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

298the emperor's bed.

The horses eat always in harness, and the men always on their scat. I pity the former more than the latter, for the Russians have a taste for servitude.

The coachmen live, however, in this manner only during the summer. In the winter, sheds are built in the midst of the most frequented squares, and near the theatres, and the palaces where fetes are most frequently given. Around this shelter, large fires are lighted, where the servants warm themselves ; nevertheless, in ¦the month of January, scarcely a night passes on which there is a ball, without a man or two dying of cold in the streets.

A lady, more sincere than others to whom I addressed questions on this subject, replied, " It is possible, b\it I have never heard it talked about." A denial which involved a strange avowal. It is necessary to visit this city in order to learn the extent to which the rich man will carry his contempt for the life of the poor, and the slight value which life in general has in the eyes of men condemned to live under absolutism.

In Russia existence is painful to every body. The Emperor is scarcely less inured to fatigue than the lowest of his serfs. I have been shown his bed, the hardness of which would astonish our common labourers. Here every one is obliged to repeat to himself the stern truth, that the object of life is not to be found on earth, and that the means of attaining it is not pleasure. The inexorable image of duty and of submission appears at each instant, and makes it impossible to forget the hard condition of human existence — labour and sorrow !

If for a moment, in the midst of a public prome-