ind it in this spot. I may see in that hut the emblem of his
mind. That a Russian, two centuries ago--almost before the name of
Russia was known in Europe--while its court had scarcely emerged from
the feuds of barbarous factions, and its throne had been but just
rescued from the hands of the Tartar--should have conceived the design
of such an empire, and should have crowned his design with such a
capital, is to me the most memorable effort of a ruling mind, within all
human recollection."

"Clotilde, I was not aware that you were inclined to give the great Czar
so tender a tribute," I said laughingly, at her embarrassment in the
discovery of a tear stealing down her cheek.

Truth was in her reply. "I agree in the common censure of the darker
portions of his course. But I can now judge of him only by what I see.
Who is to know the truth of his private history? What can be more unsafe
than to judge of the secret actions of princes, from the interested or
ignorant narratives of a giddy court, or foreign enemies? But the
evidence round us allows of no deception. These piles of marble are
unanswerable;--these are the vindications of kings. The man who, sitting
in that hut, in the midst of the howling wilderness, imagined the
existence of such a city rising round him and his line--at once bringing
his country into contact with Europe, and erecting a monument of
national greatness, to which Europe itself, in its thousand years of
progress, has no equal--must have had a nature made for the highest
tasks of human advancement. Of all the panegyrics of an Imperial life,
St Petersburg is the most Imperial."

* * * * *

We passed rapidly through the Russian provinces, and, intending to
embark in one of our frigates cruising the Baltic, felt all the delight
of having at length left the damp and dreary forests of Livonia far down
in the horizon, and again feeling the breezes blowing from that ocean
which the Englishman instinctively regards as a portion of his home.
But, as we drove along the smooth sands which line so many leagues of
the Baltic, and enjoyed with the full sense of novelty the various
contrast of sea and shore, we were startled by the roar of guns from the
ramparts of Riga, followed by the peal of bells. What victory, what
defeat, what great event, did those announce? The intelligence at length
broke on us at the gates; and it was well worth all our interest. "Peace
with France." The