RUSSIA AND POLAND - Chapter XX
Crevecoeur--Bomback--Journey to Moscow--My Adventures At
St. Petersburg
The day on which I took Zaira I sent Lambert away, for I did not know
what to do with him. He got drunk every day, and when in his cups he
was unbearable. Nobody would have anything to say to him except as a
common soldier, and that is not an enviable position in Russia. I
got him a passport for Berlin, and gave him enough money for the
journey. I heard afterwards that he entered the Austrian service.
In May, Zaira had become so beautiful that when I went to Moscow I
dared not leave her behind me, so I took her in place of a servant.
It was delicious to me to hear her chattering in the Venetian dialect
I had taught her. On a Saturday I would go with her to the bath
where thirty of forty naked men and women were bathing together
without the slightest constraint. This absence of shame must arise,
I should imagine, from native innocence; but I wondered that none
looked at Zaira, who seemed to me the original of the statue of
Psyche I had seen at the Villa Borghese at Rome. She was only
fourteen, so her breast was not yet developed, and she bore about her
few traces of puberty. Her skin was as white as snow, and her ebony
tresses covered the whole of her body, save in a few places where the
dazzling whiteness of her skin shone through. Her eyebrows were
perfectly shaped, and her eyes, though they might have been larger,
could not have been more brilliant or more expressive. If it had not
been for her furious jealousy and her blind confidence in fortune-
telling by cards, which she consulted every day, Zaira would have
been a paragon among women, and I should never have left her.
A young and distinguished-looking Frenchman came to St. Petersburg
with a young Parisian named La Riviere, who was tolerably pretty but
quite devoid of education, unless it were that education common to
all the girls who sell their charms in Paris. This young man came to
me with a letter from Prince Charles of Courland, who said that if I
could do anything for the young couple he would be grateful to me.
They arrived just as I was breakfasting with Zaira.
"You must tell me," said I to the young Frenchman, "in what way I can
be of use to you."
"By admitting us to your company, and introducing us to your
friends."
"Well, I am a stranger here, and I will come and see you, and you can
come and see me, and I shall be delighted; but I never dine at home.
As to my friends, you must feel that, being a stranger, I could not
introduce you and the lady. Is she your wife? People will ask me
who you are, and what you are doing at St. Petersburg. What am I to
say? I wonder Prince Charles did not send you to someone else."
"I am a gentleman of Lorraine, and Madame la Riviere is my mistress,
and my object in coming to St. Petersburg is to amuse myself."
"Then I don't know to whom I could introduce you under the
circumstances; but I should think you will be able to find plenty of
amusement without knowing anyone. The theatres, the streets, and
even the Court entertainments, are open to everyone. I suppose you
have plenty of money?"
"That's exactly what I haven't got, and I don't expect any either."
"Well, I have not much more, but you really astonish me. How could
you have been so foolish as to come here without money?"
"Well, my mistress said we could do with what money we got from day
to day. She induced me to leave Paris without a farthing, and up to
now it seems to me that she is right. We have managed to get on
somehow."
"Then she has the purse?"
"My purse," said she, "is in the pockets of my friends."
"I understand, and I am sure you have no difficulty in finding the
wherewithal to live. If I had such a purse, it should be opened for
you, but I am not a rich man."
Bomback, a citizen of Hamburg, whom I had known in England whence he
had fled on account of his debts, had come to St. Petersburg and
entered the army. He was the son of a rich merchant and kept up a
house, a carriage, and an army of servants; he was a lover of good
cheer, women, and gambling, and contracted debts everywhere. He was
an ugly man, but full of wit and energy. He happened to call on me
just as I was addressing the strange traveller whose purse was in the
pocket of her friends. I introduced the couple to him, telling the
whole story, the item of the purse excepted. The adventure was just
to Bomback's taste, and he began making advances to Madame la
Riviere, who received them in a thoroughly professional spirit, and I
was inwardly amused and felt that her axiom was a true one. Bomback
asked them to dine with him the next day, and begged them to come and
take an unceremonious dinner the same day with him at Crasnacaback.
