It was with profound satisfaction indeed that I received the following letter from Prince Lobanoff-Rostovsky:
ST. PETERSBURG,
21 Feb./14 March, 1896.
MADAME,
I admire your courageous perseverance in dealing with messieurs les Anglais, and I am very grateful for the assistance that you render us. Accept my profound respects,
LOBANOFF.
It is such kindnesses which, in supporting and encouraging my efforts, have bribed me hitherto, and shall not fail to bribe me in the future.
Sometimes my own people showed themselves anything but understanding and sympathetic. As my thoughts wander through the pages of memory, many shadows from the past arise before me, and I think of how much good, and also how much harm, can be done by a man in a great public position. There are indeed many things in life that one must try to forget and forgive.
I confess that, unfortunately, my ardent aspirations did not, in every case, meet with sympathy, even amongst my own relatives.
I fully appreciated, for instance, the talents and honourable qualities of my brother-in-law, E. Novikoff, and much admired his excellent and exhaustive work on John Huss, the Czech reformer and writer, who preceded Luther by a whole century. This book, by the way, is now unfortunately out of print. But while I always remained a staunch Slavophil, E. Novikoff, after his appointment as Ambassador to Vienna, was obliged in his official capacity to obey the orders of the Foreign Office, and in so doing yielded so far to Austrian views as to become indifferent, not to say hostile, to the Slavonic cause. To me, personally, he invariably showed friendship, and invited me for a whole year to the Russian Embassy at Vienna, a visit which I greatly enjoyed. But I always avoided all reference to the subjects that henceforth divided us.
This was also the case in my relations with Count Shouvaloff, at one time our Russian Ambassador in London, who instead of helping me, constantly did me harm. He was polite and ceremonious in paying me visits, but he hated my work. I am surprised indeed that he did not succeed in paralysing my efforts altogether. It is useful sometimes to be tough and obstinate!