One of these poor
little mortals, equipped as an officer of hussars, danced a mazurka with
great grace and activity, and selected for his partner the _Gouvernante_,
a fine, fat bouncing woman of twenty-five. He likewise, at my request,
sang a Russian romance, which he accompanied on the piano-forte: his voice
was a very plaintive, but weak barytone. The kindness of the Russian
nobles to these unfortunate beings does infinite honour to the national
character."
We have only time for another extract or two. At Moscow, he notes:
"I passed the remainder of the evening at the Princess Dolgorouki's; the
young ladies were in great agitation on account of the sudden
indisposition of their mother, Madame Boulgakow, who had, it seems, caught
cold in her return from the monastery of Troitza, sixty wersts from hence,
a renowned pilgrimage. She had better have stayed at home, for surely
Moscow has sufficient churches in which bigots may pray as long as they
please. When will superstition cease to usurp the place of true religion
in the human mind? I did not pity the _old devotee_, but I felt for the
young ladies, who seemed to be a good deal flurried and fluttered by this
occurrence.
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