I was included in the invitation, and Zaira, not understanding
French, asked me what we were talking about, and on my telling her
expressed a desire to accompany me. I gave in to appease her, for I
knew the wish proceeded from jealousy, and that if I did not consent
I should be tormented by tears, ill-humour, reproaches, melancholy,
etc. This had occurred several times before, and so violent had she
been that I had been compelled to conform to the custom of the
country and beat her. Strange to say, I could not have taken a
better way to prove my love. Such is the character of the Russian
women. After the blows had been given, by slow degrees she became
affectionate again, and a love encounter sealed the reconciliation.
Bomback left us to make his preparations in high spirits, and while
Zaira was dressing, Madame Riviere talked in such a manner as to make
me almost think that I was absolutely deficient in knowledge of the
world. The astonishing thing was that her lover did not seem in the
least ashamed of the part he had to play. He might say that he was
in love with the Messalina, but the ex. cuse would not have been
admissible.
The party was a merry one. Bomback talked to the adventuress, Zaira
sat on my knee, and Crevecoeur ate and drank, laughed in season and
out of season, and walked up and down. The crafty Madame Riviere
incited Bomback to risk twenty-five roubles at quinze; he lost and
paid pleasantly, and only got a kiss for his money. Zaira, who was
delighted to be able to watch over me and my fidelity, jested
pleasantly on the Frenchwoman and the complaisance of her lover.
This was altogether beyond her comprehension, and she could not
understand how he could bear such deeds as were done before his face.
The next day I went to Bomback by myself, as I was sure of meeting
young Russian officers, who would have annoyed me by making love to
Zaira in their own language. I found the two travellers and the
brothers Lunin, then lieutenants but now generals. The younger of
them was as fair and pretty as any girl. He had been the beloved of
the minister Teploff, and, like a lad of wit, he not only was not
ashamed but openly boasted that it was his custom to secure the good-
will of all men by his caresses.
He had imagined the rich citizen of Hamburg to be of the same tastes
as Teploff, and he had not been mistaken; and so he degraded me by
forming the same supposition. With this idea he seated himself next
to me at table, and behaved himself in such a manner during dinner
that I began to believe him to be a girl in man's clothes.
After dinner, as I was sitting at the fire, between him and the
Frenchman, I imparted my suspicions to him; but jealous of the
superiority of his sex, he displayed proof of it on the spot, and
forthwith got hold of me and put himself in a position to make my
happiness and his own as he called it. I confess, to my shame, that
he might perhaps have succeeded, if Madame la Riviere, indignant at
this encroachment of her peculiar province, had not made him desist.
Lunin the elder, Crevecceur, and Bomback, who had been for a walk,
returned at nightfall with two or three friends, and easily consoled
the Frenchman for the poor entertainment the younger Lunin and myself
had given him.
Bomback held a bank at faro, which only came to an end at eleven,
when the money was all gone. We then supped, and the real orgy
began, in which la Riviere bore the brunt in a manner that was simply
astonishing. I and my friend Lunin were merely spectators, and poor
Crevecoeur had gone to bed. We did not separate till day-break.
I got home, and, fortunately for myself, escaped the bottle which
Zaira flung at my head, and which would infallibly have killed me if
it had hit me. She threw herself on to the ground, and began to
strike it with her forehead. I thought she had gone mad, and
wondered whether I had better call for assistance; but she became
quiet enough to call me assassin and traitor, with all the other
abusive epithets that she could remember. To convict me of my crime
she shewed me twenty-five cards, placed in order, and on them she
displayed the various enormities of which I had been guilty.
I let her go on till her rage was somewhat exhausted, and then,
having thrown her divining apparatus into the fire, I looked at her
in pity and anger, and said that we must part the next day, as she
had narrowly escaped killing me. I confessed that I had been with
Bomback, and that there had been a girl in the house; but I denied
all the other sins of which she accused me. I then went to sleep
without taking the slightest notice of her, in spite of all she said
and did to prove her repentance.
I woke after a few hours to find her sleeping soundly, and I began to
consider how I could best rid myself of the girl, who would probably
kill me if we continued living together. Whilst I was absorbed in
these thoughts she awoke, and falling at my feet wept and professed
her utter repentance, and promised never to touch another card as
long as I kept her.
At last I could resist her entreaties no longer, so I took her in my
arms and forgave her; and we did not part till she had received
undeniable proofs of the return of my affection. I intended to start
for Moscow in three days, and she was delighted when she heard she
was to go.
