arles spaniel, and the duke was
beating him with all his might with the heavy handle of a whip. I
interceded for the poor beast; but this only made him redouble his
blows. Unable to bear so cruel a scene, I returned to my room with
tears in my eyes. In general, tears and cries, instead of moving the
duke to pity, put him in a passion. Pity was a feeling that was
painful and even insupportable in his mind."

At one time there was a little hunchback girl in the court, upon whom
the duke fixed his vagrant desires, and she became his unconcealed
favorite. The duke was ever in the habit of talking freely with
Catharine about his paramours and praising their excellent qualities.

"Madame Vladisma said to me," writes Catharine, "that every one was
disgusted to see this little hunchback preferred to me. 'It can not be
helped,' I said, as the tears started to my eyes. I went to bed;
scarcely was I asleep, when the grand duke also came to bed. As he was
tipsy and knew not what he was doing, he spoke to me for the purpose
of expatiating on the eminent qualities of his favorite. To check his
garrulity I pretended to be fast asleep. He spoke still louder in
order to wake me; but finding that I slept, he gave me two or three
rather hard blows in the side with his fist, and dropped asleep
himself. I wept long and bitterly that night, as well on account of
the matter itself and the blows he had given me, as on that of my
general situation, which was, in all respects, as disagreeable as it
was wearisome."

One of the ridiculous and disgraceful amusements of the vulgar men and
women collected in the court of Elizabeth, was what was called
masquerade balls, in which all the men were required to dress as
women, and all the women as men, and yet no masks were worn.

"The men," Catharine writes, "wore large whaleboned petticoats, with
women's gowns, and the head-dresses worn on court days, while the
women appeared in the court costume of men. The men did not like these
reversals of their sex, and the greater part of them were in the worst
possible humor on these occasions, because they felt themselves to be
hideous in such disguises. The women looked like scrubby little boys,
while the more aged among them had thick short legs which were any
thing but ornamental. The only woman who looked really well, and
completely a man, was the empress herself. As she was very tall and
somewhat powerful, male attire suited her wonderfully well. She ha