crimson drop, and letting it spread and thicken upon his beard, raised a most hideous yell and ran and preferred his complaint to a picquet guard of cossacks of the Don, who placed us all under military arrest, and dispatched a comrade to their Colonel, with an account of what had happened within the lines; the answer returned was, that he would not interfere, and that if any injury had been received it might be redressed at the first town. Ivan, who, by the bye, was a clever fellow, during the absence of the cossack had prostrated himself on the ground, and imitated tolerably well the agonies of a dying man: as soon as he was told what the reply was, and finding that we were driving off without him, throwing aside the terrors of death, he in a moment vaulted into his box, and never drove or looked better, until we entered the town of Peterhoff, which was crowded on account of the Court being at the palace, when he set up the most frightful yell, tore his hair, displayed his bloody beard, and called upon the police officers to seize us all and do him justice. In a short time we were surrounded with crowds; the police officers, seeing we were English, heard the accuser, but shewed no disposition to detain us, so we proposed adjourning to the garden of the palace, and in one of its recesses to partake of the cold collation which we had brought with us. As we quitted the carriage, our coachman whispered something to Ivan, who, with an arch look, told our valet, if we would give him twenty-five rubles, he would settle the business amicably: this we refused upon two grounds; first that

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de merited what had happened; and next, admitting he deserved any compensation, it was too exorbitant to demand twenty-five rubles for a bloody nose, when we learnt at Cronstadt, that twenty-three had only been paid for the loss of an eye.

We went quietly to dinner in a delightful spot, well shaded from the sun; whilst we were enjoying our repast, a little ragged boy approached us, to whom we offered some meat, but although he looked half famished we could not prevail upon him to touch it, as it was a fast. In one of the walks we met a lady of rank attended by a female dwarf, supremely ugly and deformed, and dressed like a shepherdess on her nuptial day. Whilst we were regaling ourselves Ivan was making the best use of his time with the guards and police officers, and upon our resuming our seats and endeavouring to proceed, the barrier was dropped, and bayonets presented towards our horses: we then all alighted, and attended by a great throng of guards and police officers, proceeded to the apartments of the deputy grand police master, whom we found in his chamber in his shirt, fiddling before a saint who was suspended in the corner: this gentleman addressed us in German, to which one of the party, to whom it was his native tongue, replied, during which Ivan displayed his blood to great advantage, but was ignorant of what was passing. In the course of the conversation, the magistrate observed, "that the coachman

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THE ADJUDICATION.

deserved to be thrashed; and that, had we beaten him to "a jelly, so that blood had not followed, all would have been well; but," after a long pause, very good-humouredly said, "that we should no longer be detained," and accordingly ordered the guards to let us pass. Nothing could exceed the chagrin of poor Ivan when he heard the fate of his application :- -no non-suited plaintiff ever threw his face into more burlesque distortions. Upon the road he stopped at every kabac for a drop of sorrow's medicine, which if Ivan had apostrophized, he would have exclaimed:

"Oh! thou invisible spirit of brandy; if thou hast no name to be known "by, let us call thee Angel."

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CHAP. XIX.

KISING OF THE NEVA-ACADEMY OF SCIENCES-THE REVIEW-CADET CORPS-PELISSES-COUNTRY PALACE OF ZARSKO ZELO-ANOTHER BUST OF THE BRITISH DEMOSTHENES MISPLACED-CANINE TUMULI-IMPERIAL PLEASANTRY-GATCHINA-PAUVOLOFFSKY

ANNIVERSARY OF A FAVOURITE SAINT-MORE DWARFS.

A SHORT time before I left Petersburg, the inhabitants were apprehensive of a terrible inundation of the Neva, in consequence of the wind blowing very fresh at south-southwest, which forces the waters of the gulf of Finland against the river, and prevents the stream from finding its level. The guns of the Admiralty fired, and in the evening four lights were raised upon its church spire, the usual warning upon such occasions to the people, to take care of themselves and their property, and a general consternation spread through the city. About eight o'clock at night a part of the Galeernhoff was five feet under water, and the bridges of pontoons rose to a considerable height, so that the planks which connected them with the shores, presented on each side a formidable acclivity, which carriages of every description surmounted by the uncommon skill and energy of the drivers and horses:

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ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

their mode of reaching these almost perpendicular ascents was effected by lashing the horses, at a considerable distance, into a full gallop, and by a great number of police officers and soldiers, who always attend at the bridges on these occasions to prevent accidents, running behind and propelling the carriage, or saving it from being dashed to pieces, by its not being able to turn the summit. Luckily the wind, the Neva, and the public apprehensions, subsided together, without any damage being done.

The change enabled our party to visit the Academy of Sciences, a noble building, situated on the north side of the Neva, in Vassilli-Ostroff. After passing through the library, whose damp walls were feebly lighted from above, and where there is nothing but some Tartarian manuscripts worthy of detaining the attention of a traveller, we entered the museum of natural curiosities, in which the principal objects were various parts of the human frame, fœtuses, miscarriages, and births, from the first impregnation to perfect birth, monsters human and animal, and a variety of most odious and disgusting et ceteras, in pickle. The skin of the Heyduc, or favourite servant of Peter the Great, is here, stretched upon a wooden image of his size, which shews that the man must have been six feet and a half high, and that nature had furnished him with a skin nearly as thick and impenetrable as that of the rhinoceros's hide. In the gallery above was a Lapponian dog