town, was served with a hash of fattened chickens,
CHICKEN FKICASEES.249
which to his great astonishment he found excellent. Immediately the fricassee of Torjeck became celebrated throughout Russia.* The following is their origin. An unfortunate Frenchman had been well received and treated in this town by a female innkeeper. Before leaving he said to her, ' I cannot pay you, but I will make your fortune,' whereupon he showed her how to fricasee chickens. As good luck would have it, this precious recipe was, at least so it is said, first prepared for the Emperor. The innkeeper of Torjeck is dead; but her children have inherited her renown, and they maintain it.
Torjeck, when that town first breaks upon the view of the traveller, conveys the idea of a camp in the midst of an immense corn field. Its white houses, its towers and pavilion-shaped domes, remind him of the mosques and minarets of the East. Gilded turrets, round and square steeples, some ornamented with little columns, and all painted green or blue, announce the vicinity of Moscow. The land around is well cultivated. It is a plain covered with rye, which plain, though devoid of all other objects, [ greatly prefer to the sickly woods that have wearied my eyes for the last two days. The tilled earth is at any rate fertile, and the richness of a country will lead us to forgive its want of picturesque beauty ; but a tract that is sterile, and yet possesses none of the majesty of the wilderness, is of all others the most tedious to travel over.
* There is nothing which an Emperor of Russia could not bring into fashion in his country. At Milan, if the viceroy patronises an actor or singer, the reputation of the artist is at once lost, and he is hissed unmercifully. M 5
250
A DOUBLE ROAD.
I had forgotten to mention a singular object which struck me at the commencement of the journey.
Between Petersburg and Novgorod, I remarked, for several successive stages, a second road that ran parallel to the principal highway, though at a considerable distance from it. It was furnished with bridges and every thing else that could render it safe and passable, although it was much less handsome, and less smooth than the grand route. I asked the keeper of a post-house the meaning of this singularity, and was answered, through my feldjager, that the smaller road was destined for waggons, cattle, and travellers, when the Emperor, or other members of the imperial family, proceeded to Moscow. The dust and obstructions that might incommode or retard the august travellers, if the grand route remained open to the public, were thus avoided. I cannot tell whether the innkeeper was amusing himself at my expense, but he spoke in a very serious manner, and seemed to consider it very natural that the sovereign should engross the road in a land where the sovereign is every thing. The king who said, '
In France, maimers and customs have in every age rectified political institutions; in Russia the harshness of the institutes is increased in their application, so that, there, the consequences are worse than the principles.
THE COUNTESS 0'DONNELL.251
THE COUNTESS 0`DONNELL. BOY COACHMEN. THE ROAD.
GRACEFULNESS OF THE PEOPLE. DRESS OF THE WOMEN.
THE SEE-SAW. —BEAUTY OF THE FEMALE PEASANTS.—RUSSIAN
COTTAGES.CUSTOMS OF THE SERFS.DEVOUT THIEVES. —
WANT OF PRINCIPLE IN THE HIGHER CLASSES. FEMALE POLI
TICIANS.DOMESTIC HAPPINESS OF THE SERFS. — CASUISTICAL
REFLECTIONS. — CONNECTION OF THE CHURCH AND STATE.
ABOLITION OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF MOSCOW.— FUNDAMENTAL
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECTS AND A MOTHER CHURCH.— HISTORY
OF A FOALTHE AUTHOR INJURED BY THE MORAL ATMO
SPHERE. NATIONAL MORAL RESPONSIBILITY.DREAM OF A
WAKING MAN. FIRST VIEW OF THE VOLGA. SPAIN AND
RUSSIA COMPARED. — DEWS OF THE NORTl·l.
Alas ! without fearing henceforward to compromise her by addressing to her my opinions of the singular country I am describing, hers is the only name that will appear among the letters that I publish.
It is the name of one of the most amiable and most intellectual women I have ever known ; a woman, the most worthy of inspiring, and the most capable of feeling a true friendship. She knew how, at the same time, vigorously tto fortify and gently to embellish the life of her friends: her intellect inspired her with the wisest counsels, her heart dictated the most lofty and energetic resolutions, while the liveliness' of her wit rendered life pleasant to the most unhappy who approached her.
An avowed enemy of all affectation, she nevertheless bore M 6
252THE COUNTESS 0?ONNELL.
with weakness ; she used with discernment the arms with which her natural penetration supplied her ; she was just, even in the exercise of her wit; she ridiculed only the absurdities that were avoidable. Endowed with a judgment that was strong, although exempt from all pedantry, she rectified the prejudices of others with an address the more efficacious because well concealed. But for the sincerity of sentiment which influenced her in this benevolent work, her skilfulness and her delicacy of feeling might have been taken for art; but that art was the art of kindness and benevolence ; she employed it to correct the faults and to redress the wrongs of others, without wounding the feelings of any.
When she believed it her duty, she could say severe truths, yet without injuring self-love : for, in her, frankness was felt as a proof of friendship. All that she showed of her character was agreeable, all that she concealed inspired attachment.
So rare a union of opposite qualities — so much solidity of character, liveliness of disposition, and kindness of heart — so happy a combination of sense and of gaiety, made her one of the models of those Frenchwomen who, with strong energy of character, concealed under graces of which they alone possess the secret, ai`e, according to the influence of circumstances, fascinating coquettes or real heroines. It is revolutions which test the hearts, and which bring to light the hidden virtues.
Naturally obliging, she was happier in the good that she did, than in the services that were rendered to her; and yet — rarely seen faculty!—she had carried the delicacy of friendship to the point of knowing how to receive as well as to give ; in other words, she had attained the perfection of sentiment.
Watching closely over her friends without ever wearying them by her solicitude, always severe with herself and patient towards others, resigned to their imperfections as to necessity, concealing, with a care precisely the
