ot make part of the
procession, still watched its passage in motionless attention, as if
gazing upon the flashing line of light of some brilliant meteor.

In this land of aristocratic democracy, the numerous dependents of the
great seigniorial houses, (too poor, indeed, to take part in the fete,
yet only excluded from it by their own volition, all, however noble,
some even more noble than their lords,) being all present, it was
considered highly desirable to dazzle them; and this flowing chain
of rainbow-hued and gorgeous light, like an immense serpent with
its glittering rings, sometimes wreathed its linked folds, sometimes
uncoiled its entire length, to display its brilliancy through the
whole line of its undulating animated surface, in the most vivid
scintillations; accompanying the shifting hues with the silvery sounds
of chains of gold, ringing like muffled bells; with the rustling of the
heavy sweep of gorgeous damasks and with the dragging of jewelled
swords upon the floor. The murmuring sound of many voices announced the
approach of this animated, varied, and glittering life-stream.

But the genius of hospitality, never deficient in high-born courtesy,
and which, even while preserving the touching simplicity of primitive
manners, inspired in Poland all the refinements of the most advanced
state of civilization,--how could it be exiled from the details of a
dance so eminently Polish? After the host had, by inaugurating the fete,
rendered due homage to all who were present, any one of his guests had
the right to claim his place with the lady whom he had honored by his
choice. The new claimant, clapping his hands, to arrest for a moment the
ever moving cortege, bowed before the partner of the host, begging her
graciously to accept the change; while the host, from whom she had been
taken, made the same appeal to the lady next in course. This example was
followed by the whole train. Constantly changing partners, whenever a
new cavalier claimed the honor of leading the one first chosen by
the host, the ladies remained in the same succession during the whole
course; while, on the contrary, as the gentlemen continually replaced
each other, he who had commenced the dance, would, in its progress,
become the last, if not indeed entirely excluded before its close.

Each cavalier who placed himself in turn at the head of the column,
tried to surpass his predecessors in the novelty of the combinations of
his opening, in the