great table, he passed round behind our chairs, all the
while desiring that we should remain seated. The
Hereditary Grand-duke accompanied his father; I
observed this young prince stop behind the chair of a
gi`eat English nobleman, the Marquis, and ex
change some jest with the young Lord, son of
238NIGHT-SCENE IN THE NOIITH.
the same marquis. The foreigners remained seated, like every body else, before the prince and the emperor, answered them with their backs turned, and continued eating.
This exhibition of English politeness shows that the Emperor of Russia has greater plainness of manners than have many of the owners of private houses.
I had scarcely expected to find at this ball a pleasure altogether foreign to the persons and objects around. I allude to the impressions which the great phenomena of nature have always produced in me. The temperature of the day had risen to 50 degrees, and notwithstanding the freshness of the evening, the atmosphere of the palace during the fete was suffocating. On rising from table I took refuge in the embrasure of an open window. There, completely abstracted from all that passed around, I was suddenly struck with admiration at beholding one of those effects of light which we see only in the north, during the magic brightness of a polar night. It was half-past twelve o'clock, and the nights having yet scarcely begun to lengthen, the dawn of day appeared already in the direction of Archangel. The wind had fallen : numerous belts of black and motionless clouds divided the firmament into zones, each of which was irradiated with a light so brilliant, that it appeared like a polished plate of silver; its lustre was reflected on the Neva, to whose vast and un-rippled surface it gave the appearance of a lake of milk or of mother- of-pearl. The greater part of Petersburg, with its quays and its spires, was, under this light, revealed before my eyes; it was a perfect
INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPRESS.239
composition of Breughel's. The tints of the picture cannot be described by words. The domes of the church of Saint Nicholas stood in the relief of lapis lazuli against a sky of silver; the illuminated portico of the Exchange, whose lamps were partially quenched by the dawning day, still gleamed on the water of the river, and was reflected — a peristyle of gold: the rest of the city was of that blue which we see in the distances of the landscapes of the old painters. This fantastic picture, painted on a ground of ultramarine, and framed by a gilded window, contrasted, in a manner that was altogether supernatural, with the light and splendour of the interior of the palace. It might have been said that the city, the sky, the sea and the whole face of nature had joined in contributing to the magnificence of the fete given to his daughter by the sovereign of these immense regions.
I was absorbed in the contemplation of the scene, when a sweet and penetrating female voice suddenly aroused me with the question —' What are you doing here ? '
' Madame, I am indulging in admiration. I can do nothing else to-day.;'
It was the empress. She stood alone with me in the embrasure of the window, which was like a pavilion opening on the Neva.
i? As for me, I am suffocating,' replied her majesty. 'It is less poetical, I admit; but you are right in admiring this picture; it is magnificent!' Continuing to contemplate it, she added—
240INTERVIEW WITH ТПЕ EMriiESS.
'Every thing that I see is new to me, Madame; and I can never cease to regret that I did not come to Russia in my youth.'
I ventured no answer; for the empress, as well as myself, had no longer any other youth but that of which she spake — of which fact I did not wish to remind her; she would not have given me the time, nor, indeed, should I have had the boldness to tell her how many indemnifications may be found to console us for the flight of years. On retiring she said, with a grace which is her distinguishing attribute — Ci I shall recollect having suffered and admired with you : ' and she afterwards added, ' I do not leave yet; we shall meet again this evening.'
I am very intimate with a Polish family, which is that of the woman whom the empress loves best —=
the Baroness . This lady was brought up in
Prussia with the daughter of the king, has followed that princess to Russia, and has never quitted her. She has married in Petersburg, where she has no other office but that of friend to the empress. Such constancy is honourable to both. The baroness must have been speaking well of me to the emperor and empress, and my natural timidity—a flattery so much the more refined as it is involuntary—has completed my good fortune.
On leaving the supper saloon, to pass into the ball room, I again approached a window. It opened into the interior court of the palace. A spectacle was there presented to me very different, but quite as unexpected as the former. The grand court of the winter palace is square, like that of the Louvre. During
RUSSIAN CROWDS.241
the ball, this enclosure had been gradually filling with people. The light of the dawning day had become more distinct; and in looking on the multitude, mute with admiration, motionless, fascinated as it were by the splendours of its master's palace, and drinking in, with a sort of timid animal delight, the emanations of the royal festival, I experienced an impression of pleasure. At last, then, I had found a crowd in Russia : I saw nothing below me but men ; and so close was the press that not an inch of earth could be discovered. Nevertheless, in despotic lands, the diversions of the people, when they approach those of the prince, always appear to me suspicious. The fear and flattery of the low, and the pride and hypocritical generosity of the great, are the only sentiments which I can believe to be genuine among men who live under the regime of the Russian autocracy. In the midst of the fetes of Petersburg I cannot forget the journey of the Empress Catherine into the Crimea, and the facades of villages, made of planks or painted canvass, and set up in the distance at every quarter league of the route, in order to make the triumphant sovereign believe that the desert had become peopled under her reign. Л spirit similar to that which dictated these illusions still possesses the minds of the Russians; every one masks the evil, and obtrudes the good in the eyes of his imperial master. There is a permanent conspiracy of smiles, plotting against the truth, in favour of the mental satisfaction of him who is reputed to will and to act for the good of all. The emperor is the only man in the empire who lives; for eating and drinking is not living.
VOL, Г.M
242KEMABKS ON ТПЕ RUSSIANS.
It must be owned, however, that the people remained there voluntarily; nothing appeared to compel them to come under the windows of the emperor : they were amusing themselves, therefore, but it was only with the pleasures of their masters; and, as Froissart says,
