may be called a foolish simplicity, which perhaps it is; but T solace myself for such mental weakness by the recollection that its source is a mental virtue : my own good faith makes me believe in the sincerity of others, even in that of an emperor of Russia.
The beauty of his face is also another instrument of persuasion, for this beauty is moral as well as physical. I attribute its effect to the truth of his sentiments, yet more than to the regularity of his features. It was at a ball at the Duchess of Oldenburg's that I had this interesting conversation with the emperor. The fete was singular, and deserves describing.
The Duchess of Oldenburg, who was a princess of Nassau, is nearly allied, through her husband, to the emperor. She wished to give a soiree on the ocea-
274BAL CIIAMPETKE.
sion of the marriage of the Grand Duchess but being unable to excel the magnificence of the former fetes, or to vie with the splendours of the court, she conceived the idea of a bal ehampetre at her house in the Islands.
The Archduke of Austria, who arrived two days ago to be present at the festivities of Petersburg ; the ambassadors of the whole world (singular aetors in a pastoral); all Russia,and finally, all the high-born foreigners, gathered together to promenade with an air of innocent simplicity, in a garden where orchestras were concealed amon¤· the distant crc-ves.
The emperor prescribes the character of each fete : the direction for this day was, the elegant simplicity of Horace.
The humour of all minds, including even the
'VVe danced in the open air until eleven in the evening, and then, the heavy dews having sufficiently inundated the heads and shoulders of the women, young and old, who assisted at this triumph over the climate, we re-entered the little palace which forms the usual summer-residence of the Duchess of Oldenburg.
In the centre of the villa * was a rotunda, quite dazzling with gold and wax lights, in which the dancers continued their amusement, while the others wandered over the rest of the house, to which this bright rotunda formed, as it were, a central sun.
* In Russian, ' the datclia.'
FLOWERS IN RUSSIA.275
There presided throughout the fete, which, was smaller than the preceding ones, a species of splendid disorder that struck me more than the pomp of all the others. Without speaking of the comical constraint depicted on the countenances of certain parties who were obliged, for a time, to affect rural simplicity, it was a soiree altogether original, a species of Imperial Tivoli, where people felt themselves almost free, although in presence of an absolute master. The sovereign wdio enjoys himself seems no longer a despot, and this evening the emperor enjoyed himself.
The excessive heats of the present summer had fortunately favoured the design of the duchess» Her summer-house is situated in the most beautiful part of the Islands, and it was in the midst of a garden radiant with flowers (in pots), and upon an English grass-plot — another marvel here — that she had fixed her dancing saloon. This was a superb inlaid flooring, surrounded by elegant balustrades, richly embellished with flowers, and to which the sky served as ceiling. In Petersburg the luxury of rare flowers, reared in the hot-house, supplies the place of trees. Its inhabitants — men who have left Asia to imprison themselves among the snows of the north — recollect the oriental luxury of their earlier country, and do their best to supply the sterility of nature, which, left to herself, pi`oduces only pine and birch trees. Art raises here an infinite vai·iety of shrubs and plants; for as every tiling is artificial, it is just as easy to grow the exotic flowers of America as the violets and lilacs of France.
The empress, delicate as she is, danced, with her neck bare and her head uncovered, every polonaise
27GТПЕ FRIEND OF THE EMPRESS.
at this magnificent ball in the garden of her cousin. In Russia every body pursues his career to the limits of his powers. The duty of an empress is to amuse herself to death.
This German princess, the victim of a frivolity which must surely press as heavily as chains upon captives, enjoys in Russia a happiness rarely enjoyed in any land, or in any rank, and unexampled in the life of an empress— she has a friend. Of this lady,
the Baroness de , I have already spoken. She
and the empress, since the marriage of the latter, have scarcely ever been separated. The baroness, whose character is sincere, and whose heart is devoted, has not profited by her position. The man whom she has married is one of the officers in the army to whom the emperor is most indebted ; for the Baron
saved his life on the day of the revolt that
attended the accession to the throne, by exposing his own with a devotedness unprompted by interest. Nothing could be sufficient reward for such an act of courage, it has, consecpjently, gone unrewarded.
As the garden became dark, a distant music-answered to the orchestra of the ball, and harmoniously chased away the gloom of the night, a gloom too natural to these monotonous shades. The desert recommences on the Islands, where the pines and morasses of Finland adjoin the prettiest parks. An arm of the Neva flows slowly — for here all water appears stagnant — before the windows of the little princely house of the Duchess of Oldenburg. On this evening the water was covered with boats full of spectators, and the road also swarmed with pedestrians. A mixed crowd of citizens, who are as much, slaves
THE AUTHOR IN FAVOUR.277
as the peasants, and of work-people, all courtiers of courtiers, pressed among the carriages of the grandees to gaze on the livery of the master of their masters. The whole spectacle was striking and original. In Russia, the names are the same as elsewhere, but the tilings are altogether different. I often escaped from the throng of the ball to walk beneath the trees of the park, and muse on the melancholy that insinuates itself into the festivals of such a land. But my meditations were sho`t, for on this day the emperor seemed as though determined to keep possession of my mind. Was it because he had discovered in the bottom of my heart some prejudices little favourable towards him, though the result only of what I had heard before being presented; or did he find it amusing to converse for a few moments with one who differed from those that daily came in his way, or
was it that Madame de had created an influence
in his mind in my favour? I could not explain to my own satisfaction the cause of receiving so much honour.
The emperor is not only accustomed to command actions, he knows how to reign over hearts : perhaps he wished to conquer mine ; perhaps the ices of my shyness served to stimulate his self-love. The desire of pleasing is natural to him : to compel adnm`ation would still be to make himself obeyed. Perhaps he had a desire of trying his power on a stranger; perhaps, in short, it was the instinct of a man who had long lived deprived of the truth, and who believed he had for once met with a sincere character. I repeat, I was ignorant of his motives; but on that evening i could not stand before him, nor even place
