mirthfulness,
never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which I had so often
noticed in the northern parts of Germany, and which may in part be
attributed to the naturally orderly and conservative character of the
people, are by no means prominent features in the principal cities of
Russia.

Soldiers, indeed, there are in abundance every where throughout the
dominions of the Czar, and the constant rattle of musketry and clang
of arms show that the liberty of the people is not altogether without
limit.

CHAPTER IX.

THE NOSE REGIMENT.

I saw nothing in the line of military service that interested me more
than the Imperial Guard. Without vouching for the truth of the whole
story connected with the history of this famous regiment, I give it as
related to me by Dominico, merely stating as a fact within my own
observation that there is no question whatever about the peculiarity
of their features. It seems that the Emperor Nicholas, shortly before
the Crimean War, discovered by some means that the best fighting men
in his dominions belonged to a certain wild tribe from the north,
distinguished for the extreme ugliness of their faces. The most
remarkable feature was the nose, which stood straight out from the
base of the forehead in the form of a triangle, presenting in front
the appearance of a double-barreled pistol. A stiff grizzly mustache
underneath gave them a peculiarly ferocious expression, so that brave
men quailed, and women and children fled from them in terror. The
emperor gave orders that all men in the ranks possessed of these
frightful noses should be brought before him. Finding, when they were
mustered together, that there was not over one company, he caused a
general average of the noses to be taken, from which he had a diagram
carefully prepared and disseminated throughout the empire, calling
upon the military commanders of the provinces to send him recruits
corresponding with the prescribed formula.

In due time he was enabled to muster a thousand of these ferocious
barbarians, whom he caused to be carefully drilled and disciplined. He
kept them in St. Petersburg under his own immediate supervision till
some time after the attack upon Sebastopol, when, finding the fortunes
of war likely to go against him, he sent them down to the Crimea, with
special instructions to the commander-in-chief to rely upon them in
any emergency. In compliance with the imperial order, they were at
once pla