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

TALISMAN OF M. DE BEAUHARNAIS.213

in our days, princes are more common than gentlemen. I should have said that the Emperor's guard would have been a more suitable place for the young duke than the Emperor's family. His countenance manifested no emotion at any of the ceremonies which appeared so touching to me — an indifferent spectator. I was carried there by mere curiosity, and yet I felt very deeply affected, whilst the son-in-law of the emperor, the hero of the scene, seemed uninterested with regard to all that passed around him. He has a vacant countenance, and appeared more taken up with his person than with what he was doin<2\ It can be seen that he reckons but little upon the good will of a court, where interested calculation prevails more completely than in any other, and where his unexpected fortune may procure him more enemies than friends. This young prince has, nevertheless, a slight resemblance to his father, whose countenance was intelligent and kind. Notwithstanding the tight Russian uniform, in which every one must feel fettered and confined, it appeared to me that his step was light, like that of a Frenchman. He little thought when passing before me, that there was one near him who carried on his breast a relic so precious to both, but more particularly so to the son of Eugene Beauharnais. I allude to the Arabic talisman, that M. de Beauharnais, the father of the viceroy of Italy, and the grandfather of the Duke of Leuchtenberg, gave to my mother as he passed the chamber which she inhabited in the Carmelite convent, on his way to the scaffold.

The religious ceremony in the Greek chapel was followed by a second nuptial benediction by a Ca-