About two o'clock in the morning
-- and then thrust me into a drawer with other letters which had to be answered . Very probably I escaped his memory altogether for the next few days : however , there I was -- a startling accusation in black and white ; and , as everybody knows , St. Petersburg is not London . The Leonoff family lived on the third storey of a large block of buildings in the Sergeffskaia . About two o'clock in the morning , on the third day after my arrival , the whole household was roused from sleep by thundering raps on the door , and the dreaded cry of `` Open to the police . '' The unlucky master was forced to allow himself , his wife , and his children to be made prisoners , while every corner of the house was searched and every book and paper examined . Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary movement , but absolute innocence does not free people from the police inquisition , and five or six years ago , when the Search mania was at its height , a case is on record of a poor lady whose house was searched seven times within twenty-four hours , though there was no evidence whatever that she was connected with the Nihilists ; the whole affair was , in fact , a misunderstanding , as she was perfectly innocent . This search in Dmitry Leonoff 's house was also a misunderstanding , and in the dominions of the Czar misunderstandings are of frequent occurrence .