Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

EQUirAGES OF THE COURTIEHS.197

examining with curiosity all that presented itself in the way. The troops which I observed in the approaches to the palace were less magnificent than 1 had been led to expect, though the horses were certainly superb. The immense square which separates the dwelling of the sovereign from the rest of the city, was crossed in various directions by lines of carriages, servants in livery, and soldiers in a variety of uniforms. That of the cossacks is the most remarkable. Notwithstanding the concourse, the square, so vast is its extent, was not crowded.

In new states there is a void every where; but this is more especially the case when the government is absolute: it is the absence of liberty which creates solitude, and spreads sadness.

The equipages of the courtiers looked well, without bein"· really elegant. The carriages, badly painted, and still more badly varnished, are of a heavy make. They are drawn by four horses, whose traces are immoderately long. A coachman drives the wheel horses ; a little postillion, clothed in the long Persian robe similar to that of the coachman, rides on a fore horse, seated upon, or rather in, a hollow saddle, raised before and behind, and stuffed like a pillow. This child, named, I believe, after the German the Vorreitcr*, and in Russia the Faleiter, is always perched upon the right, or off-side leader ; the contrary custom prevails in all other countries, where the postillion is mounted on the left, in order to have the rio·ht hand free to guide his other horse. The spirit and power of the Russian horses, which have all

* The fore rider. К 3