The author met another of this cele- and elegant Miss Rigby, and Herr Kohl, brated trio in St. Petersburg-the Princess her contemporary observer. The intoxYousoupow, we imagine, though he names ication of imperial favor hardly reconciles neither lady. She was the most decided the courtier to abide in her; nor the excard-player of the day, and her voice rose citement of conquest, the reigning beauty above the multitude as she scolded her of her brilliant winter: and the very Mougik partner most furiously.' who plies in her streets, longs only for the After a winter spent at Odessa, (it was hour which shall enable him to get back during the last Turkish war,) our author to his distant province, and astonish his took leave of the family to which he was at- kindred with stories of the marvels of tached, repaired to St. Petersburg-destin- Piet.' She is by turns a huge paradeed to be his residence for fourteen years-ground-a court-a fair-a bazar-any and launched into public practice. The thing but a civilized and refined city-a hints which he gives of his professional vast hive of men, in which families have career are vague, and evidently dropped their home from generation to generation, with caution; nor would it be easy to find and in which local attachments, and local out, from his narrative alone, whether he habits, become as indelible features as its had made a fortune or barely paid his ex- climate and scenery. The aspect of expenses. All we learn is, that he was much ternal things is as wearisome as that of sodisappointed in the first instance, chiefly ciety itself. The eye vainly seeks for refrom finding that letters of professional lief from the interminable perspective of credit, drawn by friends on the shores of leagues of wide street, whether bordered the Black Sea, were not always accepted by rows of dull wooden huts or palaces. on their presentment in the capital; partly equally dull:-'huge public buildings, from the Polish revolution, which cut deep monuments, churches with gilded cupolas, into the foreign connection he had formed. all in clean shirts, or as of yesterday's Afterwards, the same opportunities occur- creation.' The heavens are as monotonred to him which occur to all men in their ous as the earth-even darkness would be turn who have patience-the cure of a a relief, and darkness is not be had--the princess's headache; the retirement of the only change is from the 'sleepless summer most popular physician among the English of long light,' to the glimmering snow-blink residents, to whose practice he, in a great of the winter. measure, succeeded; newer faces and newer remedies:-homeopathy and hydropathy. But why he stayed, or why he left, is not very distinctly revealed to the curious reader. "We understand the meaning of the word darkness in this country; and I would, nevertheless, prefer obscureness, as a word of more accurate signification. Candles are lit up at day-light at ten A. M. in the month of Novemhalf-past two P. M., and one cannot shave by ber; and yet no inhabitant of Petersburg can appreciate the terms, 'dark as pitch,'-'I could not distinguish my horses' ears,'-'I could not see my hand,'-all terms, and not exaggerated ones, expressive of the darkness of a night in England. At no season, not even on the shortest day, does such darkness prevail. The ground, covered by a bed of snow, reflects its spangled light; the clouds are high above, and few in number; the stars shine bright in the firmament. It is true that this half-obscure serves for no purpose, as far as the economy of artificial light is concerned; but it is equally true that here we do not appreciate the meaning of utter darkness. Fourteen years in the Russian metropolis could not pass without 'heur et malheur: the Doctor met with both; yet, on the whole, like a man of sense, he appears to regard his lot as a good one. But it is clear, notwithstanding all his efforts to repay hospitality by gracious expressions, and the testimony which he bears, in common with all other unprejudiced visitors, to the great fund of good-nature and goodhumor combined, which forms the basis of the Russian character, that he left St. Petersburg a wearied man-happy to turn his back on the modern Palmyra. It is so with all strangers in that capital; and not "The moon, the moon,-the light of Sylvia, with strangers only. The proud mistress how she streams upon us for ten successive of the north is the coldest and most un- hours, and mischievously bites off our noses in amiable of beauties. Her magnificence the winter months!