d on as a privilege. Thousands who had retired to their estates
after the publication of the liberation edict now flocked back and
sought appointments, and this tendency was greatly increased by the
brilliant campaigns against the Turks, which excited the patriotic
feelings and gave plentiful opportunities of promotion. "Not only landed
proprietors," it is said in a comedy of the time,* "but all men, even
shopkeepers and cobblers, aim at becoming officers, and the man who
has passed his whole life without official rank seems to be not a human
being."

* Knyazhnina, "Khvastun."

And Catherine did more than this. She shared the idea--generally
accepted throughout Europe since the brilliant reign of Louis XIV.--that
a refined, pomp-loving, pleasure-seeking Court Noblesse was not only the
best bulwark of Monarchy, but also a necessary ornament of every highly
civilised State; and as she ardently desired that her country should
have the reputation of being highly civilised, she strove to create
this national ornament. The love of French civilisation, which already
existed among the upper classes of her subjects, here came to her aid,
and her efforts in this direction were singularly successful. The
Court of St. Petersburg became almost as brilliant, as galant, and as
frivolous as the Court of Versailles. All who aimed at high honours
adopted French fashions, spoke the French language, and affected an
unqualified admiration for French classical literature. The Courtiers
talked of the point d'honneur, discussed the question as to what
was consistent with the dignity of a noble, sought to display "that
chivalrous spirit which constitutes the pride and ornament of France";
and looked back with horror on the humiliating position of their fathers
and grandfathers. "Peter the Great," writes one of them, "beat all who
surrounded him, without distinction of family or rank; but now, many of
us would certainly prefer capital punishment to being beaten or flogged,
even though the castigation were applied by the sacred hands of the
Lord's Anointed."

The tone which reigned in the Court circle of St. Petersburg spread
gradually towards the lower ranks of the Dvoryanstvo, and it seemed to
superficial observers that a very fair imitation of the French Noblesse
had been produced; but in reality the copy was very unlike the model.
The Russian Dvoryanin easily learned the language and assumed the
manners of the French gentilhomme, and