engaged in diplomacy, but was perceived as a diplomat; the deception was supported by the facts that he often travelled abroad and met foreign dignitaries without apparent restrictions. Secrecy was compensated with generous payouts, for example in 1830 Nicholas I authorised a bonus payment of 1000 golden ducats; Schilling's subordinates received lesser, but still substantial rewards. Work at the Cipher Branch left plenty of time for unrelated research, from studying Tibetan scriptures to developing electrical telegraph, which became Schilling's best known work. Schilling set up an electrical engineering workshop in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and recruited Moritz von Jacobi from Dorpat University to act as his assistant there. In 1828 Schilling was made a State Councillor and he became a corresponding member of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In May 1830, he was sent on a two-year reconnaissance mission to the Russo-Chinese frontier. He returned to St. Petersburg in March 1832, bringing with him a valuable collection of documents in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and other languages. These were deposited in the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Some of these documents were obtained in exchange for a demonstration of the small telegraph apparatus Schilling had carried with him. Back in St. Petersburg, Schilling returned to developing a telegraph. There were plans to put it into service, but Schilling died before these could be completed. Decline and death Schilling's state of health deteriorated through the 1830s. He was morbidly obese, and by 1835 suffered pains of unknown nature. He requested permission to travel to Europe for medical help, and with the help of Nesselrode secured the tsar's written consent that was actually an order for an industrial espionage mission, in areas from telegraphy to charcoal kilns. In September 1835 Schilling attended a conference in Bonn, as instructed by Nicholas I, and delivered his telegraph set to Georg Wilhelm Muncke. Upon return to Saint Petersburg, he conducted further experiments in telegraphy. In 1836 he briefly appeared at Andreas von Ettingshausen's laboratory in Vienna, researching new insulation materials. In May 1837 Schilling received instructions to draw a budget for a telegraph line connecting Peterhof with Kronstadt, and to begin preliminary field work. By this time he experienced regular pain caused by a tumour. Doctor Nicholas Arendt, his childhood friend from Kazan years, now Life Medic to the tsar, performed a surgery that did not help.