CHARACTER OF RUSSIAN COURTIERS.
of the heir of the imperial throne, a habit of servile docility from which the nobles are not more exempt than the valets. It is not merely the etiquette that regulates other courts, where official respect, the importance of the office rather than that of the person, the compulsory part, in short, that has to be played, produces ennui, and sometimes ridicule: it is something more; it is a spontaneous and involuntary humility, which yet does not altogether exclude arrogance: it seems to me as though I could hear them say, "since it cannot be otherwise, we are glad to have it so." This mixture of pride and humiliation displeases me, and by no means prepossesses me in favour of the country I am about to survey.
I found myself amid the crowd of curious spectators close to the Grand Duke, just as he descended from his carriage; and as he stood for some time before entering the gate of the maison des bains, talking with a Russian lady, the Countess I was able to observe him at my leisure. His age, as his appearance indicates, is twenty: his height is commanding, but he appears to me, for so young a man, rather fat., His features would be handsome were it not that their fulness destroys their expression. His round face rather resembles that of a German than a Russ; it suggests an idea of what the Emperor Alexander's must have been at the same age, without however recalling, in any degree, the physiognomy of the Calmuc. A face of this cast will pass through many changes before assuming its definitive character. The habitual humour which it, at present, denotes, is gentleness and benevolence; but between the youthful smile of the eyes, and the constant contraction of the