Note 141 — Chapter 15 Officials—Siberian Governors-General—A Rapacious Police-Master—An Accommodating Judge—A Roasted Police-Captain—A Tatar Missionary—A Boy of the Female Sex—The Potato Terror, etc.

This gave Count Rastoptchin occasion for a biting jest at Pestel’s expense. They were both dining with the Tsar. The Tsar, who was standing at the window, asked: ‘What’s that on the church, the black thing on the cross?’ ‘I can’t distinguish,’ observed Count Rastoptchin. ‘You must ask Boris Ivanovitch, he has wonderful eyes, he sees from here what is being done in Siberia.’