As for the stories told by travelers of officious meddling by the police on their arrival in Russia, and of their footsteps being dogged, I have recently been favored with some light on that subject.  I believe the tales, with reservations, since some perfectly innocent and truthful friends of mine related to me their own similar experience.  A man, who seemed to their inexperienced eyes to be a police officer, told them that the authorities thought three weeks, one in Petersburg and two elsewhere, would be amply sufficient for their travels in Russia.  They had a high-priced French courier, who pretended to know a little Russian.  Perhaps he did know enough for his own purposes.  He told them that they were watched constantly, and translated for the officer.  But he did not tell them that they already had permission to remain in the country for the customary six months.  I made them get out their passports, and showed them the official stamp and signature to that effect.  This clever courier afterward stole from them, in Warsaw, a quantity of diamonds which he had helped them to purchase in Moscow, and of whose existence and whereabouts in their trunks no one but himself was aware.  This helped me to an explanation.  It is invariably the couriers or guides, I find, who tell travelers these alarming tales, and neglect to inform them of their rights.  It certainly looks very much as if some confederate of theirs impersonates a police official, and as if they misinterpret.  The stories of spies forever in attendance seem to be manufactured for the purpose of extorting handsome gratuities from their victims for their “protection,” and for the purpose of frightening the latter out of the country before their own ignorance is discovered.  As I never employed the guides, I never had any trouble with the police, either genuine or manufactured.  I visited the police stations whenever I could make an excuse; and when I wished to know when and where the Emperor was to be seen, I asked a policeman or a gendarme.  He always told me the exact truth unhesitatingly, and pointed out the best position.  It was refreshing after the German police, who put one through the Inquisition as to one’s self and one’s ancestors as soon as one arrives, and who prove themselves lineal descendants of Ananias or Baron Munchausen when a traveler asks for information.

When we wished to leave the country, I again usurped the dvornik’s duties, and paid another visit to the passport office, to inspect its workings.  Our Russian passports were clipped out, and little books were given us, which constituted our permission to leave Russia at any time within the next three months, by any route we pleased, without further ceremony.  These booklets contained information relating to the tax imposed on Russians for absenting themselves from their country for various periods, the custom-house regulations which forbid the entry, duty free, of more than one fur cloak, cap, and muff to each person,