heated in winter by subterranean fires,
and sheltered by glass from the changeable weather at all times. At
night these gardens were illumined by fancy-colored lamps; and report
says that in the artificial groves and beneath the screen of tropical
plants scenes not quite decorous in a royal household were often
enacted. The will of the Empress was law; no one might question the
propriety of her conduct. Famous men from far and near became her
guests, musicians displayed their special talents, and various
celebrities their wit. With all her recklessness, dissipation, and
indelicacy, Catherine II. was a woman of great intellectual power
and of keen insight, possessing remarkable business capacity. Well
has she been called the Semiramis of the North. One evidence of her
practical character was evinced by her promotion of emigration from
foreign countries. By liberal gratuities transmitted through her
diplomatic agents in Western Europe, she induced artisans and farmers
to remove to her domain, and placing these people in well-selected
centres did much towards civilizing the semi-barbarous hordes over
whom she ruled. The visitor to the Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg
will not fail to regard with interest a fine original portrait of the
Empress, representing a woman of commanding presence, with a large
handsome figure, big gray eyes, and blooming complexion.

Among other royal residences the Marble Palace erected by Catherine
for Prince Gregory Orlof stands but a short distance from the
Hermitage eastward. The Castle of St. Michael situated near the
Fontanka Canal was built by the Emperor Paul; and here he met his
sanguinary death. This structure is magnificently decorated. Close at
hand on the canal is the modern Michael Palace, before which
Alexander II. fell shattered by a Nihilist bomb on the 13th day of
March, 1881. Fortunately it also killed the miserable assassin who
threw it. The Taurida Palace presented by Catherine to her favorite
Potemkin is still a wonder of elegance, and is considered an object
of much interest to strangers, to whom it is freely shown at the
expense of the usual gratuities, though it is now occupied by an
humble branch of the imperial family. The ball-room is of enormous
proportions: here the musicians were originally suspended in the
chandeliers! When this gorgeous apartment was fully prepared for a
public entertainment, it required twenty thousand candles to light it
properly. The Amirtchko