to his majesty, who condescended to interrogate me respecting various circumstances of my expedition; expressed a desire to know the particulars; and recompensed me the next day by appointing me consul at Cronstadt; a recompence so much the dearer, as it reminded me of the eulogiums that had been bestowed on the zeal of all my family, in the civil and political offices with which they had been entrusted.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES
[1] During my stay at Poustaretsk, the governor had dismissed our Kamtschadale guides. Some of them belonged to the environs of Bolcheretsk, and were four hundred leagues distant from their home. These poor creatures, almost all their dogs having died of fatigue and hunger, were obliged to return on foot.