who does not wish to pass the night on a seat, or on the floor. TVe carry our beds here as we woidd our cloaks in Spain.
* In the village there are only a small number ol` dirty houses, in which the rooms are let at the rate of 200 to 500 roubles per night.
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GRAVITY OF ТПЕ PEOPLE.
For want of straw, which is a rare thing in a region that grows no wheat, my mattrass is filled with hay.
In any other country, so great an assemblage of people would produce overwhelming noise and disturbance. In Russia every thing passes with gravity, every thing takes the character of a ceremony ; to see so many young persons united together for their pleasure, or for that of others, not daring either to laugh, to sing, to quarrel, to play, or to dance, one might imagine them a troop of prisoners about to proceed to their destination. That which is wanted in all I see here is not, assuredly, grandeur or magnificence, nor even taste and elegance : it is gaiety. Gaiety cannot be compelled; on the contrary, com-pulsion makes it fly, just as the line and the level destroy the picturesque in scenery. I see only in Russia that which is symmetrically correct, which carries with it an air of command and regulation ; but that which would give a value to this order, variety, from whence springs harmony, is here unknown.
The soldiers at their bivouac are subjected to a more severe discipline than in their barracks. Such rigour, in time of peace, in the open field, and on a day of festival, reminds me of the remark of the Grand Duke Constantine. ' I do not like war,' he said ; ' it spoils the soldiers, dirts their uniforms, and destroys discipline.'
The prince did not give all his reasons for disliking war, as is proved by his conduct in Poland.
On the day of the ball and the illumination, Ave repaired to the imperial palace at seven o'clock. The courtiers, the ambassadors, the invited foreigners, and the
BALL AT THE IMPERIAL PALACE. 29
ments without any prescribed order. All the men, except the mugics, who wore their national costume, and the citizens who were robed in the cafetan, carried the tabarro, or Venetian mantle above their uniform, which wTas a strictly enforced regulation, this fete being called a masked ball.
We remained a considerable time, much pressed by the crowd, waiting for the appearance of the emperor and his family. As soon as this sun of the palace began to rise, the space opened before him, and, followed by his splendid
The noble aspect of the monarch, whose head rose above all heads, awed this agitated sea into respect. It reminded me of the Xeptune of Virgil; — he could not be more an emperor than he is. He danced, during two or three successive hours, polonaises with the ladies of his family and court. This dance was on former occasions no more than a cadenced and ceremonious march, but on the present, it was a real movement to the sound of music.
The emperor and his cortege wound, in a surprising manner, through the crowd, which, without foreseeing the direction he was about to take, always gave way in time, so as never to incommode the progress of the monarch.
He spoke to several of the men robed and bearded
30A DISASTER AT THE FETE.
it became dark, the illuminations, of which I have already spoken, commenced.
We had expected, during a great part of the day, that, owing to the weather, they would not have taken place. About three o'clock, while at dinner in the English palace, a squall of wind passed over Peterhoff, violently agitated the trees, and strewed the park with their branches. While coolly watching the storm, we little thought that the sisters, mothers, and friends of crowds seated at the same table with us were perishing on the water, under its terrible agency. Our thoughtless curiosity was approaching to gaiety at the very time that a great number of small vessels, which had left Petersburg for Peterhoff, were foundering in the gulf. It is now admitted that two hundred persons were drowned ; others say fifteen hundred or two thousand : no one knows the truth, and the journals will not speak of the occurrence ; this would be to distress the empress, and to accuse the emperor.
The disaster was kept a secret during the entire evening, nothing transpired until after the fete ; and this morning the court neither appears more nor less sad than usual. There, etiquette forbids to speak of that which occupies the thoughts of all; and even beyond the palace, little is said. The life of man in this country is such as to be deemed of trifling importance even by themselves. Each one feels his existence to hang upon a thread.
Every year accidents, similar, although less extensive, cast a gloom over the fete of Peterhoff, which would change into an act of deep mourning, a solemn funeral, if others, like me, thought upon all that this
THE EMPRESS.
31
magnificence costs. But here, I am the only one who reflects. Yesterday, superstitious minds were presented with more than one gloomy prognostic. The weather, which had been fine for three weeks, changed upon the birthday of the empress. The image of that princess would not light up. The man charged with superintending this essential part of the illumination, ascended to the summit of the pyramid, but the wind extinguished his lamps as quickly as he lighted them. He reascended several times ; at length his foot slipped, and he fell from a height of seventy feet, and was killed on the spot.
The shocking thinness of the empress, her air of languor, the diminished lustre of her eye, rendered these presages more ominous. Her life, like n disease, may be said to be mortal: fetes and balls every evening ! There is no choice here but that of dying of amusement, or of ennui.
For the empress as well as the zealous courtiers, the spectacle of parades and reviews commences early in the morning. These are always followed by some receptions ; the empress then retires for a quarter of an hour, after which she rides out in her carriage for two hours. She next takes a bath before again going out on horseback. Returned a second time, she has some more visiters to receive : this over, she proceeds to inspect certain useful institutions superintended by herself, or by some of those honoured with her intimacy. From thence she follows the emperor to the camp : there being always one somewhere near. They return to dance; and thus her days, her years, and her life arc consumed.
Those who have not the courage or the strength С 4
