Volume V Part 85 (2/2)
We set out just as a cannon shot from the citadel announced the close of day It was towards the end of May, in whichWithout 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 ht makes no appreciable difference
This continual day lasts for eight weeks, and during that tihts a candle At Moscow it is different; a candle is always necessary at orod in forty-eight hours, and here the chevochic allowed us a rest of five hours I saw a circuh one has no business to be surprised at anything if one travels es I asked the chevochic to drink, but he appeared to be in great melancholy I enquired as 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 hi oppressed by care, its head lowered and an a pathetic oration, looking tenderly at the ani its head, and kissing it lovingly, he put it into the an to weep bitterly, but in such a way that I had the greatest difficulty to prevent , for I could see that he wept in the hope that his tears ht soften the brute's heart When he had wept soain 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 ani the horse back to the stable he fastened up his head once an to devour its provender with the greatest appetite At this the , and coancies, 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 radually going out of fashi+on
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 saeneral So I was informed by old General Woyakoff, as a pupil of Peter the Great, and had often been beaten by the great e
It seereat 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 i sand They tell reat Catherine; but in the year 1765 it was still in its minority, and seemed toit 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 soilthe 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 travelledof 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 se; Melissino Papanelopulo, and soan to abuse the wooden bridge, which I characterized as both erous 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 hiave 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 despotisns use the language of despotism on all occasions
One day I saw the e 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 ain under pain of death All official positions in Russia have ned to them, and this sufficiently indicates the nature of the Governhness 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 h what is their rank When I was asked this question, I stopped short; but the quick-witted officer asked , at a hazard, three thousand roubles, he gave eneral, and I was allowed to pass I saw the czarina for a ive 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, coorovitch Orloff, on which her safety depended in case of revolution
Imass 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 ten 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 , as she was leaving the theatre where Metastasio's Olympiade had been perforiven the greatest pleasure to everyone, so of course I ahted with it; but it wearies , 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 ued in that way In due time I will set down her words to me when I returned froood inn, where they gave e After dinner I hired a se was drawn by four horses, for Moscow is a vast city composed of four distinct towns, and h and ill-paved I had five or six letters of introduction, and I determined to take them all I took Zaira with irl of fourteen naturally is I do not re on that day, but I shall never forget the terrific bell-ringing hich my ears were assailed, for there are churches every where The country people were engaged in sowing their grain, to reap it in Septeht months earlier, as unnecessary and even prejudicial to the crops, but I do not knohere the right lies
Perhaps we ht, 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 nextthe 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 pro days, Zaira, who had been tutored by hted to shew me that she orthy 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 hter, my mistress, or my servant, for in this ent 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 er 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 Moscohich they consider as their native land
They look on St Petersburg with an envious eye, and call it the ruin of Russia I do not knohether 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 etting the fa like ours, but areby a rope attached to the clapper
I thought the Moscoo, 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 ood fare in plenty, but no delicacy in its coement Their table is always open to friends and acquaintances, and a friendto 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 coh for theiven 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 nuht, nourishi+ng, 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 roo in e and then a bow to the e is absent, the Russian, after gazing all round, stands confused and eneral rule the Muscovites are the y is in Greek, of which the people understand nothing, and the clergy, theladly leave theion I could never make them understand that the only reason for the Roht, while the Greeks ht to left, is that we say 'spiritus sancti', while they say 'agion pneuion,” 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 na 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 e 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 hihter, which h 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,--