Volume 5: In London and Moscow · Episode 25: Russia and Poland
Chapter XXI
I See the Empress—My Conversations with Her—The Valville— I Leave Zaiya—I Leave St. Petersburg and Arrive at Warsaw— The Princes Adam Czartoryski and Sulkowski—The King of Poland—Theatrical Intrigues—Byanicki
I thought of leaving Russia at the beginning of the autumn, but I was told by M M. Panin and Alsuwieff that I ought not to go without having spoken to the empress.
“I should be sorry to do so,” I replied, “but as I can’t find anyone to present me to her, I must be resigned.”
At last Panin told me to walk in a garden frequented by her majesty at an early hour, and he said that meeting me, as it were by chance, she would probably speak to me. I told him I should like him to be with her, and he accordingly named a day.
I repaired to the garden, and as I walked about I marvelled at the statuary it contained, all the statues being made of the worst stone, and executed in the worst possible taste. The names cut beneath them gave the whole the air of a practical joke. A weeping statue was Democritus; another, with grinning mouth, was labelled Heraclitus; an old man with a long beard was Sappho; and an old woman, Avicenna; and so on.
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