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

200FORMS OF THE GREEK CHURCH.

The novelty of the spectacle that awaited me restored my coolness and self-possession. I Unshed for the vexation which my vanity as a disconcerted courtier had produced, and with the resumption of my part as simple traveller in the scene, recovered the composure of a philosophic observer.

One word more upon my costume. It had been the subject of grave consultation : some of the young people attached to the French legation had advised the habit of the national guard. I feared, however, that this uniform would displease the Emperor, and decided upon that of a staff officer, with the epaulettes of a lieutenant-colonel, which are those of my rank.

I had been warned that the dress would appear new, and that it would become, on the part of the princes of the imperial family, and of the emperor himself, the subject of numerous questions which might embarrass me. Hitherto, however, none have had time to occupy themselves with so small an affair.

The Greek marriage rites are long and imposing. Every thing is symbolical in the Eastern church. It seemed to me that the splendours of religion shed a lustre over the solemnities of the court.

The Avails and the roof of the chapel, the habiliments of the priests and of their attendants, all glittered with gold and jewels. There are riches enough here to astonish the least poetical imagination. The spectacle vies with the most fanciful description in the Arabian Nights; it is like the poetry of Lalla Rookh, or the Marvellous Lamp, — that Oriental poetry in which sensation prevails over sentiment and thought.