rty enjoy themselves. If the
emperor fails to make himself agreeable in this branch of his
establishment, he deserves to be put out at the very first station. But
he has the ladies at a disadvantage, which probably compels them to be
very tolerant of his behavior; that is to say, he can detach their
branch of the establishment from his own, and leave them on the road at
any time he pleases by pulling a string; but I believe there is no
instance yet on record of his having availed himself of this autocratic
privilege. It is usually understood at the start whether the excursion
is to be in partnership or alone. When the emperor goes out on a
hunting expedition, he is accompanied by a select company of gentlemen,
and of course is compelled to deprive himself of the pleasure of the
more attractive and intoxicating society of ladies, which would be
calculated to unsteady his nerves, and render him unfit for those
terrific encounters with the bears of the forest upon which his fame as
a hunter is chiefly founded.

CHAPTER IV.

MOSCOW.

What the great Napoleon thought when he gazed for the first time
across the broad valley that lay at his feet, and caught the first
dazzling light that flashed from the walls and golden cupolas of the
Kremlin--whether some shadowy sense of the wondrous beauties of the
scene did not enter his soul--is more than I can say with certainty;
but this much I know, that neither he nor his legions could have
enjoyed the view from Sparrow Hill more than I did the first glimpse
of the grand old city of the Czars as I stepped from the railroad
depot, with my knapsack on my back, and stood, a solitary and
bewildered waif, uncertain if it could all be real; for never yet had
I, in the experience of many years' travel, seen such a magnificent
sight, so wildly Tartaric, so strange, glowing, and incomprehensible.
This was Moscow at last--the Moscow I had read of when a child--the
Moscow I had so often seen burnt up in panoramas by an excited and
patriotic populace--the Moscow ever flashing through memory in fitful
gleams, half buried in smoke, and flames, and toppling ruins, now
absolutely before me, a gorgeous reality in the bright noonday sun,
with its countless churches, its domes and cupolas, and mighty
Kremlin.

Stand with me, reader, on the first eminence, and let us take a
bird's-eye view of the city, always keeping in mind that the Kremlin
is the great nucleus from which it all radiates. W