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

202ATTENDANCE AT COURT.

Although the court was numerous, and the chapel small, there was no confusion. I stood in the midst of the corps diplomatique, near the balustrade which separated us from the sanctuary. We were not so crowded, as to be unable to distinguish the features and movements of each of the personages, whom duty or curiosity had there brought together. No disorder interrupted the respectful silence that was maintained throughout the assembly. A brilliant sun illuminated the interior of the chapel, where the temperature had, I understood, risen to thirty degrees.* ЛУе observed in the suite of the Emperor, habited in a long robe of gold tissue, and a pointed bonnet, likewise adorned with gold embroidery, a Tartar Khan, who is half tributary, and half independent of Russia. This petty sovereign had come to pray the Emperor of all the Russians to admit among his pages a son, twelve years old, whom he had brought to Petersburg, hoping thus to secure for the child a suitable destiny. The presence of this declining power, served as a contrast to that of the successful monarch, and reminded me of the triumphal pomps of Rome.

The first ladies of the Russian court, and the wives of the ambassadors of the other courts, among whom I ì`ecognised Mademoiselle Sontag, now Countess de Rossi, graced with their presence the circumference of the chapel. At the lower end, which terminated in a brilliant, painted rotunda, were ranged the whole of the imperial family. The gilded ceiling, reflecting the ardent rays of the sun, formed a species of crown around the heads of the sovereigns and their children.

* Of Reaumur. —Trans.