Three circumstances had won me this young girl's furious affection.
In the first place I often took her to see her family, with whom I
always left a rouble; in the second I made her eat with me; and in
the third I had beaten her three or four times when she had tried to
prevent me going out.
In Russia beating is a matter of necessity, for words have no force
whatever. A servant, mistress, or courtezan understands nothing but
the lash. Words are altogether thrown away, but a few good strokes
are entirely efficacious. The servant, whose soul is still more
enslaved than his body, reasons somewhat as follows, after he has had
a beating:
"My master has not sent me away, but beaten me; therefore he loves
me, and I ought to be attached to him."
It is the same with the Russian soldier, and in fact with everybody.
Honour stands for nothing, but with the knout and brandy one can get
anything from them except heroical enthusiasm.
Papanelopulo laughed at me when I said that as I liked my Cossack I
should endeavour to correct him with words only when he took too much
brandy.
"If you do not beat him," he said, "he will end by beating you;" and
he spoke the truth.
One day, when he was so drunk as to be unable to attend on me, I
began to scold him, and threatened him with the stick if he did not
mend his ways. As soon as he saw my cane lifted, he ran at me and
got hold of it; and if I had not knocked him down immediately, he
would doubtless have beaten me. I dismissed him on the spot. There
is not a better servant in the world than a Russian. He works
without ceasing, sleeps in front of the door of his master's bedroom
to be always ready to fulfil his orders, never answering his
reproaches, incapable of theft. But after drinking a little too much
brandy he becomes a perfect monster; and drunkenness is the vice of
the whole nation.
A coachman knows no other way of resisting the bitter cold to which
he is exposed, than by drinking rye brandy. It sometimes happens
that he drinks till he falls asleep, and then there is no awaking for
him in this world. Unless one is very careful, it is easy to lose an
ear, the nose, a cheek, or a lip by frost bites. One day as I was
walking out on a bitterly cold day, a Russian noticed that one of my
ears was frozen. He ran up to me and rubbed the affected part with a
handful of snow till the circulation was restored. I asked him how
he had noticed my state, and he said he had remarked the livid
whiteness of my ear, and this, he said, was always a sign that the
frost had taken it. What surprised me most of all is that sometimes
the part grows again after it has dropped off. Prince Charles of
Courland assured me that he had cost his nose in Siberia, and that it
had grown again the next summer. I have been assured of the truth of
this by several Russians.
About this time the empress made the architect Rinaldi, who had been
fifty years in St. Petersburg, build her an enormous wooden
amphitheatre so large as to cover the whole of the space in front of
the palace. It would contain a hundred thousand spectators, and in
it Catherine intended to give a vast tournament to all the knights of
her empire. There were to be four parties of a hundred knights each,
and all the cavaliers were to be clad in the national costume of the
nations they represented. All the Russians were informed of this
great festival, which was to be given at the expense of the
sovereign, and the princes, counts, and barons were already arriving
with their chargers from the most remote parts of the empire. Prince
Charles of Courland wrote informing me of his intention to be
present.
It had been ordained, that the tournament should take place on the
first fine day, and this precaution was a very wise one; for,
excepting in the season of the hard frosts, a day without rain, or
snow, or wind, is a marvel. In Italy, Spain, and France, one can
reckon on fine weather, and bad weather is the exception, but it is
quite the contrary in Russia. Ever since I have known this home of
frost and the cold north wind, I laugh when I hear travelling
Russians talking of the fine climate of their native country.
However, it is a pardonable weakness, most of us prefer "mine" to
"thine;" nobles affect to consider themselves of purer blood than the
peasants from whom they sprang, and the Romans and other ancient
nations pretended that they were the children of the gods, to draw a
veil over their actual ancestors who were doubtless robbers. The
truth is, that during the whole year 1756 there was not one fine day
in Russia, or in Ingria at all events, and the mere proofs of this
statement may be found in the fact that the tournament was not held
in that year. It was postponed till the next, and the princes,
counts, barons, and knights spent the winter in the capital, unless
their purses forbade them to indulge in the luxuries of Court life.
The dear Prince of Courland was in this case, to my great
disappointment.
