The tedium to which these Russian formalities condemned us, gave me also an opportunity of remarking that the great lords of the country were little inclined to bear patiently the inconveniences of public regulations, when those regulations proved inconvenient to themselves.
" Russia is the land of useless formalities," they murmured among themselves — but in French, that they might not be overheard by the subaltern em-G 2
124MORE CUSTOM-HOUSE ANNOYANCES.
ployés. I have retained the remark, with the justice of which my own experience has only too deeply impressed me. As far as I have been hitherto able to observe, a work that should be entitled The Russians judged by Themselves, would be severe. The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think that master can no longer hear, they speak of every tiling with a frankness which is the more startling because those who listen to it become responsible.
The cause of all our delay was at length revealed. The chief of chiefs, the director of the directors of the custom-house again presented himself: it was this visit we had been awaiting so long, without knowing it. At first it appeared as if the only business of the great functionary was to play the part of the man of fashion among the Russian ladies. He
reminded the Princess Dof their rencontre in a
house where the Princess had never been ; he spoke to her of court balls she had never seen : but while continuing to dispense these courtly airs, our drawing-room offieer of the customs would now and then gracefully confiscate a parasol, stop a portmanteau, or recommence, with an imperturbable sang froid, the researches already conscientiously made by his subordinates.
In Russian administration, minuteness does not exclude disorder. Much trouble is taken to attain unimportant ends, and those employed believe they can never do enough to show their zeal. The result of this emulation among clerks and commissioners is, that the having passed through one formality does not secure the stranger from another. It is like a pil-
CHANGE IN FELLOW-TRAVELLEKS.12ü
lage, in which, after the unfortunate wight has escaped from the first troop, he may yet fall into the hands of a second and a third.
The chief turnkey of the empire proceeded slowly to examine the vessel. At length this perfumed Cerberus, for he scented of musk at the distance of a league, released us from the ceremonies attending an entree into Russia, and we were soon under weigh, to the great joy of the princes and princesses, who were going to rejoin their families. Their pleasure belied the observation of my host in Lübeck ; as for me, I could not partake in it: on the contrary, I regretted quitting their delightful society to go and lose myself in a city whose vicinity was so uninviting. But the charm of that society was already broken : as we drew towards the end of our journey the ties which had united us became severed—fragile ties, formed only by the passing requirements of the voyage.
The women of the North know wonderfully well how to make us believe that they would have desired to meet with that which destiny has brought in their way. This is not falsehood, it is refined coquetry, a species of complaisance towards fate, and a supreme grace. Grace is always natural, though that does not prevent its being often used to hide a lie. The rude shocks and uncomfortably constraining influences of life disappear among graceful women and poetical men ; they are the most deceptive beings in creation; distrust and doubt cannot stand before them; they create what they imagine ; if they do not lie to others, they do to their own hearts ; for illusion is their element, fiction their vocation, and G 3
126CHARACTER OF WORLDLY PLEASURE.
pleasures in appearance their happiness. Beware of grace in woman, and poetry in man — weapons the more dangerous because the least dreaded !
Such were my thoughts on leaving the Avails of Kronstadt: Ave were still all together, but Ave Avere no longer united. That circle, animated, but the previous evening, by a secret harmony Avhich rarely exists in society, now lacked its vital principle. Few things had ever appeared to me more melancholy than this sudden change. I acknowledged it as the condition attached to the pleasures of the world, I had foreseen it, I had submitted a hundred times to the same experience; but never before did it enlighten me in so abrupt a manner. Besides, what annoyances are more painful than those of which we cannot complain ? I saw each individual about to re-enter his oavu path ; the free interchange of feeling Avhich unites those travelling together to the same goal no longer existed among them; they Avere returning into real life, Avhilst I Avas left alone to wander from place to place. To be ever Avandering is scarcely to live. I felt myself abandoned, and I compared the cheerlessness of my isolation to their domestic pleasures. Isolation may be voluntary, but is it on this account any the more sweet ? At the moment, everything appeared to me preferable to my independence, and I regretted even the cares of domestic life. I could read in the eyes of the Avomen the thoughts of husband, children, milliners, hairdressers, the ball, and the court; and I could ec¿ually read there, that, notwithstanding the protestations of yesterday, I was no longer an object of concern to them. The people of the North have changeable
FICKLENESS OF NORTHERN PEOPLE. 127
hearts ; their affections, like the faint rays of their sun, are always dying. Remaining fixedly attached neither to persons nor to things—willingly quitting the land of their birth—born for invasions—these people appear as though merely destined to sweep down from the pole, at the times and epochs appointed by God, in order to temper and refresh the races of the South, scorched by the fires of heaven and of their passions.
On arriving at Petersburg, my friends, favoured by their rank, were speedily liberated from their floating prison, in which they left me bound by the irons of the police and the eustom-house, without so much as bidding me adieu. Where would have been the use of adieus ? I was as dead to them. AYhat are travellers to mothers of families ? Not one cordial word, not one look, not one thought was bestowed on me. It was the white curtain of the magie lantern, after the shadows have passed. I repeat that I had expected this denouement, but I had not expected the pain which it caused me ; so true it is that within ourselves exists the source of all our unforeseen emotions.
Only three days before landing, two of our fair and amiable travellers had made me promise to visit them in Petersburg, where the court is now assembled.