tombs of all her husbands, whom she begins to love passionately as soon as they are dead. She raises for them mausolea and chapels, weeps over their ashes, and covers their tombs with sentimental epitaphs ; in short, she renders to the dead an honour offensive to the living. The pleasure-grounds of this lady have thus become a real Pere La Chaise, with very little gloom about them for whoever has not, like the noble widow, a love of tombs and deceased husbands.
Nothing need surprise us in the way of false sensitiveness among a people who study elegance with the same precise minutia that others learn the art of war or of government. The following is an example of the grave interest the Russians take in the most puerile matters whenever they aifect them personally.
A descendant of ancient boyards, who was rich and elderly, lived in the country, not far from Moscow. A detachment of hussars was, with its officers, quartered in his house. It was the season of Easter, which the Russians celebrate with peculiar solemnity. All the members of a family unite with their friends
NOCTURNAL LESSONS IN ETIQUETTE. 247
and neighbours, to attend the mass, which on this festival is offered precisely at midnight.
The proprietor of whom I speak, being the most considerable person of the neighbourhood, expected a large assembly of guests on Easter-Eve, more especially as he had, that year, restored and greatly beautified his parish- church.
Two or three days before the feast, he was awakened by a procession of horses and carriages passing over a pier that led to his residence. This castle is, according to the usual custom, situated close upon the borders of a small sheet of water; the church rises on the opposite side, just at the end oi the pier, which serves as a road from the castle to the village.
Astonished to hear so unusual a noise in the middle of the night, the master of the house rose, and to his great surprise, saw from the window, by the light of numerous torches, a beautiful caleche drawn by four horses and attended by outriders.
He quickly recognised this new equipage, as well as the man to whom it belonged : he was one of the hussar officers lodged in his house, an individual who had been recently enriched by an inheritance, and had just purchased a carriage and horses, which had been brought to the castle. The old lord, upon seeing him parading in his open caleche, all alone, by night, in the midst of a deserted and silent country, imagined that he had become mad: he followed with his eyes the elegant procession, and saw it advance in good order towards the church, and stop before the door; where the owner gravely descended from the carriage, aided by his people, who crowded round to support the M 4
248GYPSIES AT THE FAIE.
young officer, although he, appearing quite as nimble as they, might have easily dispensed with their assistance.
Scarcely had he touched the ground, than, slowly and majestically, he re-entered his coach, took another turn on the pier, and came back again to the church, where he and his people recommenced the previous ceremony. This game was renewed until daybreak. At the last repetition, the officer gave orders to return to the castle without noise. A few minutes after, all were in their beds.
In the morning, the first question that the wondering owner of the house put to his guest, the captain of hussars, was, as to the meaning of his nocturnal ride, and of the evolutions of his people around his person. ' О ! nothing!' replied the officer, without the least embarrassment: 'my servants are novices; you will have much company at Easter; people are coming here from every quarter; I therefore merely thought it best to make a rehearsal of
I must now give an account of my departure from Nijni, which it will be seen was less brilliant than the nocturnal ride of the captain of hussars.
On the evening that I accompanied the governor to the empty Russian theatre, I met, after leaving him, an acquaintance who took me to the cafe of the gypsies, situated in the most lively part of the fair: it was nearly midnight, but this house was still full of people, noise, and light. The women struck me as being very handsome ; their costume, although in appearance the same as that of other Russian females, takes a foreign character when worn by them : there
THE VIRTUES OF OUTCASTS.249
is magic in their glances, and their features and attitudes are graceful, and at the same time imposing. In short, they resemble the sibyls of Michael Angelo.
Their singing is about the same as that of the gypsies at Moscow, but if any thing, I thought it yet more expressive, forcible, and varied. I am assured that they have much pride of character, that they have warm passions, yet are neither light nor mercenary, and that they often repel, with disdain, very advantageous offers.
The more I see, the more I am astonished at the remains of virtue in persons who are not virtuous. Individuals whose state is the most decried, are often, like nations degraded by their governments, full of great qualities, ill-understood; whilst, on the contrary, we are disagreeably surprised to discern weakness in people of high character, and a puerile disposition in nations said to be well governed. The conditions of human virtues are nearly always impenetrable mysteries to the mind of man.
The idea of rehabilitation, which I here only vaguely point out, has been laid open and defended, with all the power of talent, by one of the boldest minds of our own or any epoch. It seems as though Victor Hugo had sought to consecrate his theatre to revealing to the world all that remains of human, that is, of divine, in the souls of those creatures of God who are the most reprobated by society : this design is more than moral, it is religious. To extend the sphere of pity is to perform a pious work : the multitude is often cruel by levity, by habit, or by principle, but yet more often by mistake. To cure, if it be possible, the wounds of hearts ill-understood, M 5
250VISIT TO KAZAN ABANDONED.
without yet more deeply injuring other hearts also worthy of compassion, is to associate ourselves in the designs of Providence, and to enlarge the kingdom of heaven.
The night was far advanced when we left the gypsies; stormy clouds, which swept over the plain, had suddenly changed the temperature. The long, deserted streets of the fair were filled with ponds of water, through which our horses dashed without relaxing their speed ; fresh squalls, bringing over black clouds, announced more rain, and drove the water, splashed aside by the horses, in our faces.
This annoyance was the more disagreeable, as I had intended leaving on that very day for Kazan: I wished at least to set my foot in Asia; and with this view had engaged a boat to descend the Volga, whilst my feldjager had been directed to bring my carriage empty to Kazan, to convey me back to Nijni by land. However, my zeal had a little cooled after the governor of Nijni had proudly displayed to me plans and drawings of Kazan. It is still the same city from one end of Eussia to another: the great square, the broad streets, bordered with diminutive houses, the house of the governor, with ornamented
