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

The chief turnkey of the empire proceeded slowly to examine the vessel. At length this perfumed Cerberus, for he scented of musk at the distance of a league, released us from the ceremonies attending an entree into Russia, and we were soon under weigh, to the great joy of the princes and princesses, who were going to rejoin their families. Their pleasure belied the observation of my host in Lubeck ; as for me, I could not partake in it: on the contrary, I regretted quitting their delightful society to go and lose myself in a city whose vicinity was so uninviting. But the charm of that society was already broken : as we drew towards the end of our journey the ties which had united us became severed—fragile ties, formed only by the passing requirements of the voyage.

The women of the North know wonderfully well how to make us believe that they would have desired to meet with that which destiny has brought in their way. This is not falsehood, it is refined coquetry, a species of complaisance towards fate, and a supreme grace. Grace is always natural, though that does not prevent its being often used to hide a lie. The rude shocks and uncomfortably constraining influences of life disappear among graceful women and poetical men ; they are the most deceptive beings in creation; distrust and doubt cannot stand before them; they create what they imagine ; if they do not lie to others, they do to their own hearts ; for illusion is their element, fiction their vocation, and G 3

126CHARACTER OF WORLDLY PLEASURE.

pleasures in appearance their happiness. Beware of grace in woman, and poetry in man — weapons the more dangerous because the least dreaded !

Such were my thoughts on leaving the Avails of Kronstadt: Ave were still all together, but Ave Avere no longer united. That circle, animated, but the previous evening, by a secret harmony Avhich rarely exists in society, now lacked its vital principle. Few things had ever appeared to me more melancholy than this sudden change. I acknowledged it as the condition attached to the pleasures of the world, I had foreseen it, I had submitted a hundred times to the same experience; but never before did it enlighten me in so abrupt a manner. Besides, what annoyances are more painful than those of which we cannot complain ? I saw each individual about to re-enter his oavu path ; the free interchange of feeling Avhich unites those travelling together to the same goal no longer existed among them; they Avere returning into real life, Avhilst I Avas left alone to wander from place to place. To be ever Avandering is scarcely to live. I felt myself abandoned, and I compared the cheerlessness of my isolation to their domestic pleasures. Isolation may be voluntary, but is it on this account any the more sweet ? At the moment, everything appeared to me preferable to my independence, and I regretted even the cares of domestic life. I could read in the eyes of the Avomen the thoughts of husband, children, milliners, hairdressers, the ball, and the court; and I could ec?ually read there, that, notwithstanding the protestations of yesterday, I was no longer an object of concern to them. The people of the North have changeable

FICKLENESS OF NORTHERN PEOPLE. 127

hearts ; their affections, like the faint rays of their sun, are always dying. Remaining fixedly attached neither to persons nor to things—willingly quitting the land of their birth—born for invasions—these people appear as though merely destined to sweep down from the pole, at the times and epochs appointed by God, in order to temper and refresh the races of the South, scorched by the fires of heaven and of their passions.

On arriving at Petersburg, my friends, favoured by their rank, were speedily liberated from their floating prison, in which they left me bound by the irons of the police and the eustom-house, without so much as bidding me adieu. Where would have been the use of adieus ? I was as dead to them. AYhat are travellers to mothers of families ? Not one cordial word, not one look, not one thought was bestowed on me. It was the white curtain of the magie lantern, after the shadows have passed. I repeat that I had expected this denouement, but I had not expected the pain which it caused me ; so true it is that within ourselves exists the source of all our unforeseen emotions.

Only three days before landing, two of our fair and amiable travellers had made me promise to visit them in Petersburg, where the court is now assembled.

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128APPROACH TO PETERSBURG

CHAP. VIII.

APPROACH TO PETERSBURG BY THE NEVA.INCONGRUITY BETWEEN

THE CLIMATE AND ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY AND THE STYLE OF

ARCHITECTURE.ABSURD IMITATION OF THE MONUMENTS OF

GREECE. — THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AND POLICE. INQUISITORIAL

EXAMINATION. DIFFICULTIES OF LANDING. APPEARANCE OF

THE STREETS. STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT. THE WINTER

PALACE REBUILT IN ONE YEARTHE MEANS EMPLOYED.

RUSSIAN DESPOTISM. CITATION FROM HERBERSTEIN. KA-

RAMSIN.— THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE ACCORDS WITH THAT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

The streets of Petersburg present a strange appearance to the eyes of a Frenchman. I will endeavour to describe them; but I must first notice the approach to the city by the Neva. It is much celebrated, and the Russians are justly proud of it, though I did not find it equal to its reputation. When, at a considerable distance, the steeples begin to appear, the effect produced is more singular than imposing. The hazy outline of land, which may be perceived far off between the sky and the sea, becomes, as you advance, a little more unequal at some points than at others: these scarcely perceptible irregularities are found on nearer approach to be the gigantic architectural monuments of the new capital of Russia. We first begin to recognise the Greek steeples and the gilded cupolas of convents ; then some modern public buildings — the front of the Exchange, and the white colonnades of the colleges, museums, barracks, and palaces which border the quays of granite, become discernible. On

BY THE NEVA.129

entering the city, you pass some sphinxes, also of granite. Their dimensions are colossal and their appearance imposing; nevertheless these copies of the antique have no merit as works of art. A city of palaces is always magnificent, but the imitation of classic monuments shocks the taste when the climate under which these models are so inappropriately placed is considered. Soon, however, the stranger is struck with the form and multitude of turrets and metallic spires which rise in every direction : this at least is national architecture. ' Petersburg is flanked with numbers of large convents, surmounted by steeples ; pious edifices, which serve as a rampart to the profane city. The Russian churches have preserved their primitive appearance ; but it is not the Russians who invented that clumsy and capricious Byzantine style, by which they are distinguished. The Greek religion of this people, their character, education, and history, alike justify their borrowing from the Lower Empire ; they may be permitted to seek for models at Constantinople, but not at Athens. Viewed from the Neva, the parapets of the quays of Petersburg are striking and magnificent; but the first step after landing discovers them to be badly and unevenly paved with flints, which are as disagreeable to the eye as inconvenient to the feet and ruinous to the wheels. The prevailing taste here is the brilliant and the striking: spires, gilded and tapering like electric conductors ; porticoes, the bases of which almost disappear under the water; squares, ornamented with columns which seem lost in the immense space that surrounds them; antique statues, the character and attire of which so ill accord with the G 5