Volume V Part 82 (2/2)

If a gentleman chance to cooes to bed, and if the servant is careless enough to close the valve before the wood is reduced to charcoal, then thesuffocated in three or four hours When the door is opened in thehe is found dead, and the poor devil of a servant is ied, whatever he may say This sounds severe, and even cruel; but it is a necessary regulation, or else a servant would be able to get rid of his master on the sree, both of which were very cheap (now St Petersburg, is as dear as London), I brought some pieces of furniture which were necessaries for me, but which were not as yet much in use in Russia, such as a coe principally spoken in St Petersburg, and I did not speak Gerood deal of difficulty inhter

After dinnera ave me a ticket, and told me I only needed to shew it at the entrance of the imperial palace

I decided to use the ticket, for I felt that I should like to be present at so numerous an assembly, and as I had my domino still by me a mask was all I wanted I went to the palace in a sedan-chair, and found an i on in several halls in each of which an orchestra was stationed There were long counters loaded with eatables and drinkables at which those ere hungry or thirsty ate or drank as ned everywhere, and the light of a thousand wax candles illu onderful, and all the more so from its contrast with the cold and darkness that ithout All at once I heard a masquer beside me say to another,--

”There's the czarina”

We soon saw Gregory Orloff, for his orders were to follow the empress at a distance

I followed the masquer, and I was soon persuaded that it was really the eh no one openly recognized her Those who really did not know her jostled her in the crowd, and I i treated thus, as it was a proof of the success of her disguise Several ti in Russian to one masquer and another No doubt she exposed her vanity to soe of hearing truths which her courtiers would certainly not tell her The masquer as pronounced to be Orloff followed her everywhere, and did not let her out of his sight for a moment He could not be mistaken, as he was an exceptionally tall e of the head

I arrestedperforuised in the Venetian style The costume was so complete that I at once set hiers can imitate us so as to escape detection As it happened, he came and stood next to me

”One would think you were a Venetian,” I said to him in French

”So I a”

”No more ain, and I will reply”

We began our conversation, but when he came to the word Sabato, Saturday, which is a Sabo in Venetian, I discovered that he was a real Venetian, but not froed from my accent that I caht Bernadi was the only Venetian besides ”

”You see you are mistaken”

”My name is Count Volpati di Treviso”

”Give me your address, and I will come and tell you who I am, for I cannot do so here”

”Here it is”

After leaving the count I continued h this wonderful hall, and two or three hours after I was attracted by the voice of a feh falsetto, such as is conize the voice but I knew the style, and felt quite certain that the masquer must be one of my old friends, for she spoke with the intonations and phraseology which I had rendered popular in my chief places of resort at Paris

I was curious to see who it could be, and not wishi+ng to speak before I knew her, I had the patience to wait till she lifted her mask, and this occurred at the end of an hour What was -seller of the Rue St Honor& My love awoke fro up to her I said, in a falsetto voice,--