Having made all arrangements for my journey to Moscow, I got into my
sleeping carriage with Zaira, having a servant behind who could speak
both Russian and German. For twenty-four roubles the chevochic
(hirer out of horses) engaged to carry me to Moscow in six days and
seven nights with six horses. This struck me as being extremely
cheap. The distance is seventy-two Russian stages, almost equivalent
to five hundred Italian miles, or a hundred and sixty French leagues.
We set out just as a cannon shot from the citadel announced the close
of day. It was towards the end of May, in which month there is
literally no night at St. Petersburg. Without the report of the
cannon no one would be able to tell when the day ended and the night
began. One can read a letter at midnight, and the moonlight makes no
appreciable difference. This continual day lasts for eight weeks,
and during that time no one lights a candle. At Moscow it is
different; a candle is always necessary at midnight if one wished to
read.
We reached Novgorod in forty-eight hours, and here the chevochic
allowed us a rest of five hours. I saw a circumstance there which
surprised me very much, though one has no business to be surprised at
anything if one travels much, and especially in a land of half
savages. I asked the chevochic to drink, but he appeared to be in
great melancholy. I enquired what was the matter, and he told Zaira
that one of his horses had refused to eat, and that it was clear that
if he could not eat he could not work. We followed him into the
stable, and found the horse looking oppressed by care, its head
lowered and motionless; it had evidently got no appetite. His master
began a pathetic oration, looking tenderly at the animal, as if to
arouse it to a sense of duty, and then taking its head, and kissing
it lovingly, he put it into the manger, but to no purpose. Then the
man began to weep bitterly, but in such a way that I had the greatest
difficulty to prevent myself laughing, for I could see that he wept
in the hope that his tears might soften the brute's heart. When he
had wept some time he again put the horse's head into the manger, but
again to no purpose. At this he got furious and swore to be avenged.
He led the horse out of the stable, tied it to a post, and beat it
with a thick stick for a quarter of an hour so violently that my
heart bled for the poor animal. At last the chevochic was tired out,
and taking the horse back to the stable he fastened up his head once
more, and to my astonishment it began to devour its provender with
the greatest appetite. At this the master jumped for joy, laughed,
sang, and committed a thousand extravagancies, as if to shew the
horse how happy it had made him. I was beside myself with
astonishment, and concluded that such treatment would have succeeded
nowhere but in Russia, where the stick seems to be the panacea or
universal medicine.
They tell me, however, that the stick is gradually going out of
fashion. Peter the Great used to beat his generals black and blue,
and in his days a lieutenant had to receive with all submission the
cuffs of his captain, who bent before the blows of his major, who did
the same to his colonel, who received chastisement from his general.
So I was informed by old General Woyakoff, who was a pupil of Peter
the Great, and had often been beaten by the great emperor, the
founder of St. Petersburg.
It seems to me that I have scarcely said anything about this great
and famous capital, which in my opinion is built on somewhat
precarious foundations. No one but Peter could have thus given the
lie to Nature by building his immense palaces of marble and granite
on mud and shifting sand. They tell me that the town is now in its
manhood, to the honour of the great Catherine; but in the year 1765
it was still in its minority, and seemed to me only to have been
built with the childish aim of seeing it fall into ruins. Streets
were built with the certainty of having to repair them in six months'
time. The whole place proclaimed itself to be the whim of a despot.
If it is to be durable constant care will be required, for nature
never gives up its rights and reasserts them when the constraint of
man is withdrawn. My theory is that sooner or later the soil must
give way and drag the vast city with it.
We reached Moscow in the time the chevochic had promised. As the
same horses were used for the whole journey, it would have been
impossible to travel mote quickly. A Russian told me that the
Empress Elizabeth had done the journey in fifty-two hours.
"You mean that she issued a ukase to the effect that she had done
it," said a Russian of the old school; "and if she had liked she
could have travelled more quickly still; it was only a question of
the wording of the ukase."
