r yesterday, but only saw his back, for I never
thought of looking at a man's face who had only a black coat on.

You may safely rest in your belief that I do not enjoy anything I see or
hear without telling it to you, and you are quite right in your
conjecture as to what your feelings would be here.

I have thought and said a hundred times what a fever of impatience
disappointment, and fatigue you would be in.... You are also right in
supposing that you know as much or more of the Emperor than I do, for
one has not the time nor the inclination to read what one has the chance
of seeing all the day long, and it is so entertaining that I feel it
quite impossible to sit quiet and content when you know what is going
on.

One person meets another: "What are you here for?" "I don't know. What
are you expecting to see?" One says the Emperor is gone this way, and
another that way, and of all the talking couples or trios that pass you
in the street, there are not two where the word "Emperor" or "King" or
"Bluecher" is not in one, if not both mouths; and all a foxhound's
sagacity is necessary to scent him successfully, for he slips round by
backways and in plain clothes.

_Mrs. E. Stanley to Lady Maria Stanley._

LONDON, _June 17, 1814_.

We were in high luck on Sunday in getting a private interview with the
Cossacks, through some General of M.'s acquaintance. We saw their horses
and the white one, 20 years old, which has carried Platoff[34] through
all his engagements. They are small horses with very thick legs. The
Cossacks themselves would not open the door of their room till luckily a
gentleman who could speak Russian came up, and then we were admitted.

There were four, one who had been thirty years in the service, with a
long beard and answering exactly my idea of a Cossack; the others,
younger men with fine countenances and something graceful and
gentleman-like in their figure and manner. They were very happy to talk,
and there was great intelligence and animation in their eyes. No wonder
they defy the weather with their cloaks made of black sheepskin and
lined with some very thick cloth which makes them quite impenetrable to
cold or wet. Their lances were 11 feet long, and they were dressed in
blue jacket and trousers confined round the waist with a leather belt,
in which was a rest for the lance. I envied their saddles, which have a
sort of pommel behind and before, between which is placed a cushion, on
which t