uth, and they divide the east of Europe between
them. That pompous, formal old man, whose small heart and head are
stuffed full of etiquette, and who lives and breathes only in a sense of
his own importance, is the ruler of the Byzantine Empire. He was born in
the purple chamber, and wears the purple; he eats purple, drinks purple,
sleeps purple--only as the Emperor does he exist--he could live as well
without his head, as without his crown. He is so imbued with notions of
his own dignity that he would prove a tough subject to manage. But his
rival from the North is still undescribed. Tremble at the sight of this
ugly Cossack, with small dull eye, flat nose, and bushy red beard; for
in him behold the Autocrat of all the Russias! Not yet had the genius
and perseverance of Peter the Great introduced the arts and sciences
into that vast region of snow and mental darkness. Ivan, the Squinter,
ruled over his serfs with Oriental despotism: he was ignorant, coarse,
and profligate. At his feasts, the dishes were of gold from the Ural
Mountains, and the attendants who waited upon the monarch were arrayed
in all the grandeur of Eastern princes; but the slightest blunder on
their part subjected them to death, to the more dreaded knout, or to
banishment in Siberia. Nominally a Christian, the Emperor of China is
quite a saint when compared with him, and infinitely more respectable.
But the Czar is a fool, chiefly immersed in the pleasures of the table;
and Clotilda, if Empress of Russia, could easily seize all real power,
and sway the sceptre over millions of obsequious subjects.

These potentates are seated on thrones near Hildebrand, to witness the
spectacle. But Udolpho, Duke of Milan, is among the combatants, mounted
on a powerful charger, in armor blazing with gold: he looks like the
flower of chivalry. He wears the colors of the Princess Clotilda,
scarlet and green; and having ridden to the end of the lists, and made a
lowly obeisance to his fair lady, he has returned to his place among the
competitors for honor. Others there are who wear the same colors, but
none to compare with him in rank and knightly bearing; and as the
Princess gazed upon him, she wished him success. But what cavalier is
this, with closed vizor, whose head towers above the rest like the cedar
of Lebanon above all the trees of the forest? A kingly majesty marks
every motion, and notwithstanding the unusual plainness of his
accoutrements, all eyes are turned