An Imperial Fete.--Nicolas of Russia.--Varied Splendours.--A
Soliloquy.--House of Peter the Great.--A
Boatrace.--Czarskoselo.--The Amber Chamber.--Catharine II.--The
Emperor Alexander.
THE next day was that appointed for the great fete at Peterhoff. In
spite of the confining nature of his two suits, my Pole had determined
to accompany me thither, being prompted somewhat by the expectation of
seeing his damsel; and, no way disheartened by the fate of his first
letter, he had manufactured another, by comparison with which the first
was an icicle. I admitted it to be a masterpiece, though when he gave it
to a servant to carry over, as we were on the point of setting off,
suggested that it might be worth while to wait and pick it up when she
threw it out of the window. But he had great confidence, and thought
much better of her spirit for sending back his first letter.
The whole population of Petersburgh was already in motion and on the way
to Peterhoff. It was expected that the fete would be more than usually
splendid, on account of the presence of the Queen of Holland, then on a
visit to her sister the empress; and at an early hour the splendid
equipages of the nobility, carriages, droskys, telegas, and carts, were
hurrying along the banks of the Neva, while steamboats, sailboats,
rowboats, and craft of every description were gliding on the bosom of
the river.
As the least trouble, we chose a steamboat, and at twelve o'clock
embarked at the English Quay. The boat was crowded with passengers, and
among them was an old English gentleman, a merchant of thirty years'
standing in St. Petersburgh. I soon became acquainted with him, how I do
not know, and his lady told me that the first time I passed them she
remarked to her husband that I was an American. The reader may remember
that a lady made the same remark at Smyrna; without knowing exactly how
to understand it, I mention it as a fact showing the nice discrimination
acquired by persons in the habit of seeing travellers from different
countries. Before landing, the old gentleman told me that his boys had
gone down in a pleasure-boat, abundantly provided with materials, and
asked me to go on board and lunch with them, which, upon the invitation
being extended to my friend, I accepted.
Peterhoff is about twenty-five versts from St. Petersburgh, and the
whole bank of the Neva on that side is adorned with palaces and
beautiful summer residences of the Russian seigneurs. It stands at the
mouth of the Neva, on the borders of the Gulf of Finland. Opposite is
the city of Cronstadt, the seaport of St. Petersburgh and the anchorage
of the Russian fleet. It was then crowded with merchant ships of every
nation, with flags of every colour streaming from their spars in honour
of the day. On landing, we accompanied our new friends, and found "the
boys," three fine young fellows just growing up to manhood, in a
handsome little pleasure-boat, with a sail arranged as an awning,
waiting for their parents. We were introduced and received with open
arms, and sat down to a cold collation in good old English style, at
which, for the first time since I left home, I fastened upon an
oldfashioned sirloin of roastbeef. It was a delightful meeting for me.
The old people talked to me about my travels; and the old lady
particularly, with almost a motherly interest in a straggling young man,
inquired about my parents, brothers, and sisters, &c.; and I made my way
with the frankhearted "boys" by talking "boat." Altogether, it was a
regular home family scene; and, after the lunch, we left the old people
under the awning, promising to return at nine o'clock for tea, and with
"the boys" set off to view the fete.
From the time when we entered the grounds until we left at three o'clock
the next morning, the whole was a fairy scene. The grounds extended some
distance along the shore, and the palace stands on an embankment perhaps
a hundred and fifty feet high, commanding a full view of the Neva,
Cronstadt with its shipping, and the Gulf of Finland. We followed along
the banks of a canal five hundred yards long, bordered by noble trees.