Even when I was in Russia it was not allowable to doubt the
infallibility of a ukase, and to do so was, equivalent to high
treason. One day I was crossing a canal at St. Petersburg by a small
wooden bridge; Melissino Papanelopulo, and some other Russians were
with me. I began to abuse the wooden bridge, which I characterized
as both mean and dangerous. One of my companions said that on such a
day it would be replaced by a fine stone bridge, as the empress had
to pass there on some state occasion. The day named way three weeks
off, and I said plainly that it was impossible. One of the Russians
looked askance at me, and said there was no doubt about it, as a
ukase had been published ordering that the bridge should be built. I
was going to answer him, but Papanelopulo gave my hand a squeeze, and
whispered "Taci!" (hush).
The bridge was not built, but I was not justified, for the empress
published another ukase in which she declared it to be her gracious
pleasure that the bridge should not be built till the following year.
If anyone would see what a pure despotism is like, let him go to
Russia.
The Russian sovereigns use the language of despotism on all
occasions. One day I saw the empress, dressed in man's clothes,
going out for a ride. Her master of the horse, Prince Repnin, held
the bridle of the horse, which suddenly gave him a kick which broke
his anklebone. The empress instantly ordained that the horse should
be taken away, and that no one should mount it again under pain of
death. All official positions in Russia have military rank assigned
to them, and this sufficiently indicates the nature of the
Government. The coachman-in-chief of her imperial highness holds the
rank of colonel, as also does her chief cook. The castrato Luini was
a lieutenant-colonel, and the painter Toretti only a captain, because
he had only eight hundred roubles a year, while the coachman had
three thousand. The sentinels at the doors of the palace have their
muskets crossed, and ask those who wish to pass through what is their
rank. When I was asked this question, I stopped short; but the
quick-witted officer asked me how much I had a year, and on my
replying, at a hazard, three thousand roubles, he gave me the rank of
general, and I was allowed to pass. I saw the czarina for a moment;
she stopped at the door and took off her gloves to give her hands to
be kissed by the officer and the two sentinels. By such means as
this she had won the affection of the corps, commanded by Gregorius
Gregorovitch Orloff, on which her safety depended in case of
revolution.
I made the following notes when I saw the empress hearing mass in her
chapel. The protopapa, or bishop, received her at the door to give
her the holy water, and she kissed his episcopal ring, while the
prelate, whose beard was a couple of feet in length, lowered his head
to kiss the hands of his temporal sovereign and spiritual head, for
in Russia the he or she on the throne is the spiritual as well as
temporal head of the Church.
She did not evidence the least devotion during mass; hypocrisy did
not seem to be one of her vices. Now she smiled at one of her suite,
now at another, and occasionally she addressed the favourite, not
because she had anything to say to him, but to make him an object of
envy to the others.
One evening, as she was leaving the theatre where Metastasio's
Olympiade had been performed, I heard her say,--
"The music of that opera has given the greatest pleasure to everyone,
so of course I am delighted with it; but it wearies me, nevertheless.
Music is a fine thing, but I cannot understand how anyone who is
seriously occupied can love it passionately. I will have Buranello
here, and I wonder whether he will interest me in music, but I am
afraid nature did not constitute me to feel all its charms."
She always argued in that way. In due time I will set down her words
to me when I returned from Moscow. When I arrived at that city I got
down at a good inn, where they gave me two rooms and a coach-house
for my carriage. After dinner I hired a small carriage and a guide
who could speak French. My carriage was drawn by four horses, for
Moscow is a vast city composed of four distinct towns, and many of
the streets are rough and ill-paved. I had five or six letters of
introduction, and I determined to take them all. I took Zaira with
me, as she was as curious to see everything as a girl of fourteen
naturally is. I do not remember what feast the Greek Church was
keeping on that day, but I shall never forget the terrific bell-
ringing with which my ears were assailed, for there are churches
every where. The country people were engaged in sowing their grain,
to reap it in September. They laughed at our Southern custom of
sowing eight months earlier, as unnecessary and even prejudicial to
the crops, but I do not know where the right lies. Perhaps we may
both be right, for there is no master to compare with experience.