-- for cold and moonlight freezes the spectator-her monotonous ma- are then inseparable. He who hath not seen Pejesty palls on his imagination. Je déteste Petersburg by moonlight hath something yet to tersbourg, is the common exclamation of natives and foreigners, whether their experiment of residence has been short or long-so say the intelligent, judicious, see. Yes, it is when the moon is seen climbing over its domes and minarets, that one is recon ciled to the idea of a deserted city. It is this separation of the inanimate from the animate which gives it this peculiar interest. Dazzling istence. when deprived of these attributes? It is, as Falstaff would say, 'to be merry upon compulsion.' What would he have said to the recent seven days of "Stepney fair" affording hardly a police case? Is England, too, becoming centralized into de corous dulness under Sir Robert Peel's machinery? as it may appear, lit up by the beams of a me- subject of complaint with all foreigners: ridian sun, its magnificence then involves the idea even Germans, overrun as their country is of its population; but this in no wise tallies with with every variety of the species magistrate, the magnitude of its buildings, so that the admiration of the grandeur of the one is checked by the quarrel with the restraints of Russian exinsignificance of the other. But when, in the dead Even the carnival, according to our phyof night, when all may be supposed to be asleep -when the mind may imagine that the noonday sician, is not so gay as it ought to be. bustle shall be worthy of the inanimate struc-"There is something too military in the tures which now shine resplendent in the soft-tout-ensemble; no scuffle, no fight, no hustle, ened light of the watery moonbeam-then, left no uproarious laughter, no jolly tar with to solitary contemplation, free from the influence his lass and bludgeon. And what is fun of any outward impression which may destroy its fairy and ideal form, then the city of the Czars offers a spectacle which perhaps few or none can equal. It has then something of antiquity in its appearance. Its colossal buildings lit up by the reflected moonbeam, we see but their form only, without having sufficient light to scan their features. The buildings may be of stone or marble, and rival, for aught we know, the Eternal City in their age. Viewed from an elevation, extending along a wide ex- A terrible story is told of the conflagratent of horizon, and flanked by massive build- tion of a booth at the carnival, where more ings of monastic form, the town rises with its than a hundred persons were burnt and gilded spires and spangling cupolas from out a suffocated; owing, according to the aulevel plain. We see not by the faint moonlight, thor, to the interference of the police, who that the intervening spaces between these large structures are not filled up. The wide and prevented some carpenters from opening straight streets allow not the eye to reach the an outlet with their axes for the miserable tapering perspective point in the distance. Some bridge or object interposes ere the long alley dwindle to a point. The surface of the ground is one white spangling carpet. The river flows not to the sight: the voice of the boatman is not heard, and his oar plies not. Some solitary chime indicates the hour. The moon descending in her course, leaves some tower in the shade. All contributes to heighten the feelings of admiration which this hour inspires. The day breaks, and dispels much of the illusion, revealing that to be brick and plaster which to our midnight contemplation appeared stone and marble. Now time and duration vanish-the whole but of yesterday's creation, and nothing which guarantees futurity. The imagination, which had deceived itself into a past, is now disenchanted. The light of day discovers plains and wastes in the centre of a habitable city. The inhabitants, thinly scattered or lost over a wide extended surface, fail to enliven its streets. And what say those edifices to us which form its grandeur? None of the vis admonitionis in locis-the sine nomine saxum,-the history of a century—a town which we see upon the stage, called into existence by harlequin's wand, which can again say depart-still a great city -the triumph of art over nature, and yet in its cradle."-Vol. ii. p. 239. The monotony of life corresponds with that of its outward aspect. All the dash and daring of the Russian aristocracy seem tamed down by the overpowering presence of the sovereign; and the rest of society is as regular as a garrison, and as completely under military regulation. The universal interference of the police is the sufferers. He was partly an eyewitness of the scene. Herr Kohl, who describes the same dreadful occurrence very minutely, corroborates this part of the story. Few events seem to have made such an impression, as far as any can be made, in the great Babylons of modern days. Almost an equally frightful instance of the manner in which this kind of interference is apt to defeat its own ends occurred some years ago, in a great catastrophe on the CzarskoeSeloe rail-road ;-the only instance of that particular variety of accident, the collision of two trains meeting on the same line, which we remember to have heard of since this new 'peril of man' has become known. "The line is single, and there is a half way house, where the trains meet and turn off at an elbow formed for the purpose; they pass each other at this spot; and as, under all circumstances, one train must wait till the other arrives, no accident could be anticipated. The trains left the two terminuses at the same hour; and as their velocity cateris paribus was equal, they had seldom to wait long for each other. The hours of departure were fixed and