d
with towers, I was shown a bell of colossal dimensions half-embedded
in the ground, and I was told it had never been possible to raise it
in order to hang it in the palace chapel.

The cemeteries at Moscow are stupendous, and following the custom
prevailing all over Russia, several times a year, but especially on
the day that in Russia corresponds to our Death Day, the cemeteries
are filled with vast crowds. Men and women kneel at their family
tombs, and there give vent to loud lamentations, which may be heard a
long way off.

A habit as universal in Moscow as in St. Petersburg is the taking of
steam baths. There are some for women and some for men, only when the
men have taken their bath, coming out of it as red as scarlet, they go
out and roll in the snow in the most extreme cold. To this habit the
vigour and sound health of the Russians have been attributed. It is
very certain they know nothing of chest maladies or rheumatism.

A pleasant walk in Moscow is the market, which is always to be found
provisioned with the rarest and most excellent fruits. It is in the
middle of a garden, and is traversed by a broad avenue which renders
the place fascinating. It is quite proper for the greatest ladies to
go there and do their buying in person. In summer they repair thither
in carriages, and in winter in sledges.

I had observed that in St. Petersburg society formed, so to speak, a
single family, all the members of the nobility being cousins to one
another. At Moscow, where the population and the nobility are far more
numerous, society becomes almost the public. For instance, you will
find six thousand persons in the ballroom where the first families
meet. Around this room runs a colonnade on a platform a few feet above
the ground, where the persons who are not dancing can promenade, and
adjoining are various apartments in which people sup or play cards. I
went to one of these balls, and was surprised at the quantity of
pretty women I found assembled. I can say the same for a ball to which
Marshal Soltikoff invited me. The young women were nearly all of
remarkable beauty. They had imitated the antique costume I had
suggested to the Grand Duchess Elisabeth for Catherine II.'s ball.
They wore cashmere tunics edged with gold fringes; gorgeous jewels
held their short upturned sleeves in place; their Greek head-dresses
were for the most part tied with bands adorned with diamonds. Nothing
could have been more stylish or lux