gers to offer them for the first course a
service similar to that before us; and if they were inclined to accept
the invitation, he would fight them as much as they pleased, but if
they could not relish the pistol-bullets, &c., he would conclude them
peaceable, and try what better politeness he could show them in his
castle. In short, the first course being removed untouched, we dined,
and after dinner the governor forced the company to push the bottle
about with alacrity and to excess. He informed us that he was the
Nareskin Rowskimowmowsky, who had retired amidst these wilds, disgusted
with the court of Petersburgh. I was rejoiced to meet him; I recollected
my old friend, whom I had known at the court of Russia, when I rejected
the hand of the Empress. The Nareskin, with all his knights-companions,
drank to an astonishing degree, and we all set off upon hobby horses
in full cry out of the castle. Never was there seen such a cavalcade
before. In front galloped a hundred knights belonging to the castle,
with hunting horns and a pack of excellent dogs; and then came the
Nareskin Rowskimowmowsky, Gog and Magog, Hilaro Frosticos, and your
humble servant, hallooing and shouting like so many demoniacs, and
spurring our hobby horses at an infernal rate until we arrived in the
kingdom of Loggerheads. The kingdom of Loggerheads was wilder than any
part of Siberia, and the Nareskin had here built a romantic summer-house
in a Gothic taste, to which he would frequently retire with his company
after dinner. The Nareskin had a dozen bears of enormous stature that
danced for our amusement, and their chiefs performed the _minuet de la
cour_ to admiration. And here the most noble Hilaro Frosticos thought
proper to ask the Nareskin some intelligence about Wauwau, in quest of
whom we had travelled over such a tract of country, and encountered so
many dangerous adventures, and also invited the Nareskin Rowskimowmowsky
to attend us with all his bears in the expedition. The Nareskin appeared
astonished at the idea; he looked with infinite hauteur and ferocity on
Hilaro, and affecting a violent passion asked him, "Did he imagine
that the Nareskin Rowskimowmowsky could condescend to take notice of
a Wauwau, let her fly what way she would! Or did he think a chief
possessing such blood in his veins could engage in such a foreign
pursuit? By the blood and by the ashes of my great grandmother, I would
cut off your head!"

Hilaro Frosticos resente