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

274BAL CIIAMPETKE.

sion of the marriage of the Grand Duchess but being unable to excel the magnificence of the former fetes, or to vie with the splendours of the court, she conceived the idea of a bal ehampetre at her house in the Islands.

The Archduke of Austria, who arrived two days ago to be present at the festivities of Petersburg ; the ambassadors of the whole world (singular aetors in a pastoral); all Russia,and finally, all the high-born foreigners, gathered together to promenade with an air of innocent simplicity, in a garden where orchestras were concealed amon¤· the distant çrc-ves.

The emperor prescribes the character of each fete : the direction for this day was, the elegant simplicity of Horace.

The humour of all minds, including even the corps diplomatique, was throughout the evening modelled in conformity with this order. It was like reading an eclogue, not of Theocritus or Virgil, but of Fontenelle.

"VVe danced in the open air until eleven in the evening, and then, the heavy dews having sufficiently inundated the heads and shoulders of the women, young and old, who assisted at this triumph over the climate, we re-entered the little palace which forms the usual summer-residence of the Duchess of Oldenburg.

In the centre of the villa * was a rotunda, quite dazzling with gold and wax lights, in which the dancers continued their amusement, while the others wandered over the rest of the house, to which this bright rotunda formed, as it were, a central sun.

* In Russian, " the datclia."