On each side of the canal were large wooden frames about sixty feet
high, filled with glass lamps for the illumination; and at the foot of
each was another high framework with lamps, forming, among other things,
the arms of Russia, the double-headed eagle, and under it a gigantic
star thirty or forty feet in diameter. At the head of the canal was a
large basin of water, and in the centre of the basin stood a colossal
group in brass, of a man tearing open the jaws of a rampant lion; and
out of the mouth of the lion rushed a jet d'eau perhaps a hundred and
fifty feet high. On each side of this basin, at a distance of about
three hundred feet, was a smaller basin, with a jet d'eau in each about
half its height, and all around were jets d'eau of various kinds,
throwing water vertically and horizontally; among them I remember a
figure larger than life, leaning forward in the attitude of a man
throwing the discus, with a powerful stream of water rushing from his
clinched fist. These basins were at the foot of the embankment on which
stands the palace. In the centre was a broad flight of steps leading to
the palace, and on each side was a continuous range of marble slabs to
the top of the hill, over which poured down a sheet of water, the slabs
being placed so high and far apart as to allow lamps to be arranged
behind the water. All over, along the public walks and in retired
alcoves, were frames hung with lamps; and everywhere, under the trees
and on the open lawn, were tents of every size and fashion, beautifully
decorated; many of them, oriental in style and elegance, were fitted up
as places of refreshment. Thousands of people, dressed in their best
attire, were promenading the grounds, but no vehicles were to be seen,
until, in turning a point, we espied at some distance up an avenue, and
coming quietly toward us, a plain open carriage, with two horses and two
English jockey outriders, in which were a gentleman and lady, whom,
without the universal taking off of hats around us, I recognised at once
as the emperor and empress. I am not apt to be carried away by any
profound admiration for royalty, but, without consideration of their
rank, I never saw a finer specimen of true gentility; in fact, he looked
every inch a king, and she was my beau ideal of a queen in appearance
and manners. They bowed as they passed, and, as I thought, being outside
of the line of Russians and easily recognised as a stranger, their
courtesy was directed particularly to me; but I found that my companion
took it very much to himself, and no doubt every long-bearded Russian
near us did the same. In justice to myself, however, I may almost say
that I had a conversation with the emperor; for although his imperial
highness did not speak to me, he spoke in a language which none but I
(and the queen and his jockey outriders) understood; for, waving his
hand to them, I heard him say in English, "To the right." After this
_interview_ with his majesty we walked up to the palace. The splendid
regiments of cavalier guards were drawn up around it, every private
carrying himself like a prince; and I did not admire all his palaces,
nor hardly his queen, so much as this splendid body of armed followers.
Behind the palace is a large plain cut up into gravel-walks, having in
one place a basin of water, with waterworks of various kinds, among
which were some of peculiar beauty falling in the form of a semiglobe.
A little before dark we retired to a refectory under a tent until the
garden was completely lighted up, that we might have the full effect of
the illumination at one coup d'oeil, and, when we went out, the dazzling
brilliancy of the scene within the semicircular illumination around the
waterworks was beyond description. This semicircular framework enclosed
in a large sweep the three basins, and terminated at the embankment on
which the palace stands, presenting all around an immense fiery scroll
in the air, sixty or eighty feet high, and filled with all manner of
devices; and for its background a broad sheet of water falling over a
range of steps, with lighted lamps behind it, forming an illuminated
cascade, while the basins were blazing with the light thrown upon them
from myriads of lamps, and the colossal figures of a reddened and
unearthly hue were spouting columns of water into the air. More than two
hundred thousand people were supposed to be assembled in the garden, in
every variety of gay, brilliant, and extraordinary costume. St.
Petersburgh was half depopulated, and thousands of peasants were
assembled from the neighbouring provinces. I was accidentally separated
from all my companions; and, alone among thousands, sat down on the
grass, and for an hour watched the throng passing through the
illuminated circle, and ascending the broad steps leading toward the
palace. Among all this immense crowd there was no rabble; not a dress
that could offend the eye; but intermingled with the ordinary costumes
of Europeans were the Russian shopkeeper, with his long surtout, his
bell-crowned hat, and solemn beard; Cossacks, and Circassian soldiers,
and Calmuc Tartars, and cavalier guards, hussars, with the sleeves of
their rich jackets dangling loose over their shoulders, tossing plumes,
and helmets glittering with steel, intermingled throughout with the gay
dresses of ladies; while near me, and, like me, carelessly stretched on
the grass, under the light of thousands of lamps, was a group of
peasants from Finland fiddling and dancing; the women with light hair,
bands around their heads, and long jackets enwrapping their square
forms, and the men with long greatcoats, broad-brimmed hats, and a bunch
of shells in front.
