Paul I’s nighttime curfew order

Paul I’s nighttime curfew order is a severe restriction on movement in St. Petersburg: after nine o’clock at night, passers-by were to be arrested, except for midwives and doctors. In Antoine Roquentin’s reconstruction of the assassination of Paul I, this rule becomes a constraint on the suspected participants’ movements and the basis for a story he cannot confirm: that M. de Rollebon may have disguised himself as a midwife to reach the palace.

The Order and Its Exceptions

The account presents the order as applying to all passers after nine at night, while exempting midwives and doctors. Its severity gives the hour and the permitted occupations practical force: anyone travelling across the city after curfew would risk arrest unless covered by one of those exceptions. The evidence does not describe how the order was enforced beyond that stated consequence.

The Order in Roquentin’s Reconstruction

The rule surfaces as Antoine Roquentin tries to understand M. de Rollebon’s possible role in the assassination of Paul I. Rollebon had been accompanied to his door that evening by an officer friend; Roquentin then asks how, if Rollebon went out again, he could have crossed St. Petersburg without difficulty under the curfew. The order therefore creates a concrete obstacle in the reconstruction, rather than serving merely as historical background.

The Midwife Legend and Uncertainty

Roquentin considers the legend that Rollebon disguised himself as a midwife and travelled to the palace. The exemption offers a possible explanation for how someone might pass through the city after nine, but Roquentin frames the disguise as an absurd legend, not an established fact. He allows that Rollebon could have been capable of such a stratagem, while separating that possibility from what he regards as proved: Rollebon was not at home on the night of the assassination. The order thus sharpens the mystery without resolving it; it helps Roquentin pose the question of access, but cannot establish whether Rollebon used the exemption or took part in the killing.