They had known each other previously in Petersburg, but had become more intimate when Prince Andrew was in Vienna with Kutuzov.

Just as Prince Andrew was a young man who gave promise of rising high in the military profession, so to an even greater extent Bilibin gave promise of rising in his diplomatic career.

He still a young man but no longer a young diplomat, as he had entered the service at the age of sixteen, had been in Paris and Copenhagen, and now held a rather important post in Vienna.

Both the foreign minister and our ambassador in Vienna knew him and valued him.