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A BIOGRAPHY
279
navians—Jonas Lie, Walter Runeberg, Knut Wichsel,
Ida Ericson, and other scientists and authors.
Sönya, of course, called on some of the leading
mathematicians in Paris, and received invitations from
them. But at the moment her head was full of
anything but science, and consequently she was less
interested than usual in such society. Among the
interesting figures in our circle I must specially mention the
afterward famous Padlevsky. He was a sickly young
man, about whom still lingered the air of a prison. He
spoke French badly. He at once interested us by the
vehemence and enthusiasm with which he had embraced
revolutionary principles. He seemed to us to be
boiling with impatience to be once more in danger. He
evidently loved martyrdom; and imprisonment, in
which state he had passed so much of his youth, had
no horrors for him. His father had been executed
during the Polish revolution; his brother had died a
horrible death in the Peter-Paul Fortress of terrible
fame. In order to save her youngest son from a like
fate, and get him away from the influence which had
seduced his father and brother, his aged mother took
him to Germany. But all in vain. Revolution was in
his blood, and before he was twenty he was a political
prisoner. He escaped, and passed through countless
adventures. Just now it seemed that he had nothing
in prospect. But he did not conceal his readiness to
fling himself again into the furnace of revolt at the
very first opportunity. These facts of his life I relate
as told to me by Sönya. As a private individual,
Padlevsky was most sweet and winning, gentle and
charming in his ways. He was absolutely without means of
livelihood. I believe conspiracy was his only
profession. But he was constantly the guest of the richer
members of his party.
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