was so unexpected, that I required time for my
answer. I must abandon high employment at home for a temporary
distinction abroad; my knowledge of Russia was slight; the character of
the Czar was eccentric; and the success of an embassy, dependent on the
most capricious of mankind, was so uncertain, that the result might
strip me of whatever credit I already possessed.

But, there was one authority, to which I always appealed. I placed the
proposal in the hands of Clotilde; and she settled all my doubts at
once, by declaring, "that it was the appointment which, if she had been
suffered to choose, she would have selected, in preference to all
others, for its honour and its services." I had no power to resist such
pleadings--seconded as they were by the rosiest smiles, and the most
beaming eyes. But Clotilde was still the woman, and I only valued her
the more for it.--Her sincerity had not a thought to hide; and she
acknowledged her delight at the prospect of once more treading on the
soil of the Continent; at gazing even on the borders of her native land,
excluded as she might be from its entrance; at the enjoyment of seeing
continental life in the brilliant animation of its greatest court; and
at mingling with the scene in a rank which entitled her to its first
distinctions.

"But, Clotilde, how will you reconcile your tastes to the wild habits
of Russia, and even to the solemn formalities of a northern court?"

"They both present themselves to me," was her answer, "with the charm at
once of novelty and recollection. From my nursery days, the names of
Peter, Catharine, and their marvellous city, rang in the ears of all
Paris. Romance had taken refuge at the pole; Voltaire, Buffon,
D'Alembert--all the wit, and all the philosophy of France--satirized the
French court under the disguise of Russian panegyric; and St Petersburg
was to us the modern Babylon--a something compounded of the wildness of
a Scythian desert, and the lustre of a Turkish tale."

The ministerial note had been headed "most secret and confidential," and
as such I had regarded it. But I soon saw the difficulty of keeping "a
state secret." I had scarcely sent in my acceptance of the appointment,
when I found a letter on my table from my old Israelite friend,
Mordecai, congratulating me on "my decision." It was in his usual abrupt
style:--

"I was aware of the minister's offer to you within twelve hours
after it was made. I should have written t