At the invitation of M.Benckhausen, Russian consul-general, Browning accompanied him, in the winter of 1833-34, on a special mission to St Petersburg.

The journey left few apparent traces on his work.

But he remembered the rush of the sledge through the forest when, half a century later, he told the thrilling tale of _Ivan Ivanovitch_.

And even the modest intimacy with affairs of State obtainable in the office of a consul-general seems to have led his thoughts seriously to diplomacy as a career.

One understands that to the future dissector of a Hohenstiel-Schwangau and a Blougram the career might present attractions.