I took all the introductions I had received from Narischkin, Prince
Repnin, the worthy Pananelopulo, and Melissino's brother. The next
morning the whole of the persons at whose houses I had left letters
called on me. They all asked Zaira and myself to dinner, and I
accepted the invitation of the first comer, M. Dinidoff, and promised
to dine with the rest on the following days, Zaira, who had been
tutored by me to some extent, was delighted to shew me that she was
worthy of the position she occupied. She was exquisitely dressed,
and won golden opinions everywhere, for our hosts did not care to
enquire whether she were my daughter, my mistress, or my servant, for
in this matter, as in many others, the Russians are excessively
indulgent. Those who have not seen Moscow have not seen Russia, for
the people of St, Petersburg are not really Russians at all. Their
court manners are very different from their manners 'au naturel', and
it may be said with truth that the true Russian is as a stranger in
St. Petersburg. The citizens of, Moscow, and especially the rich
ones, speak with pity of those, who for one reason or another, had
expatriated themselves; and with them to expatriate one's self is to
leave Moscow, which they consider as their native land. They look on
St. Petersburg with an envious eve, and call it the ruin of Russia.
I do not know whether this is a just view to take of the case, I
merely repeat what I have heard.
In the course of a week I saw all the sights of Moscow--the
manufacturers, the churches, the remains of the old days, the
museums, the libraries, (of no interest to my mind), not forgetting
the famous bell. I noticed that their bells are not allowed to swing
like ours, but are motionless, being rung by a rope attached to the
clapper.
I thought the Moscow women more handsome than those of St.
Petersburg, and I attribute this to the great superiority of the air.
They are gentle and accessible by nature; and to obtain the favour of
a kiss on the lips, one need only make a show of kissing their hands.
There was good fare in plenty, but no delicacy in its composition or
arrangement. Their table is always open to friends and
acquaintances, and a friend may bring to five or six persons to
dinner, and even at the end of the meals you will never hear a
Russian say, "We have had dinner; you have come too late." Their
souls are not black enough for them to pronounce such words as this.
Notice is given to the cook, and the dinner begins over again. They
have a delicious drink, the name of which I do not remember; but it
is much superior to the sherbet of Constantinople. The numerous
servants are not given water, but a light, nourishing, and agreeable
fluid, which may be purchased very cheaply. They all hold St.
Nicholas in the greatest reverence, only praying to God through the
mediation of this saint, whose picture is always suspended in the
principal room of the house. A person coming in makes first a bow to
the image and then a bow to the master, and if perchance the image is
absent, the Russian, after gazing all round, stands confused and
motionless, not knowing what to do. As a general rule the Muscovites
are the most superstitious Christians in the world. Their liturgy is
in Greek, of which the people understand nothing, and the clergy,
themselves extremely ignorant, gladly leave them completely in the
dark on all matters connected with religion. I could never make them
understand that the only reason for the Roman Christians making the
sign of the Cross from left to right, while the Greeks make it from
right to left, is that we say 'spiritus sancti', while they say
'agion pneuma'.
"If you said pneuma agion," I used to say, "then you would cross
yourself like us, and if we said sancti spiritus we should cross
ourselves like you."
"The adjective," replied my interlocutor, "should always precede the
substantive, for we should never utter the name of God without first
giving Him some honourable epithet."
Such are nearly all the differences which divide the two churches,
without reckoning the numerous idle tales which they have as well as
ourselves, and which are by no means the least cherished articles of
their faith.
We returned to St. Petersburg by the way we had come, but Zaira would
have liked me never to leave Moscow. She had become so much in love
with me by force of constant association that I could not think
without a pang of the moment of separation. The day after our
arrival in the capital I took her to her home, where she shewed her
father all the little presents I had given her, and told him of the
honour she had received as my daughter, which made the good man laugh
heartily.
The first piece of news I heard was that a ukase had been issued,
ordering the erection of a temple dedicated to God in the Moscoi
opposite to the house where I resided. The empress had entrusted
Rinaldi, the architect, with the erection. He asked her what emblem
he should put above the portal, and she replied,--
"No emblem at all, only the name of God in large letters."
"I will put a triangle."
"No triangle at all; but only the name of God in whatever language
you like, and nothing more."
The second piece of news was that Bomback had fled and had been
captured at Mitau, where he believed himself in safety. M. de
Simolia had arrested him. It was a grave case, for he had deserted;
however, he was given his life, and sent into barracks at
Kamstchatka. Crevecoeur and his mistress had departed, carrying some
money with them, and a Florentine adventurer named Billotti had fled
with eighteen thousand roubles belonging to Papanelopulo, but a
certain Bori, the worthy Greek's factotum, had caught him at Mitau
and brought him back to St. Petersburg, where he was now in prison.