known; but when there were a great many passengers additional trains were added for the accommodation of the public. The last train was about to leave Czarskoe-Seloe when the managing ceed with all possible speed to St. Petersburg, director for the day ordered the engineer to proand not to stop at the half way house for the other train, which he might arrive in time to countermand. "The man obeyed orders. It was a general who gave them. It unfortunately happened that | "He was a merchant of great respectability, the engineer at the opposite extremity had also and was attached to a Russian lady. No imobeyed orders, and put his train in motion at the pediment offered itself except the one which preusual time; so that the two opposite trains came vents the union of people of different religions, together upon a dark night at full speed upon a and as a foreigner and Protestant, he met with single line. The shock was terrific. The car- much difficulty in obtaining permission. As he riages were thrown up into the air. It required had a friend at court who could gain the imperial hours to dig out the mangled corpses. It is sur-ear, he was commissioned to apply to the founprising that only six lives were lost; but many tain-head. It was necessary to await a seasonpersons were dreadfully lacerated, and died sub-able opportunity, a good-humored moment, sequently of their wounds. which grants every thing, and then to strike. When the English engineer found that there This opportunity occurred, and it was in the afwas no possibility of preventing the concussion, ternoon. Your Majesty,' said the petitioner, he jumped off the engine to save his own life.will permit me to inform you, that one of my This was interpreted a breach of duty, and he countrymen is in great distress.' 'How? rewas incarcerated for nine months."-Vol. iii. plied his Majesty, an Englishman in distress? p. 44. What is it? Let me know; if I can remedy it, depend upon it; what help does he require?" No, your Majesty, it is not that, but he wishes to marry a Russian, and the clergy will not celebrate his marriage.' 'How so? let him be married immediately, (seechass.) I will give the order instantly; and in five minutes the imperial signature permitted the nuptials to be celebrated. Now, it must be recollected, that in Russia a permission of the sovereign is a bonâ dealer's name, and, immediately succeeding, the fide order; and there is this advantage in desnumber. These numbers require explanation. done, it is done sometimes. The imperial signapotic governments, that when a thing is to be The Emperor Paul possessed a creative power: ture authorizes at 5 P. M. the marriage of Mr. when he said 'Let a thing be done,' it was and Miss B. At 6 P. M. this order done. Now, as these shops are all licensed, so, for convenience and order's sake, the Emperor said, Let them be all numbered No. 1., &c.' The following is an instance of this kind of literal obedience which we do not recollect having heard before : "These small retail shops to which I allude display a painted board immediately over the entrance door, upon which figures the bill of fare of their internal contents. Underneath is the Thus the order stood 'No. 1., &c.,' no doubts, gets into the hands of proper authorities. It arrives at the first office, where it is registered, at ed the synod, at eleven it is in the hands of the eight it gets to another, at ten it may have passpolice, and at midnight the police officers are trotting through the streets to put it in execution, and summon the parties themselves. Mr. 6 was fast asleep. He had given the case up as hopeless; he must make the best of it; he all he could hug; a thundering rap is at his must forget it; he was hugging his pillow, 'twas door; and before he recovers from his fright an armed police is at his bed-side with a roll of paThis reminds us of another anecdote of per in their hands. His liver turned to water.' the mode in which the St. Petersburg police As he was about to force utterance he was stopexecuted the sapient orders of the same ped by the officers, who told him that they had a Emperor. One day the mandate came forth warrant which must be executed immediately, that no man should walk the streets at night (seechass.) Mr. thought of putting on his without a lantern. The first night a doctor clothes, and, as he was sacrificing to the Graces, set out on his rounds, attended by a serv-roused from his slumbers in the middle of the the officer commenced reading. Fancy a man ant carrying one. The servant was allowed night, trembling all over from fear more than to pass; the doctor was placed under ar- from cold, sitting upon the edge of his bed drawing on a stocking, spinning slowly out the time, Every one knows the story of the Eng- and about to hear, as he supposeth, his exile warlish banker who gave Catharine a dog, rant. By the grace of God, Autocrat of all the which the Empress christened after the Russias, &c., be it known.' What was his surname of the donor, and of the terrible quid mit to be married. 'What, now?' said Mr.prise then to find that this sentence was a perpro quo which followed, when the Minister at this time of night?'