enes the imperial pleasure party rode, until a high
mountain appeared through an avenue cut in the forest, representing
Mount Vesuvius during an eruption. Vast billows of flame were rolling
to the skies, and the whole region was illumined with a blaze of
light. The spectators had hardly recovered from the astonishment which
this display caused, when the train suddenly entered a Chinese
village, which proved to be but the portal to the imperial palace of
Tzarkoselo. The palace was lighted with an infinite number of wax
candles. For two hours the guests amused themselves with dancing.
Suddenly there was a grand discharge of cannon. The candles were
immediately extinguished, and a magnificent display of fireworks,
extending along the whole breadth of the palace, converted night into
day. Again there was a thundering discharge of artillery, when, as by
enchantment, the candles blazed anew, and a sumptuous supper was
served up. After the entertainment, dancing was renewed, and was
continued until morning.

The empress had a private palace at St. Petersburg which she called
her Hermitage, where she received none but her choicest friends. This
sumptuous edifice merits some minuteness of description. It consisted
of a suite of apartments containing every thing which the most
voluptuous and exquisite taste could combine. The spacious building
was connected with the imperial palace by a covered arch. It would
require a volume to describe the treasures of art and industry with
which it abounded. Here the empress had her private library and her
private picture gallery. Raphael's celebrated gallery in the Vatican
at Rome was exactly repeated here with the most accurate copies of all
the paintings, corner pieces and other ornaments of the same size and
in the same situations. Medals, engravings, curious pieces of art,
models of mechanical inventions and collections of specimens of
minerals and of objects of natural history crowded the cabinets.
Chambers were arranged for all species of amusements. A pleasure
garden was constructed upon arches, with furnaces beneath them in
winter, that the plants might ever enjoy genial heat. This garden was
covered with fine brass wire, that the birds from all countries,
singing among the trees and shrubs, or hopping along the grass plots
and gravel walks, and which the empress was accustomed to feed with
her own hand, might not escape. While the storms of a Russian winter
were howling without, the