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"In St. Petersburg in the forties there was an amazing event: handsome, prince, commander of the Leib squadron of the Kirasir Regiment, to whom everyone predicted both the outhouse-adjutation and the brilliant career under Emperor Nicholas I, a month before the wedding with the beautiful maid of honor, who enjoyed the special mercy of the Empress, resigned, severed his relationship with the bride, gave a small estate to his sister and went to the monastery, with the intention of entering the monastery. The event seemed extraordinary and inexplicable to people who did not know the inner reasons for it; for the very prince Stepan Kasatsky all this became so natural that he could not imagine how he could have done otherwise..."