In Petersburg in the eighteen-forties a surprising event occurred. An officer of the Cuirassier Life Guards, a handsome prince who everyone predicted would become aide-de-camp to the Emperor Nicholas I. and have a brilliant career, left the service, broke off his engagement to a beautiful maid of honour, a favourite of the Empress’s, gave his small estate to his sister, and retired¹ to a monastery² to become a monk³.  
This event appeared extraordinary and inexplicable⁴ to those who did not know his inner motives⁵, but for Prince Stepan Kasatsky himself it all occurred so naturally that he could not imagine how he could have acted otherwise.
 
His father, a retired colonel of the Guards, had died when Stepan was twelve, and sorry as his mother was to part from her son, she entered him at the Military College as her deceased husband had intended.
 
The widow herself, with her daughter, Varvara, moved to Petersburg to be near her son and have him with her for the holidays.
 
The boy was distinguished⁶ both by his brilliant ability and by his immense self-esteem. He was first both in his studies—especially in mathematics, of which he was particularly fond—and also in drill and in riding. Though of more than average height, he was handsome and agile⁷, and he would have been an altogether exemplary cadet had it not been for his quick temper. He was remarkably⁸ truthful⁹, and was neither dissipated nor addicted¹⁰ to drink. The only faults that marred¹¹ his conduct were fits of fury to which he was subject and during which he lost control of himself and became like a wild animal. He once nearly threw out of the window another cadet who had begun to tease him about his collection of minerals. On another occasion he came almost completely to grief by flinging a whole dish of cutlets at an officer who was acting¹² as steward¹³, attacking him and, it was said, striking him for having broken his word and told a barefaced¹⁴ lie. He would certainly have been reduced to the ranks had not the Director of the College hushed up the whole matter and dismissed the steward.
 
By the time he was eighteen he had finished his College course and received a commission as lieutenant¹⁵ in an aristocratic regiment¹⁶ of the Guards.
 
The Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich (Nicholas I) had noticed him while he was still at the College, and continued to take notice of him in the regiment, and it was on this account that people predicted for him an appointment as aide-de-camp to the Emperor. Kasatsky himself strongly desired it, not from ambition only but chiefly because since his cadet days he had been passionately¹⁸ devoted¹⁹ to Nicholas Pavlovich. The Emperor had often visited the Military College and every time Kasatsky saw that tall erect²⁰ figure, with breast expanded in its military overcoat, entering with brisk step, saw the cropped side-whiskers, the moustache, the aquiline²¹ nose, and heard the sonorous²² voice exchanging greetings with the cadets, he was seized by the same rapture²³ that he experienced later on when he met the woman he loved. Indeed, his passionate¹⁷ adoration²⁴ of the Emperor was even stronger: he wished to sacrifice something—everything, even himself—to prove his complete devotion. And the Emperor Nicholas was conscious of evoking²⁵ this rapture and deliberately²⁶ aroused it. He played with the cadets, surrounded himself with them, treating them sometimes with childish simplicity²⁷, sometimes as a friend, and then again with majestic²⁸ solemnity. After that affair with the officer, Nicholas Pavlovich said nothing to Kasatsky, but when the latter approached he waved him away theatrically²⁹, frowned, shook his finger at him, and afterwards when leaving, said: ‘Remember that I know everything. There are some things I would rather not know, but they remain here,’ and he pointed³⁰ to his heart.
 
When on leaving College the cadets were received by the Emperor, he did not again refer to Kasatsky’s offence, but told them all, as was his custom, that they should serve him and the fatherland loyally, that he would always be their best friend, and that when necessary they might approach him direct. All the cadets were as usual greatly moved, and Kasatsky even shed tears, remembering the past, and vowed³¹ that he would serve his beloved Tsar with all his soul.
 
When Kasatsky took up his commission his mother moved with her daughter first to Moscow and then to their country estate. Kasatsky gave half his property to his sister and kept only enough to maintain himself in the expensive regiment he had joined.
 
To all appearance he was just an ordinary, brilliant young officer of the Guards making a career for himself; but intense and complex strivings went on within him. From early childhood his efforts had seemed to be very varied³², but essentially³³ they were all one and the same. He tried in everything he took up to attain³⁴ such success and perfection as would evoke³⁵ praise and surprise. Whether it was his studies or his military exercises, he took them up and worked at them till he was praised and held up as an example to others. Mastering one subject he took up another, and obtained first place in his studies. For example, while still at College he noticed in himself an awkwardness in French conversation, and contrived³⁶ to master French till he spoke³⁷ it as well as Russian, and then he took up chess and became an excellent player.
 
Apart from his main vocation³⁸, which was the service of his Tsar and the fatherland, he always set himself some particular aim, and however unimportant it was, devoted himself completely to it and lived for it until it was accomplished³⁹. And as soon as it was attained⁴⁰ another aim would immediately present itself, replacing its predecessor⁴¹. This passion for distinguishing himself, or for accomplishing something in order to distinguish himself, filled his life. On taking up his commission he set himself to acquire the utmost perfection in knowledge of the service, and very soon became a model officer, though still with the same fault of ungovernable irascibility, which here in the service again led him to commit actions inimical to his success. Then he took to reading, having once in conversation in society felt himself deficient⁴² in general education—and again achieved his purpose. Then, wishing to secure a brilliant position in high society, he learnt to dance excellently and very soon was invited to all the balls in the best circles, and to some of their evening gatherings⁴³. But this did not satisfy him: he was............