out in all quarters of the city. He
however returned to the Kremlin on the 19th September. The Palace
itself is placed in the midst of extensive grounds just outside
the city, on the road to Tver, i.e. to the northwest. It is
perhaps worthy of remark, as one amongst numerous circumstances
proving how extensively the poet interwove his own life-experiences
with the plot of this poem, that it was by this road that he
himself must have been in the habit of approaching Moscow from his
favourite country residence of Mikhailovskoe, in the province of
Pskoff.]

XXXVI

Adieu, thou witness of our glory,
Petrovski Palace; come, astir!
Drive on! the city barriers hoary
Appear; along the road of Tver
The coach is borne o'er ruts and holes,
Past women, sentry-boxes, rolls,
Past palaces and nunneries,
Lamp-posts, shops, sledges, families,
Bokharians, peasants, beds of greens,
Boulevards, belfries, milliners,
Huts, chemists, Cossacks, shopkeepers
And fashionable magazines,
Balconies, lion's heads on doors,
Jackdaws on every spire--in scores.(75)

[Note 75: The first line refers to the prevailing shape of the
cast-iron handles which adorn the _porte cocheres_. The
Russians are fond of tame birds--jackdaws, pigeons, starlings,
etc., abound in Moscow and elsewhere.]

XXXVII

The weary way still incomplete,
An hour passed by--another--till,
Near Khariton's in a side street
The coach before a house stood still.
At an old aunt's they had arrived
Who had for four long years survived
An invalid from lung complaint.
A Kalmuck gray, in caftan rent
And spectacles, his knitting staid
And the saloon threw open wide;
The princess from the sofa cried
And the newcomers welcome bade.
The two old ladies then embraced
And exclamations interlaced.

XXXVIII

"Princesse, mon ange!"--"Pachette!"--
"Aline!"
"Who would have thought it? As of yore!
Is it for long?"--"Ma chere cousine!"
"Sit down. How funny, to be sure!
'Tis a scene of romance, I vow!"
"Tania, my eldest child, you know"--
"Ah! come, Tattiana, come to me!
Is it a dream, and can it be?
Cousin, rememb'rest Grandison?"
"What! Grandison?"--"Yes, certainly!"
"Oh! I remember, where is he?"--
"Here, he resides with Simeon.
He called upon me Christmas Eve--
His son is married, just conceive!"

XXXIX

"And he--but of him presently--
To-morrow Tania we will show,
What say you? to the family--
Alas! abroad I cannot go.
See, I can hardly crawl about--
But you must both