I would have left Paris much earlier if strange fits of dizziness had not made me fear an attack of a serious illness. Not trusting unfamiliar doctors, I asked P. V. Poggenpohl to recommend someone, and he acquainted me with Doctor Kapeler, born in Vienna, former family doctor of Count Pozzo di Borgo. Mr. Kapeler set my mind at ease (I was afraid I might fall ill while on the road) and after several days of treatment, announced that I could continue my journey without any worry. I intended to go directly to Strasbourg through Chalons and Metz; but a week before my departure, my acquaintance, Drouanet (founder of the portable gas establishment in Petersburg) called on me and convinced me to visit him in Reims. S. M. Stroyev, having heard my plan, asked me to take him with me, and we reserved our seats in the diligence office for July 7th. The diligence was scheduled to depart at five o’clock in the afternoon. In the morning, I settled my bill at the hotel and bade farewell to all my fellow countrymen who made my stay so pleasant; I visited P. V. Poggenpohl and had breakfast at Sofia Ivanovna Conrad’s: thus I spent the last hours in Paris with the people whom I least wanted to leave. Anyone who has ever lived far from his home country among foreign, alien people who measure their services, courtesy, and affection according to the weight of his purse—that person knows the true value of the friendship and affability of his acquaintances from his own country. To my other acquaintances, I sent out, together with visiting cards, copies of my article: “Recollections,” published in Novoselye, and translated by Madame Conrad into French. I found it in the Revue du Nord and reprinted it to give out as a memento.

At half past four, I arrived at the diligence office, where kind Vattemare was waiting for me; he wanted to bid me farewell again. My fellow traveler arrived, we occupied our seats, and with sincere wishes for a safe trip, we left the new Babylon.