n for the whole diplomatic body to a masquerade! in which all
were commanded to appear as knights in armour--the Czar, as grand-master
of the Order of Malta, exhibiting himself in the panoply in which he was
to settle the disputes of mankind.

Perplexities like those form a large share of the trials of the foreign
ambassador. To attend the fete was embarrassing; but to decline the
invitation, would have been equivalent to demanding my passports. And I
must acknowledge, that if the eye was to be gratified by the most superb
and the most curious of all displays, never was there an occasion more
fitted for its indulgence. All the armouries of Europe, and of Asia,
seemed to have been searched for the arms and ornaments of this
assemblage. The Kremlin had given up its barbaric shields and caps of
bronze; the plate-mail of the Crusader; the gold-inlaid morions and
cuirasses of France; the silver chain-mail of the Circassian; the steel
corslet of the German chivalry; and a whole host of the various and rich
equipments of the Greek, the Hungarian, the Moresco, and the Turkoman,
made the Winter palace a blaze of knighthood.

Yet, to me, after the first excitement, the whole conveyed a deep
impression of melancholy. It irresistibly reminded me of the last
ceremonial of dead sovereigns, the "Chapelle Ardente." Even the curtains
which fell round the throne, fringed with jewels as they were, to me
looked funereal. The immense golden candelabra were to me the lights
round a bier. I almost imagined that I could see the sword and sceptre
laid across the coffin, and all of the Lord of Empire that remained, a
corpse within.

I was roused from my reluctant reverie by the approach of a group of
masks, who came dancing towards the recess where I had retired, wearied
with the general noise, and the exhaustion of the fete. One of the
casements opened into the famous Conservatory; and I was enjoying the
scents of the thousand flowers and shrubs, of, perhaps, the finest
collection in the world. But, in the shade, the group had evidently
overlooked me; for they began to speak of matters which they could not
have designed for a stranger's ear. The conduct of the Czar, the wrongs
of Russia, and the "necessity of coming to a decision," were the topics.
Suddenly, as if to avert suspicion, one of the group struck up a popular
air on the little three-stringed guitar which throws the Russian crowd
into such ecstasies; and they began a dance, accompan