Leaving this brilliant scene, I joined the throng on the steps, and by
the side of a splendid hussar, stooping his manly figure to whisper in
the ears of a lovely young girl, I ascended to the palace and presented
my ticket of admission to the bal masque, so called from their being no
masks there. I had not been presented at court, and, consequently, had
only admission to the outer apartments with the people. I had, however,
the range of a succession of splendid rooms, richly decorated with vases
and tazzas of precious stones, candelabra, couches, ottomans, superb
mirrors, and inlaid floors; and the centre room, extending several
hundred feet in length, had its lofty walls covered to the very ceilings
with portraits of all the female beauties in Russia about eighty years
ago. I was about being tired of gazing at these pictures of
long-sleeping beauties, when the great doors at one end were thrown
open, and the emperor and empress, attended by the whole court, passed
through on their way to the banqueting-hall. Although I had been in
company with the emperor before in the garden, and though I had taken
off my hat to the empress, both passed without recognising me. The court
at St. Petersburgh is admitted to be the most brilliant in Europe; the
dresses of the members of the diplomatic corps and the uniforms of the
general and staff-officers being really magnificent, while those of the
ladies sparkled with jewels. Besides the emperor and empress, the only
acquaintance I recognised in that constellation of brilliantly-dressed
people were Mr. Wilkins and Mr. Clay, who, for republicans, made a very
fair blaze. I saw them enter the banqueting-hall, painted in oriental
style to represent a tent, and might have had the pleasure of seeing the
emperor and empress and all that brilliant collection eat; but, turning
away from a noise that destroyed much of the illusion, viz., the clatter
of knives and forks, and a little piqued at the cavalier treatment I had
received from the court circles, I went out on the balcony and
soliloquized, "Fine feathers make fine birds; but look back a little, ye
dashing cavaliers and supercilious ladies. In the latter part of the
seventeenth century, a French traveller in Russia wrote that 'most men
treat their wives as a necessary evil, regarding them with a proud and
stern eye, and even beating them after.' Dr. Collins, physician to the
Czar in 1670, as an evidence of the progress of civilization in Russia,
says that the custom of tying up wives by the hair of the head and
flogging them 'begins to be left off;' accounting for it, however, by
the prudence of parents, who made a stipulative provision in the
marriage contract that their daughters were not to be whipped, struck,
kicked, &c. But, even in this improved state of society, one man 'put
upon his wife a shirt dipped in ardent spirits, and burned her to
death,' and was not punished, there being, according to the doctor, 'no
punishment in Russia for killing a wife or a slave.' When no provision
was made in the marriage contract, he says they were accustomed to
discipline their wives very severely. At the marriage the bridegroom had
a whip in one boot and a jewel in the other, and this poor girl tried
her fortune by choosing. 'If she happens upon the jewel,' says another
traveller, 'she is lucky; but if on the whip, she gets it.' The
bridegroom rarely saw his companion's face till after the marriage,
when, it is said, 'If she be ugly she pays for it soundly, maybe the
first time he sees her.' Ugliness being punished with the whip, the
women painted to great excess; and a traveller in sixteen hundred and
thirty-six saw the grand duchess and her ladies on horseback astride,
'most wickedly bepainted.' The day after a lady had been at an
entertainment, the hostess was accustomed to ask how she got home; and
the polite answer was, 'Your ladyship's hospitality made me so tipsy
that I don't know how I got home;' and for the climax of their barbarity
it can scarcely be believed, but it is recorded as a fact, that the
women did not begin to wear stays till the beginning of the present
century!"
