f the wall, appeared very ludicrous to those
below. The entertainment was enlivened with a concert of music: and
at different intervals persons in various habits entered the hall, and
exhibited Cossack, Chinese, Polish, Swedish and Tartar dances. The whole
was so gorgeous, and at the same time so fantastic, that I could not
help thinking myself present at some of the magnificent festivals
described in the old-fashioned romantes:--

'The marshal'd feast
Served up in hall with sewers and seneschals.'

The rest of the company, on returning to the rooms adjoining, found
prepared for them also a sumptuous banquet. The masquerade began at 6 in
the evening, and continued till 5 next morning.

"Besides the masquerade, and other festivities, in honor of, and
to divert Prince Henri, we had lately a most magnificent show of
fire-works. They were exhibited in a wide apace before the Winter
Palace; and, in truth, 'beggared description.' They displayed, by a
variety of emblematical figures, the reduction of Moldavia, Wallachia,
Bessarabia, and the various conquests and victories achieved since the
commencement of the present War. The various colors, the bright
green and the snowy white, exhibited in these fire-works, were truly
astonishing. For the space of twenty minutes, a tree, adorned with the
loveliest and most verdant foliage, seemed to be waving as with a gentle
breeze. It was entirely of fire; and during the whole of this stupendous
scene, an arch of fire, by the continued throwing of rockets and
fire-balls in one direction, formed as it were a suitable canopy.

"On this occasion a prodigious multitude of people were assembled; and
the Empress, it was surmised, seemed uneasy. She was afraid, it was
apprehended, lest any accident, like what happened at Paris at the
marriage of the Dauphin, should befall her beloved people. I hope I
have amused you; and ever am"--[W. Richardson, _Anecdotes of the Russian
Empire,_ pp. 325-331: "Petersburg, 4th January, 1771."]

The masquerades and galas in honor of Prince Henri, from a grandiose
Hostess, who had played with him in childhood, were many; but it is not
with these that we have to do. One day, the Czarina, talking to him of
the Austrian procedures at Zips, said with pique, "It seems, in Poland
you have only to stoop, and pick up what you like of it. If the Court
of Vienna have the notion to dismember that Kingdom, its neighbors will
have right to do as much." [Rulhiere