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

THE QUEEN OP GEORGIA.233

What appeared to me more splendid even than the ball-room in the winter palace, was the gallery in which supper was served. It is not entirely finished, and the lights in temporary paper transparencies had a fantastic appearance which did not displease me. So unexpected an illumination in honour of the marriage-day, did not certainly correspond with the general decorations of the magical palace, but it produced a light clear as that of the sun, and this was enough for me. Thanks to the progress of commercial economy, we no longer see in France anything but tapers ; there seem to be yet in Russia real wax candles. The supper-table was splendid; in this fete every thing was colossal, every thing was also innumerable in its kind, and I scarcely knew which most to admire, the superb effect of the whole, or the magnificence and the quantity of the objects considered separately. A thousand persons were seated together at the table.

Among these thousand, all more or less blazing with gold and diamonds, was the Khan of the Kirguises, whom I had seen at the chapel in the morning. I remarked also an old Queen of Georgia, who had been dethroned thirty years previously. This poor woman languished, unhonoured, at the court of her conqueror. Her face was tanned like that of a man's used to the fatigues of the camp, and her attire was ridiculous. ЛУе are too ready to laugh at misfortune when it appears under a form that does not please us. ЛУе should wish to see a Queen of Georgia rendered more beautiful by her distress; but we here see just the contrary, and, when the eyes are displeased, the heart soon becomes unjust. This is