Soothed by these rather ill-natured reflections, I turned to the
illuminated scene and the thronging thousands below, descended once more
to the garden, passed down the steps, worked my way through the crowd,
and fell into a long avenue, like all the rest of the garden,
brilliantly lighted, but entirely deserted. At the end of the avenue I
came to an artificial lake, opposite which was a small square two-story
cottage, being the old residence of Peter the Great, the founder of all
the magnificence of Peterhoff. It was exactly in the style of our
ordinary country houses, and the furniture was of a simplicity that
contrasted strangely with the surrounding luxury and splendour. The door
opened into a little hall, in which were two oldfashioned Dutch mahogany
tables, with oval leaves, legs tapering and enlarging at the feet into
something like a horseshoe; just such a table as every one may remember
in his grandfather's house, and recalling to mind the simple style of
our own country some thirty or forty years ago. In a room on one side
was the old Czar's bed, a low, broad wooden bedstead, with a sort of
canopy over it, the covering of the canopy and the coverlet being of
striped calico; the whole house, inside and out, was hung with lamps,
illumining with a glare that was almost distressing the simplicity of
Peter's residence; and, as if to give greater contrast to this
simplicity, while I was standing in the door of the hall, I saw roll by
me in splendid equipages, the emperor and empress, with the whole of the
brilliant court which I had left in the banqueting-hall, now making a
tour of the gardens. The carriages were all of one pattern, long, hung
low, without any tops, and somewhat like our omnibuses, except that,
instead of the seats being on one side, there was a partition in the
middle not higher than the back of a sofa, with large seats like sofas
on each side, on which the company sat in a row, with their backs to
each other; in front was a high and large box for the coachmen, and a
footman behind. It was so light that I could distinguish the face of
every gentleman and lady as they passed; and there was something so
unique in the exhibition, that, with the splendour of the court dresses,
it seemed the climax of the brilliant scenes at Peterhoff. I followed
them with my eyes till they were out of sight, gave one more look to the
modest pillow on which old Peter reposed his careworn head, and at about
one o'clock in the morning left the garden. A frigate brilliantly
illuminated was firing a salute, the flash of her guns lighting up the
dark surface of the water as I embarked on board the steamboat. At two
o'clock the morning twilight was like that of day; at three o'clock I
was at my hotel, and, probably, at ten minutes past, asleep.
About eight o'clock the next morning my Pole came into my room. He had
returned from Peterhoff before me, and found waiting for him his second
epistle, with a note from the mother of the young lady, which he read to
me as I lay in bed. Though more than half asleep, I was rather roused by
the strange effect this letter had upon him, for he was now encouraged
to go on with his suit, since he found that the backwardness of the
young lady was to be ascribed to the influence of the mother, and not to
any indifference on her part.
In the afternoon I went to a boatrace between English amateurs that had
excited some interest among the English residents. The boats were badly
matched; a six-oared boat thirty-two feet long, and weighing two hundred
and thirty pounds, being pitted against three pairs of sculls, with a
boat twenty-eight feet long and weighing only one hundred and eight
pounds. One belonged to the English legation and the other to some
English merchants. The race was from the English Quay to the bridge
opposite the Suwarrow monument at the foot of the Summer Garden, and
back, a little more than two miles each way. The rapidity of the current
was between two and three miles an hour, though its full strength was
avoided by both boats keeping in the eddies along shore. It was a
beautiful place for a boatrace; the banks of the Neva were lined with
spectators, and the six-oared boat beat easily, performing the distance
in thirty-one minutes.
The next morning, in company with a Frenchman lately arrived at our
hotel, I set out for the imperial palace of Czarskoselo, about seventeen
versts from St. Petersburgh. About seven versts from the city we passed
the imperial seat of Zechenne, built by the Empress Catharine to
commemorate the victory obtained by Orloff over the Turks on the coast
of Anatolia. The edifice is in the form of a Turkish pavilion, with a
central rotunda containing the full-length portraits of the sovereigns
cotemporary with Catharine. Since her death this palace has been
deserted. In eighteen hundred and twenty-five, Alexander and the empress
passed it on their way to the south of Russia, and about eight months
after their mortal remains found shelter in it for a night, on their way
to the imperial sepulchre. There was no other object of interest on the
road until we approached Czarskoselo. Opposite the "Caprice Gate" is a
cluster of white houses, in two rows, of different sizes, diminishing as
they recede from the road, and converging at the farthest extremity;
altogether a bizarre arrangement, and showing the magnificence of
Russian gallantry. The Empress Catharine at the theatre one night
happened to express her pleasure at the perspective view of a small
town, and the next time she visited Czarskoselo she saw the scene
realized in a town erected by Count Orloff at immense expense before the
gate of the palace. The facade of the palace is unequalled by any royal
residence in the world, being twelve hundred feet in length. Originally,
every statue, pedestal, and capital of the numerous columns; the vases,
carvings, and other ornaments in front, were covered with gold leaf, the
gold used for that purpose amounting to more than a million of ducats.
