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

and spirit, the same lady related to me instances of impromptu answers in verse, made in a game at the house of one of her relatives. " You see how completely French we are," she added, with a pride that awoke my inward risibility. " Yes, more so than we ourselves," I replied; and we changed the subject of discourse. I can picture to myself the astonishment of this Franco-Russian lady entering the salons* of

Madame, in Paris, and inquiring of our actual

France what has become of the France of Louis XV. ?

Under the Empress Catherine, the conversation of the palace, and of some of the nobility, resembled that of the saloons of Paris. In the present day our discourse is more serious, or, at least, more bold than that of any of the other European people; and, in this respect, our modern Frenchmen are far from resembling the Russians, for we talk of every thing, and the Russians speak of nothing.

The reign of Catherine is profoundly impressed on the memories of several Russian ladies. These fair aspìrantes to the title of female statesmen have a talent for polities; and, as some of them add to that «rift manners which altogether remind us of the eighteenth century, they are so many travelling empresses, filling Europe with the sound of their profligacy, but who, under this unfeminine conduct, conceal a commanding and profoundly observing mind. By virtue of the spirit of intrigue that distinguishes these Aspasias of the North, there is scarcely a capital in Europe without two or three Russian ambassadors:

* The salons of a lady, an expression newly borrowed from the restaurateurs by tbe people of the fashionable world.