finally moved to Paris later that year, and was tasked with continuing his legal studies. Upon relocation, the Beizadea became an honored guest of literary salons. It was in Paris that he began an affair with a female novelist, Gabrielle Anne "Countess Dash", who was 18 years his senior and married. One version of the story is that young Sturdza obtained from her a pledge that she would marry him and follow him to Moldavia. Other accounts claim that his father was informed of his matrimonial intentions, and recalled him to Iași before a wedding could take place. Beizadea Grigore returned to Moldavia in 1844. During March of the next year, his father appointed him as junior caretaker of the Moldavian schools, assigning him the task of supervising education reform and prevent egalitarian ideas from seeping in; Grigore never showed up to be sworn in. At the time, Dimitrie had been successfully recruited into the administration, serving as Hatman (commander general) of the princely militia. As reported by Girs, Prince Mihail allowed his other son a "ministry of his choice", but Grigore left immediately, "dissatisfied with the stipend that his father would allow him." Instead, he "decided to get rich quick" by combining investments in leasehold estates with a protection racket. Acting as a "feudal lord, under laws of his own creation", he also established a private army of Arnauts, threatening with physical harm all those who would oppose him, including judges. After a celebratory visit to Neamț Monastery, Grigore asked to be allowed an extended vacation on his father's estate of Perieni. In early 1845, he was joined there by Gabrielle Anne, having informed his father that they were to be married; Mihail advised him to wait. Grigore feared that this was an attempt at stalling. As reported by writer Constantin Negruzzi, who was a personal witness to the events, he held the Perieni priest at gunpoint, forcing him to perform a ceremony in his father's absence, and without his approval. Dash had been formally baptized into Eastern Orthodoxy (the Moldavian Metropolitan Church), taking the name of "Diana". Her baptism and wedding were reported to the Moldavian Metropolis, which proceeded to nullify the latter act, effective on May 9, and informed the Price of his son's doings. The national scandal which erupted turned international, once it became apparent that Countess Dash was a bigamist under French law. The French