-Immediately, (seechof Police, receiving an order to have the ass,)' said the officer; it is ordered. Oh if it diseased dog' empaillé,' was within an ace be ordered, then I know the rest,' said Mr. of carrying it into execution by impaling and he hurried on his clothes and accompanied the living Englishman. Our author re- the officers to the dwelling of his betrothed. counts a somewhat similar adventure, though not quite so alarming, as having occurred to one of our countrymen of the English factory in his time. rest. the matter was broken to her, whether she were What were her feelings upon the occasion, how asleep or awake, who explained the necessity of immediate compliance-all these matters have not been revealed. Mr. and Missac 300 THE SPIRIT OF THE STORM, ETC. companied the police-officers to the church, and Jin Mr. Murray's Hand-Book, and we have the marriage ceremony was performed in the already given enough of those anecdotical middle of the night. The officers had done their and picturesque sketches which constitute duty; Mr. did his, inasmuch as he had obeyed orders; and all the parties shook hands, the whole merit of the work. THE SPIRIT OF THE STORM. BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE CIRCASSIAN CHIEF." I'm a wandering spirit through earth, air, and sea, foam, As might be presumed, the only point on which resistance to the tremendous 'It is ordered,' has ever yet been carried out successfully, perhaps ever attempted, is that of religion; or what the Russian peasant For no bounds, for no bounds can ever bind me; chooses to consider as such. The Empe- My steed is the dark wave, with white mane of ror's recognized power in this is also enormous: he can make saints, or refuse to al- And gallantly bears me wherever I roam : low any more to be made, as he is said reLashed to fury, he dances, uprearing high, cently to have done, in consequence of some misdemeanors on the part of the last canonized. But Peter the Great was worsted in his war with beards; and the present Czar would probably employ all his power in vain to compel one of his orthodox subjects to eat a pigeon. As snorting, he tosses his head towards the sky, I me. fly in the tempest while loud shrieks are heard, But far shriller I cry than the roving sea-bird, When rocks are resounding with ocean's fierce roar, And forms are rebounding — pale waifs on the shore "The following anecdote will afford a good idea of the persevering obstinacy of the Rus-When barks are deserted to dash o'er the waves, sians in what they consider to be a righteous And mortals are hurled unprepared to their graves: cause. The Bishop of Nicolaieff had once been Then, then is the time I shriek loudest with glee, a Jew: he was now a zealous Christian. It was And no bounds, and no bounds can ever bind me. at the epoch of performing this ceremony, (of My hair is the thick mist and quick driving snow, 'blessing the waters,') that the thermometer And wildly waves round when the northern blasts marked thirty degrees of cold, and a cutting wind swept over the plains which extended to the east of Nicolaieff. Not a soul was to be seen in the streets. The crows fell down dead with cold: it was the desolating cold blast of the desert-the bleak wind which froze the French legions; nothing animate could resist it long. "The Boog, whose waters were to be blessed, rung at a distance of a mile from the centre of the town. Now, it was probable under such circumstances, that if the ceremony were allowed to proceed as on ordinary occasions, one-half of the attendants would perish. The governor consequently prevented the procedure in the ordinary way, but ordered a bucketful of water to be brought from the river to the church, there blessed and consecrated, and then restored to the parent stream. This was good homeopathic practice, and much suffering and mischief were thus avoided. But no persuasion, no arguments, would prevail upon the converted Jew to desist from the usual performance of the rites. He would, and did sit down by the waters of Babel. He could not weep, but globules of ice represented his tears. He was brought home in a state of exhaustion, and died raving mad a few days afterwards."--Vol. ii. p. 257. The last volume consists chiefly of the narrative of our author's retreat from the scene of his labors; and his journey via Sweden, and by various German baths, to his native country. But all this we pretermit; for all of travelling interest that it contains, may be found more usefully digested blow; My breath's in the whirlwind, my voice in the And dark is the mantle my stern visage shrouds,— As I ride o'er the boundless and fetterless sea! We have much pleasure in presenting our readers with the following interesting lines, which were presented to her Majesty on her arrival at Ostend, by the son of one of our most popular writers: Oh! gifted by the bounteousness of Heaven QUEEN! Thy people's love attends thee o'er the main,— Court Journal. Gay groves of far-seen palms are there, Hath raised the pile by myriad subject hands; home! On his battle-charger behold him come! Burst forth from the warrior throng: |