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

Versailles: and with each new individual to whom you are introduced you have to re-commence the repeating of this catechism, in which national vanity hypocritically draws upon the urbanity of foreigners, and ventures its own rudeness in reliance upon the politeness of others.

I have been introduced to a person who was de

scribed to me as a singular character, worthy of obser

vation. He is a young man of illustrious name, the

Prince, only son of a very rich individual; al

though this son spends double his income, and treats

his mind and body as he does his fortune. The tavern

is his empire : it is there that he reigns eighteen

hours out of the twenty-four; on that ignoble theatre

he displays, naturally and involuntarily, noble and

elegant manners : his countenance is intellectual and

extremely fascinating ; his disposition is at once

amiable and mischievous : many traits of rare libe

rality, and even of touching sensibility, are recounted

of him.

Having had for his tutor a man of great talent, an old French abbé and emigre, he is remarkably well informed; his mind is quick and endowed with great ca}>acity ; his wit is unequalled in Moscow, but his lano;uao;e and conduct are such as would not be tole-rated elsewhere ; his charming but restless face betrays the contradiction that exists between his natural character and his course of life.

Profligacy has impressed upon his countenance the traces of a premature decay ; still these ravages of folly, not of time, have been unable to change the almost infantile expression of his noble and regular features. Innate grace will last with life, and remains