Prince Charles of Courland arrived about this time, and I hastened to
call upon him as soon as he advised me of his coming. He was lodging
in a house belonging to Count Dimidoff, who owned large iron mines,
and had made the whole house of iron, from attic to basement. The
prince had brought his mistress with him, but she was still in an
ill-humour, and he was beginning to get heartily sick of her. The
man was to be pitied, for he could not get rid of her without finding
her a husband, and this husband became more difficult to find every
day. When the prince saw how happy I was with my Zaira, he could not
help thinking how easily happiness may be won; but the fatal desire
for luxury and empty show spoils all, and renders the very sweets of
life as bitter as gall.
I was indeed considered happy, and I liked to appear so, but in my
heart I was wretched. Ever since my imprisonment under The Leads, I
had been subject to haemorrhoids, which came on three or four times a
year. At St. Petersburg I had a serious attack, and the daily pain
and anxiety embittered my existence. A vegetarian doctor called
Senapios, for whom I had sent, gave me the sad news that I had a
blind or incomplete fistula in the rectum, and according to him
nothing but the cruel pistoury would give me any relief, and indeed
he said I had no time to lose. I had to agree, in spite of my
dislike to the operation; but fortunately the clever surgeon whom the
doctor summoned pronounced that if I would have patience nature
itself would give me relief. I had much to endure, especially from
the severe dieting to which I was subjected, but which doubtless did
me good.
Colonel Melissino asked me to be present at a review which was to
take place at three versts from St. Petersburg, and was to be
succeeded by a dinner to twenty-four guests, given by General Orloff.
I went with the prince, and saw a cannon fired twenty times in a
minute, testing the performance with my watch.
My neighbour at dinner was the French ambassador. Wishing to drink
deeply, after the Russian fashion, and thinking the Hungarian wine as
innocent as champagne, he drank so bravely that at the end of dinner
he had lost the use of his legs. Count Orloff made him drink still
more, and then he fell asleep and was laid on a bed.
The gaiety of the meal gave me some idea of Russian wit. I did not
understand the language, so M. Zinowieff translated the curious
sallies to me while the applause they had raised was still
resounding.
Melissino rose to his feet, holding a large goblet full of Hungarian
wine in his hand. There was a general silence to listen to him. He
drank the health of General Orloff in these words:
"May you die when you become rich."
The applause was general, for the allusion was to the unbounded
generosity of Orloff. The general's reply struck me as better still,
but it was equally rugged in character. He, too, took a full cup,
and turning to Melissino, said,
"May you never die till I slay you!"
The applause was furious, for he was their host and their general.
The Russian wit is of the energetic kind, devoid of grace; all they
care about is directness and vigour.
Voltaire had just sent the empress his "Philosophy of History," which
he had written for her and dedicated to her. A month after, an
edition of three thousand copies came by sea, and was sold out in a
week, for all the Russians who knew a little French were eager to
possess a copy of the work. The leaders of the Voltaireans were two
noblemen, named, respectively, Stroganoff and Schuvaloff. I have
seen verses written by the former of these as good as Voltaire's own
verses, and twenty years later I saw an ode by the latter of which
Voltaire would not have been ashamed, but the subject was ill chosen;
for it treated of the death of the great philosopher who had so
studiously avoided using his pen on melancholy themes. In those days
all Russians with any pretensions to literature read nothing but
Voltaire, and when they had read all his writings they thought
themselves as wise as their master. To me they seemed pigmies
mimicking a giant. I told them that they ought to read all the books
from which Voltaire had drawn his immense learning, and then,
perhaps, they might become as wise as he. I remember the saying of a
wise man at Rome: "Beware of the man of one book." I wonder whether
the Russians are more profound now; but that is a question I cannot
answer. At Dresden I knew Prince Biloselski, who was on his way back
to Russia after having been ambassador at Turin. He was the author
of an admirable world on metaphysics, and the analysis of the soul
and reason.
Count Panin was the tutor of Paul Petrovitch, heir-presumptive to the
throne. The young prince had a severe master, and dared not even
applaud an air at the opera unless he first received permission to do
so from his mentor.
