ge my room, had no other to
give me, and I therefore resigned myself. But soon, seeming to observe
that the intolerable stench came from a glazed door in the room, I
called for a waiter, and questioned him as to the door. "Oh!" he
calmly replied, "there has been a dead man behind that door since
yesterday. That is probably what you smell." I waited for no further
particulars, got up, had my horses harnessed, and started, taking
nothing with me but a piece of bread to continue my journey to Moscow.

I had accomplished but half of the journey whose second part was to be
more fatiguing than the first. Not that there were any high hills, but
the road consisted of perpetual ups and downs--which I called torture.
The climax to my annoyance was that I could not amuse myself with a
view of the country through which I was travelling, since a thick fog
veiled the scene on all sides, and this always depresses me. If one
considers, besides these tribulations, the diet I was restricted to
after I had eaten my piece of bread, it will readily be conceived that
I must have found the road very long.

At length I arrived in the former immense capital of Russia. I seemed
to be entering Ispahan, of which place I had seen several drawings, so
much does the aspect of Moscow differ from everything else in Europe.
Nor will I attempt to describe the effect of those thousands of gilded
cupolas surmounted with huge gold crosses, those broad streets, those
superb palaces, for the most part situated so far asunder that
villages intervened. To obtain a right idea of Moscow, you must see
it.

I was driven to the mansion which M. Dimidoff had been kind enough to
lend me. This enormous building had in front of it a large courtyard
surrounded by very high railings. It was untenanted, and I promised
myself perfect peace. After all my fatigue and my forced diet, my
first concern, as soon as I had appeased my hunger, was, of course, to
sleep. But, bad luck to it! at five o'clock in the morning I was
awakened with a start by an infernal din. A large troop of those
Russian musicians who only blow one note each on their horns had
established themselves in the room next to mine to practise. Perhaps
the room was very spacious and the only one suitable for this kind of
rehearsal. I was careful to inquire of the porter if this music was
played every day. Upon his answer that, the palace being uninhabited,
the largest apartment had been devoted to this purpose,