appearance. Both are young men, and
both are in hunting costume; but so unlike in their dress, that you
could not fancy they followed the same occupation. He upon the ground
is richly attired. He wears a tunic of finest green cloth slashed with
sable fur on the skirt, collar, and sleeves; his limbs are encased in
breeches of white doeskin; and his boots, reaching nearly to his thighs,
are of soft russet leather, ample at the tops. A belt around his waist
is richly embroidered; and the hilt of a short hunting-sword, protruding
from the sheath, appears chased and studded with jewels. A light plumed
hat lies upon the ground near his head--evidently tossed off in the
struggle--and beside it is a boar-spear that has been jerked out of his
fingers as he fell. The whole costume is similar to that used upon the
stage--when some young German or Sclavonian prince is represented as
hunting the wild boar in the forests of Lithuania.

In reality it is a prince who is depicted in the group of the gallery
Grodonoff--but not a German prince. He is a Russian, and the bear is
the Russian bear.

The other hunter--he who had given its death-blow to the fierce
quadruped--is dressed in a style entirely different. It is the costume
of a fur-hunter--a trapper of sables--and consists of skin coat and cap,
with a strong leathern belt round his waist, and rough boots of untanned
hide upon his legs and feet. The costume is rude, and bespeaks him a
peasant; but his face, as the painter has represented it, is neither
common nor ill-looking. It is not so handsome as that of the prince:
for he would be an unskilful artist--one utterly reckless of his own
fortune--who should paint the features of a peasant as handsome as those
of a prince. In Russia, as elsewhere, such an imprudent painter would
be a _rara avis_ indeed.

The picture of which we are speaking is the _piece de resistance_ of the
Grodonoff gallery. Its size and conspicuous position declare the fact;
and the story attached to it will show that it merits the distinction.
But for that picture, or rather the scene which it represents, there
would be no Grodonoff gallery--no palace--no baron of the name.
Paintings, palace, title, all have their origin in the incident there
represented--the battle with the bear.

The story is simple and may be briefly told. As, already stated, he
upon his back, hat off, and spear detached from his grasp, is a Russian
prince--or rather was one,