Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

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the costume corresponded with this luxury. The boots, of fine Torjeck leather, embroidered with flowers in gold and silver thread, glittered at the feet of the rustic, who seemed dazzled with his own splendour, and was so perfumed that I was almost overcome with the essences exhaled from his hair, beard, and clothes, at the distance of several feet from the carriage.

After having drunk with the whole tavern, the young noble leant towards the man thus decked out, and presented him with a foaming cup, saying,' drink.' The poor, gilded mugie was, in his inexperience, at a loss how to act. ei Drink, I say,' continued his master (this was translated to me), ' drink, you rascal; it is not to you I give this champagne, but to уоггг horses, who will not have strength to gallop the whole jom*ney if the coachman is not drunk :' upon which the whole assembly laughed and loudly cheered. The coachman was soon persuaded : he was already in the third bumper when his master gave the signal to start, which he did not do till he had renewed to me, with a charming politeness, his regret at having been unable to persuade me to accompany him on this party of pleasure. He appeared so distingue, that, while he spoke, I forgot the place and scene, and fancied myself at Versailles in the time of Louis XIV.

At last he departed for the chateau, where he is to spend three days. These gentlemen call such an excursion a summer /ггг?г^.

We may easily guess how they relieve themselves in the country from the ennui of town life—by continuing the same thing ; by pursuing the same career ; by reviving the scenes of Moscow, except, at least,

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TAVERN CONVERSATION.

that they introduce upon them new figurantes. They cany with them, in these journeys, cargoes of engravings of the most celebrated pictures of France and Italy, which furnish them with subjects for tableaux vivants, which they cause to be represented with certain modifications of costume.

The villages, and all that they contain, are their own ; so that it may easily be supposed the privilege of the nobleman in Russia extends further than at the Opera Comique of Paris.

Thetavern, open to all the world, is situated

in one of the public squares of the city, a few steps only from a guard-house full of Cossacks, whose stiff bearing and severely gloomy air would impart to foreigners the idea of a country where no one dares to laugh even innocently.

As I have imposed upon myself the duty of communicating the ideas that I have formed of this land, I am obliged to add to the picture already sketched, a few new specimens of the conversation of the parties already brought before the reader.

One boasted of himself and his brothers being the sons of the footmen and the coachmen of their father ; and he drank, and made the guests drink, to the health of all his unknown parents. Another claimed the honour of being brother (on the father's side) of all the waiting-maids of his mother.

Many of these vile boasts are no doubt made for the sake of talking : but to invent such infamies in order to glory in them, shows a corruption of mind that proves wickedness to the very core—wickedness worse even than that exhibited in the mad actions oi' these libertines.

MORALS OF TIIE CITIZENS' WIVES.89

According to them, the citizens' wives in Moscow are no better than the women of rank.

During the months that their husbands go to the fair of Nijni, the officers of the garrison take special care not to leave the city. This is the seasou of easy assignations. The ladies are generally accompanied to the place of rendezvous by some ?`espectable relation, to whose care their absent husbands have confided them. The good-will and silence of these family duennas have also to be paid for. Gallantry of this kind cannot be excused as a love affair : there is no love without bashful modesty, — such is the sentence pronounced from all eternity against women who cheat themselves of happiness, and who degrade instead of purifying themselves by tenderness. The defenders of the Russians pretend that at Moscow the women have no lovers: I agree with them : some other term must be employed to designate the friends whose intimacy they seek in the absence of their husbands.

I repeat that I am disposed to doubt many things of this kind that are told to me ; but I cannot doubt that they are related pleasantly and complacently to the first newly-arrived foreigner; and the air of triumph of the narrator seems to say—wc also, you see, are civilised !

The more I consider these debauchees' manner of life, the more I wonder at the social position— to use the language of the day—which they here preserve, notwithstanding conduct that in any other land would shut all doors against them. I cannot tell how such notorious offenders are treated in their own families ; but I can testify that, in public, every one pays them

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LIBERTINISM

peculiar deference: their appearance is the signal for general hilarity; their company is the delight even of elderly men, who do not imitate them, but who certainly encourage them.

In observing the general reception which they receive, I ask myself what a person should here do to lose credit and character.

By a procedure altogether contrary to that observable among free people, whose manners become more puritanical, if not more pure, in proportion as democracy gains ground in the constitution, corruptness is here confounded with liberal institutions ; and distinguished men of bad character are admired as is with us a talented opposition or minority. The young Prince

did not commence his career as a libertine

until after finishing a three-years' exile at the Caucasus, where the climate ruined his health. It was immediately after leaving college that he incurred this penalty for having broken the window-panes of some shops in Petersburg. The government, having determined to see a political intention in this harmless riot, has, by its excessive severity, converted a hair-brained youth, while yet a child, into a profligate, lost to his country, his family, and himself.* Such are the aberrations into which despotism — that most immoral of governments—can drive the minds of men.

Here all revolt appears legitimate; revolt even against reason and against God! Where order is oppressive, disorder has its martyrs. A Lovelace, a Don Juan, or yet worse if it were possible, would be

* I have been assured, since my return to France, that he baa married, and is living a very orderly life.

THE FRUIT OF DESPOTISM.91