e begun at once by prostration and
ingratitude. France was their new taunter. England was their old ally.
They hated France for its republican insolence; they honoured England
for its resolute determination to fight out the battle, not for its own
sake alone, but for the cause of all nations. Paul, in the attempt to
partition the globe, was narrowing his supremacy to his own sepulchre.

Yet, this time of national gloom was the most splendid period of the
court. With the double purpose of recovering his popularity, and
concealing his negotiations, Paul plunged into the most extraordinary
festivity. Balls, masquerades, and fetes succeeded each other with
restless extravagance. But the contrast of the saturnine Emperor with
the sudden change of his court was too powerful. It bore the look of
desperation; though for what purpose, was still a mystery to the
million. I heard many a whisper among the diplomatic circle, that this
whirl of life, this hot and fierce dissipation, was, in all Russian
reigns, the sure precursor of a catastrophe; though none could yet
venture to predict its nature. It was like the furious and frenzied
indulgence of a crew in a condemned ship, breaking up the chests and
drinking the liquors, in the conviction that none would survive the
voyage. Even I, with all my English disregard of the speculative
frivolities which to the foreigner are substance and facts, was startled
by the increasing glare of those hurried and feverish festivities. More
than once, as I entered the imperial saloon, crowded with the civil and
military uniforms of every court of Europe, and exhibiting at once
European taste and Asiatic magnificence, I could scarcely suppress the
feeling that I was only entering the most stately of theatres; where,
with all the temporary glitter of the stage, the sounds of the
orchestra, and the passion and poetry of the characters--the fifth act
was preparing, and the curtain was to fall on the death of nobles and
kings.

The impression that evil was to come, already seemed to be universal.
Rumours of popular conspiracy, fresh discoveries by the police, and new
tales of imperial eccentricity, kept the public mind in constant
fitfulness. At length, I received the formal communication of a
"challenge" from the Czar to my sovereign, along with all the other
crowned heads of Europe, to meet him in a _champ-clos_, and, sword in
hand, decide the quarrels of nations. With this despatch came an
invitatio