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

32

THE EMPRESS.

necessary to pursue this dreadful life, are not in favour.

The empress said to me the other day, in speaking of a very distinguished but delicate woman, ' She is always ill!' The tone and manner in which this was spoken convinced me that the fate of a family was decided. In a sphere where good intentions are not sufficient, an indisposition is equivalent to a disgrace.

The empress does not consider herself more excused than others from paying her personal court. She cannot for a moment bear that the emperor should leave her. Princes are made of iron ! This high-minded woman wishes, and at moments believes, herself free from human infirmities; but the total privation of physical and mental repose, the want of a continuous occupation, the absence of all solid conversation, the acquired necessity of excitement, all tend to nurse a fever which is sapping life. And this dreadful mode of existence has become as indispensable as it is fatal. She cannot now either abandon it or sustain it. Atrophy is feared, and, above all, the winter of Petersburg is dreaded; but nothing can induce her to pass six months away from the emperor.*

in observing her interesting though emaciated figure wandering like a spectre through a scene of festivity celebrated in her honour, and which she will perhaps never witness again, my heart sunk within me, and, dazzled as I may have been with human pomp and grandeur, I turned to reflect on

* The following year, the waters of Ems restored the health of the empress.

THE ILLUMINATIONS.

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the miseries to which our nature is exposed. Alas ! the loftier the height from which we fall, the severer is the shock. The great expiate in one day, even in this world, all the privations of the poor during a long life.

The inequality of conditions disappears under the levelling pressure of suffering. Time is but an illusion, which passion disperses. The intensity of the feeling, whether of joy or of grief, is the measure of the reality.

Persons, even of the highest elevation, act unwisely when they pretend to amuse themselves on any fixed day. An anniversary regularly celebrated only aids in more deeply impressing the mind with the progress of time, by suggesting comparison between the present and the past. The memories of the past, celebrated with rejoicings, always inspire us with a crowd of melancholy ideas, visions of vanished early youth, and prospects of declining life. At the return of each yearly fete we have ever some fewer joys, some increased sorrows, to contemplate. The change being so sad, were it not better to let the days fly past in silence ? Anniversaries are the plaintive voices of the tomb, the solemn echoes of time.

Yesterday, at the close of the ball, we supped: then almost melted, for the heat of the apartments in which the crowd was gathered was insupportable, we entered certain carriages belonging to the court, called lignes, and made the tour of the illuminations ; beyond the influence of which the night was very dark and cool. The incredible profusion of lights spread over the enchanted forest produced, however, within с 5

34

EUSSIAN WOMEN.

its shades an extraordinary heat, and we were warmed as well as dazzled.

The lignes are a species of carriage with double seats, on which eight persons can conveniently sit, back to back. Their shape, gilding, and the antkµie trappings of the horses impart to them an air of grandeur and originality.

Objects of luxury impressed with a really royal character are now rarely seen in Europe.

The number of these equipages is considerable. They form one of the magnificent displays of the fete of Peterhoff. There was room in them for all invited, except the serfs and citizens.

A master of the ceremonies had pointed out to me the ligne in which I was to ride, but in the disorder of the departure no one kept his place. I could neither find my servant nor my cloak, and at length was obliged to mount one of the last of the lignes, where I seated myself by the side of a Russian lady who had not been to the ball, but who had come from Petersburg to show the illumination to her daughters. The conversation of these ladies, who appeared to know all the families of the court, was frank, in which respect it differed from that of those connected with the palace. The mother immediately commenced conversing with me: her manner had that facility and good taste about it which discovered the woman of rank. I recognised in her conversation, as I had already done elsewhere, that when the Russian women are natural, mildness and indulgence towards others is not a prominent trait in their character. She named to me all the persons we saw passing us; for in this procession

A NIGHT RIDE IN THE FAKE.35

the train of lignes often divided and filed before each other at the crossings of the alleys.

If I were not afraid of wearying the reader, 1 should exhaust all the formul? of admiration in repeating that I have never seen any thing so extraordinary as this illuminated park, traversed in solemn silence by the carriages of the court, in the midst of a crowd as dense as was that of the peasants in the saloons of the palace a few minutes before.

We rode for about an hour among enchanted groves, and made the tom` of a lake situated at the extremity of the park, and called the lake of Marly. Versailles and all the magical creations of Louis XIV. haunted the imagination of the princes of Europe for more than a hundred years. It was at this lake of Marly that the illuminations appeared to me the most extraordinary. At the extremity of the piece of water, — I was going to say the piece of gold, so luminous and brilliant did it appear, — stands a house which was the residence of Peter the Great, and which was illuminated like the others. The water and the trees added singularly to the effect of the lights. We passed before grottoes, whose radiant interior was seen through a cascade of water falling over the mouth of the brilliant cavern. The imperial palace only was not illuminated, but its white walls became brilliant by the immense masses of light reflected upon them from all parts of the park.

This ride was unquestionably the most interesting

feature in the fete of the empress. But I again

repeat, scenes of magie splendour do not constitute

scenes of gaiety. No one here laughed, sung, or

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36 EEVIEW OF THE CORPS OP CADETS.