In a few years the gilding wore off, and the contractors engaged in
repairing it offered the empress nearly half a million of rubles
(silver) for the fragments of gold; but the empress scornfully refused,
saying, "Je ne suis pas dans l'usage de vendre mes vielles hardes." I
shall not attempt to carry the reader through the magnificent apartments
of this palace. But I must not forget the famed amber chamber, the whole
walls and ceilings being of amber, some of the pieces of great size,
neatly fitted together, and even the frames of the pictures an elaborate
workmanship of the same precious material. But even this did not strike
me so forcibly as when, conducted through a magnificent apartment, the
walls covered with black paper shining like ebony, and ornamented with
gold and immense looking-glasses, the footman opened a window at the
other end, and we looked down into the chapel, an Asiatic structure,
presenting an _ensemble_ of rich gilding of surpassing beauty, every
part of it, the groups of columns, the iconastos, and the gallery for
the imperial family, resplendent with gold. In one of the staterooms
where the empress's mother resides, the floor consists of a parquet of
fine wood inlaid with wreaths of mother-of-pearl, and the panels of the
room were incrusted with lapis lazuli.
But to me all these magnificent chambers were as nothing compared with
those which were associated with the memory of the late occupant.
"Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown;" and perhaps it is for this
reason that I like to look upon the pillow of a king, far more on that
of a queen. The bedchamber of Catharine II. is adorned with walls of
porcelain and pillars of purple glass; the bedclothes are those under
which she slept the last time she was at the palace, and in one place
was a concealed door, by which, as the unmannerly footman, without any
respect to her memory, told us, her imperial highness admitted her
six-feet paramours. In the bedchamber of Alexander were his cap, gloves,
boots, and other articles of dress, lying precisely as he left them
previous to his departure for the southern part of his empire. His bed
was of leather, stuffed with straw, and his boots were patched over and
over worse than mine, which I had worn all the way from Paris. I tried
on his cap and gloves, and moralized over his patched boots. I
remembered Alexander as the head of a gigantic empire, the friend and
ally, and then the deadly foe of Napoleon; the companion of kings and
princes; the arbiter of thrones and empires, and playing with crowns and
sceptres. I sat with the patched boots in my hand. Like old Peter, he
had considerable of a foot, and I respected him for it. I saw him, as
it were, in an undress, simple and unostentatious in his habits; and
there was a domestic air in his whole suite of apartments that
interested me more than when I considered him on his throne. His
sitting-room showed quiet and gentlemanly as well as domestic habits,
for along the wall was a border of earth, with shrubs and flowers
growing out of it, a delicate vine trailed around and almost covering a
little mahogany railing. The grounds around the palace are eighteen
miles in circumference, abounding in picturesque and beautiful scenery,
improved by taste and an unbounded expenditure of money, and at this
time they were in the fulness of summer beauty. We may talk simplicity
and republicanism, but, after all, it must be a pleasant thing to be an
emperor. I always felt this, particularly when strolling through
imperial parks or pleasure-grounds, and sometimes I almost came to the
unsentimental conclusion that, to be rural, a man must be rich.
We wandered through the grounds without any plan, taking any path that
offered, and at every step some new beauty broke upon us: a theatre;
Turkish kiosk or Chinese pagoda; splendid bridges, arches, and columns;
and an Egyptian gate; a summer-house in the form of an Ionic colonnade,
a masterpiece of taste and elegance, supporting an aerial garden crowded
with flowers; and a Gothic building called the Admiralty, on the borders
of an extensive lake, on which lay several boats--rigged as frigates,
elegant barges and pleasure-boats, and beautiful white swans floating
majestically upon its surface; on the islands and the shores of the lake
were little summer-houses; at the other end was a magnificent stone
landing, and in full view a marble bridge, with Corinthian columns of
polished marble; an arsenal, with many curious and interesting objects,
antique suits of armour, and two splendid sets of horse trappings,
holsters, pistols, and bridles, all studded with diamonds, presented by
the sultan on occasion of the peace of Adrianople. Nor must I forget the
dairy, and a superb collection of goats and lamas from Siberia. Amid
this congregation of beauties one thing offended me; a Gothic tower
built as a ruin for the sake of the picturesque, which, wanting the
associations connected with monuments ruined by time, struck me as a
downright mockery. We had intended to visit the palace of Paulowsky, but
time slipped away, and it was six o'clock before we started to return to
St. Petersburgh.