In short the letter produces a great sensation. The friends of the Governor are delighted to see him and his family in such straits all accuse each other and finally fall upon the two gentlemen when a police soldier enters the room and announces in a loud voice: "A functionary from St. Petersburg with Imperial orders wants to see you all immediately. He stays at the hotel." Thereupon the curtain drops over a living picture of which Gógol himself had made a most striking sketch in pencil and which is usually reproduced in his works; it shows how admirably well with what a fine artistic sense he represented to himself his characters.