When a courier brought the news of the sudden death of Francis I.,
Emperor of Germany and of the Holy Roman Empire, the czarina being at
Czarsko-Zelo, the count minister-tutor was in the palace with his
pupil, then eleven years old. The courier came at noon, and gave the
dispatch into the hands of the minister, who was standing in the
midst of a crowd of courtiers of whom I was one. The prince imperial
was at his right hand. The minister read the dispatch in a low
voice, and then said:
"This is news indeed. The Emperor of the Romans has died suddenly."
He then turned to Paul, and said to him,--
"Full court mourning, which your highness will observe for three
months longer than the empress."
"Why so?" said Paul.
"Because, as Duke of Holstein, your highness has a right to attend
the diet of the empire, a privilege," he added, turning to us, "which
Peter the Great desired in vain."
I noted the attention with which the Grand Duke Paul listened to his
mentor, and the care with which he concealed his joy at the news. I
was immensely pleased with this way of giving instruction. I said as
much to Prince Lobkowitz, who was standing by me, and he refined on
my praises. This prince was popular with everyone. He was even
preferred to his predecessor, Prince Esterhazy; and this was saying a
great deal, for Esterhazy was adored in Russia. The gay and affable
manner of Prince Lobkowitz made him the life and soul of all the
parties at which he was present. He was a constant courtier of the
Countess Braun, the reigning beauty, and everyone believed his love
had been crowned with success, though no one could assert as much
positively.
There was a great review held at a distance of twelve or fourteen
versts from St. Petersburg, at which the empress and all her train of
courtiers were present. The houses of the two or three adjoining
villages were so few and small that it would be impossible for all
the company to find a lodging. Nevertheless I wished to be present
chiefly to please Zaira, who wanted to be seen with me on such an
occasion. The review was to last three days; there were to be
fireworks, and a mine was to be exploded besides the evolutions of
the troops. I went in my travelling carriage, which would serve me
for a lodging if I could get nothing better.
We arrived at the appointed place at eight o'clock in the morning;
the evolutions lasted till noon. When they were over we went towards
a tavern and had our meal served to us in the carriage, as all the
rooms in the inn were full.
After dinner my coachman tried in vain to find me a lodging, so I
disposed myself to sleep all night in the carriage; and so I did for
the whole time of the review, and fared better than those who had
spent so much money to be ill lodged. Melissino told me that the
empress thought my idea a very sensible one. As I was the only
person who had a sleeping carriage, which was quite a portable house
in itself, I had numerous visitors, and Zaira was radiant to be able
to do the honours.
I had a good deal of conversation during the review with Count Tott,
brother of the nobleman who was employed at Constantinople, and known
as Baron Tott. We had known each other at Paris, and afterwards at
the Hague, where I had the pleasure of being of service to him. He
had come to St. Petersburg with Madame de Soltikoff, whom he had met
at Paris, and whose lover he was. He lived with her, went to Court,
and was well received by everyone.
Two or three years after, the empress ordered him to leave St.
Petersburg on account of the troubles in Poland. It was said that he
kept up a correspondence with his brother, who was endeavouring to
intercept the fleet under the command of Alexis Orloff. I never
heard what became of him after he left Russia, where he obliged me
with the loan of five hundred roubles, which I have not yet been able
to return to him.
M. Maruzzi, by calling a Venetian merchant, and by birth a Greek,
having left trade to live like a gentleman, came to St. Petersburg
when I was there, and was presented at Court. He was a fine-looking
man, and was admitted to all the great houses. The empress treated
him with distinction because she had thoughts of making him her agent
at Venice. He paid his court to the Countess Braun, but he had
rivals there who were not afraid of him. He was rich enough, but did
not know how to spend his money; and avarice is a sin which meets
with no pity from the Russian ladies.
I went to Czarsko-Zelo, Peterhoff, and Cronstadt, for if you want to
say you have been in a country you should see as much as possible of
it. I wrote notes and memorandums on several questions with the hope
of their procuring me a place in the civil service, and all my
productions were laid before the empress but with no effect. In
Russia they do not think much of foreigners unless they have
specially summoned them; those who come of their own account rarely
make much, and I suspect the Russians are right.
