He richly rewarded the author on the latter's return, and showed him favor until he died.

Another amusing testimony to the lifelikeness of Kapnist's types is narrated by an eye-witness.

"I happened," says this witness, "in my early youth, to be present at a representation of 'Calumny' in a provincial capital; and when Khvataiko (Grabber), sang, 'Take, there's no great art in that; Take whatever you can get; What are hands appended to us for If not that we may take, take, take ?' all the spectators began to applaud, and many of them, addressing the official who occupied the post corresponding to that of Grabber, shouted his name in unison, and cried, 'That's you! That's you!'" Towards the end of Katherine II.'s reign, a new school, which numbered many young writers, arose.

At the head of it, by reason of his ability as a journalist, literary man, poet, and savant, stood Nikolai Mikhailovitch Karamzin (1766-1826).

Karamzin was descended from a Tatar princeling, Karamurza, who accepted Christianity in the days of the Tzars of Moscow.