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hour; a short time before it expired, I was introduced, through the favour of Madame B—, to the chamber of the bride and bridegroom. In front of the bed, under glass covers, were the bride's jewels, and a service of gold presented to her by her august family, and a golden salver containing a loaf and salt, which, according to the Russian custom, is presented by the Empress-dowager to her daughter on the night of her marriage, just before she unrobes: it is intended to express her wishes, that as the connection between parent and child is dissolved by marriage, she may never want the comforts of life.

The bed was a state one, the robes-de-chambre of the Princess were placed on a stool on the right hand side, and the slippers of the Prince on the left. Heavens! thought I, what a strange country this is! the postilions ride their horses on the wrong side, and the husbands sleep on the wrong side; but the remark was no sooner made than removed: it does not accord with the dignity of the empire that any Prince under Heaven should take the right of a Grand Duchess of Russia. Hymen had touched the tapers with his torch, and a band of merry-looking pretty girls, dressed in white, and adorned with flowers, were waiting to receive the happy bride, and let loose the virgin zone. As I quitted this bower of Eden I longed to leave behind me the following beautiful recipe for preserving love :

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"Cool as he warms, and love will never cool:

Then drop into the flame a tear or two,

Which blazing up like oil, will burn him through;
Then add sweet looks, soft words, some sighs, no pout,
And take my word the flame will ne'er go out."

In the evening the

city was magnificently illuminated: the house of British embassy shone with unrivalled elegance and splendour. As we rode up the Neva, after supper, we were uncommonly gratified by seeing the whole of the fortress, down to the water's edge, illuminated, which presented a spectacle the most brilliant, and completely novel, I ever beheld. Our bargemen again regaled us with one of their musical yells, the effect of which was encreased by the addition of two tamborines struck at random. In the evening, after the nuptials, the Imperial family went to the opera, when the theatre was superbly illuminated, and the court scenes were displayed, which presented the finest specimens of scenic painting I ever beheld. When the Emperor was about to leave his box, the people saluted him with the most enthusiastic applause, with which he was visibly affected.

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CHAP. XVIII.

APPLE FEAST-DOG-KILLERS-A BARRIER AGAINST SWINDLING

FESTIVITIES OF PETERHOFF-HORN MUSIC-A FAVOURITE BEARGERMAN THEATRE-VISIT TO CRONSTADT-PRISON-MILITARY

PUNISHMENT-THE INN-ORANIENBAUM-FLYING MOUNTAINSTHE VALUE OF A BLOODY BEARD-FASTS, PAMINE AND FIRMNESS.

On the sixth of August, O. S. the Feast of Apples commences, in which the common Russians frequently indulge themselves to such excess, that death is the consequence of their intemperance. And about this period the dog-killers, called Foornantshicks, go their rounds and destroy every dog they find unprotected by a collar, containing the name of his master. This measure, though apparently cruel, is very necessary: some winters past, before this regulation was made, a number of fierce and voracious dogs assembled together in the gloomy ground which surrounds the Admiralty, and at night have been known to attack and devour passengers.

As my time for quitting Petersburg drew nigh, I sent my first advertisement, describing my name, age, and profession, to the imperial gazette office, in which it was necessary to

382

BARRIER AGAINST SWINDLING.

appear three times before I could obtain my post-horse order, without which it is impossible to stir. The object of this ceremony is to prevent persons going away in debt, by giving timely notice to their creditors, and may be accomplished in ten days; or if a traveller is in great haste to depart, upon two householders of respectability undertaking, at the proper office, to pay all the debts he may owe, he may immediately depart. A foreigner may stay one month after the expiration of the first complete notice: if he exceed that period, he must advertise again. Immediately after the nuptials the court removed to Peterhoff, a country palace, about thirty versts from the residence, situate on the shores of Cronstadt Gulf, built by Le Blonde, where a magnificent ball and illumination, in honour of the nuptials, took place; at which nearly all the population of Petersburg were present.

As we proceeded in a line of carriages, extending several miles, drawn by four horses a-breast and two before them, we passed a small but memorable public house, on the roadside, about eight versts from Petersburg, called the Krasnoi Kabac; the first word meaning red, and the latter, as before related, a public house. It was at this house that the late Empress halted, when she was advancing against her husband, and slept for a short time upon the cloaks of her officers in one of the little rooms. Here, assisted by her then confidential and enthusiastic friend, the Princess Dashkoff, she con

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sumed a great number of letters. We also passed the Holy Trinity hermitage of Saint Sergius, a small monastery surrounded by quadrangular cloisters, having a church and three chapels. There is nothing in the building worthy of inducing a traveller to quit his carriage. A little farther on we saw the palace of Strelna, a vast building of brick stuccoed, built upon piazzas, and surrounded with undulating woods and pleasure-grounds belonging to the Grand Duke Constantine, the heir presumptive to the throne.

Upon our arrival we found the rooms, which were fitted up in a style of ancient splendour, and richly illuminated, filled with persons of all ranks and conditions in their best dresses, resembling a crowded masquerade, in which much of the costume of the empire was displayed. I was principally struck with the wives of the bearded merchants, who were rouged, and wore a head-dress of muslin, resembling a sugar-loaf, entirely encrusted with large pearls, with which their trimmed, and their stomachers covered.

gowns were

The illuminations were beyond any thing magnificent; in front of the palace rolled a cascade of water, over variouscoloured lamps, which had a very novel effect, into a great. pond, which appeared to be in a blaze of light, from the sides and centre of which groupes of statues threw columns of water to a great height; a canal, more than a mile long, lined with

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