singular cross between the old Muscovite revel and the French
entertainments which were then introduced by the Empress Elizabeth.

All the nobility, for fifty versts around, including Prince Paul
and the chief families of Kostroma, were invited. Simon Petrovitch

had been so carefully guarded that his work was actually completed
and the parts distributed; his superintendence of the performance,

however, was still a matter of doubt, as it was necessary to
release him from the tower, and after several days of forced

abstinence he always manifested a raging appetite. Prince Alexis,
in spite of this doubt, had been assured by Boris that the dramatic

part of the entertainment would not be a failure. When he
questioned Sasha, the poet's strong-shouldered guard, the latter

winked familiarly and answered with a proverb,--
"I sit on the shore and wait for the wind,"--which was as much as

to say that Sasha had little fear of the result
The tables were spread in the great hall, where places for one

hundred chosen guests were arranged on the floor, while the three
or four hundred of minor importance were provided for in the

galleries above. By noon the whole party were assembled. The
halls and passages of the castle were already permeated with rich

and unctuous smells, and a delicate nose might have picked out and
arranged, by their finer or coarser vapors, the dishes preparing

for the upper and lower tables. One of the parasites of Prince
Alexis, a dilapidated nobleman, officiated as Grand Marshal,--an

office which more than compensated for the savagecharity he
received, for it was performed in continual fear and trembling.

The Prince had felt the stick of the Great Peter upon his own back,
and was ready enough to imitate any custom of the famous monarch.

An orchestra, composedprincipally" target="_blank" title="ad.主要地；大体上">principally of horns and brass instruments,
occupied a separate gallery at one end of the dining-hall. The

guests were assembled in the adjoining apartments, according to
their rank; and when the first loud blast of the instruments

announced the beginning of the banquet, two very differently
attired and freighted processions of servants made their appearance

at the same time. Those intended for the princely table numbered
two hundred,--two for each guest. They were the handsomest young

men among the ten thousand serfs, clothed in loose white trousers
and shirts of pink or lilac silk; their soft golden hair, parted in

the middle, fell upon their shoulders, and a band of gold-thread
about the brow prevented it from sweeping the dishes they carried.

They entered the reception-room, bearing huge trays of sculptured
silver, upon which were anchovies, the finest Finnish caviar,

sliced oranges, cheese, and crystal flagons of Cognac, rum, and
kummel. There were fewer servants for the remaining guests, who

were gathered in a separate chamber, and regaled with the common
black caviar, onions, bread, and vodki. At the second blast of

trumpets, the two companies set themselves in motion and entered
the dining-hall at opposite ends. Our business, however, is only

with the principal personages, so we will allow the common
crowd quietly to mount to the galleries and satisfy their senses

with the coarser viands, while their imagination is stimulated by
the sight of the splendor and luxury below.

Prince Alexis entered first, with a pompous, mincing gait, leading
the Princess Martha by the tips of her fingers. He wore a caftan

of green velvet laced with gold, a huge vest of crimson brocade,
and breeches of yellow satin. A wig, resembling clouds boiling in

the confluence of opposing winds, surged from his low, broad
forehead, and flowed upon his shoulders. As his small, fiery eyes

swept the hall, every servant trembled: he was as severe at the
commencement as he was reckless at the close of a banquet. The

Princess Martha wore a robe of pink satin embroidered with flowers
made of small pearls, and a train and head-dress of crimsonvelvet.

Her emeralds were the finest outside of Moscow, and she wore them
all. Her pale, weak, frightened face was quenched in the dazzle of

the green fires which shot from her forehead, ears, and bosom, as
she moved.

Prince Paul of Kostroma and the Princess Nadejda followed; but on
reaching the table, the gentlemen took their seats at the head,

while the ladies marched down to the foot. Their seats were
determined by their relative rank, and woe to him who was so

ignorant or so absent-minded as to make a mistake! The servants
had been carefully trained in advance by the Grand Marshal; and

whoever took a place above his rank or importance found, when he
came to sit down, that his chair had miraculously disappeared,

or, not noticing the fact, seated himself absurdly and violently
upon the floor. The Prince at the head of the table, and the

Princess at the foot, with their nearest guests of equal rank, ate
from dishes of massive gold; the others from silver. As soon as

the last of the company had entered the hall, a crowd of jugglers,
tumblers, dwarfs, and Calmucks followed, crowding themselves into

the corners under the galleries, where they awaited the conclusion
of the banquet to display their tricks, and scolded and pummelled

each other in the mean time.
On one side of Prince Alexis the bear Mishka took his station. By

order of Prince Boris he had been kept from wine for several days,
and his small eyes were keener and hungrier than usual. As he rose

now and then, impatiently, and sat upon his hind legs, he formed a
curious contrast to the Prince's other supporter, the idiot, who

sat also in his tow-shirt, with a large pewter basin in his hand.
It was difficult to say whether the beast was most man or the man

most beast. They eyed each other and watched the motions of their
lord with equal jealousy; and the dismal whine of the bear found an

echo in the drawling, slavering laugh of the idiot. The Prince
glanced form one to the other; they put him in a capital humor,

which was not lessened as he perceived an expression of envy pass
over the face of Prince Paul.

The dinner commenced with a botvinia--something between a soup
and a salad--of wonderful composition. It contained cucumbers,

cherries, salt fish, melons, bread, salt, pepper, and wine.
While it was being served, four huge fishermen, dressed to

represent mermen of the Volga, naked to the waist, with hair
crowned with reeds, legs finned with silver tissue from the knees

downward, and preposterous scaly tails, which dragged helplessly
upon the floor, entered the hall, bearing a broad, shallow tank of

silver. In the tank flapped and swam four superb sterlets, their
ridgy backs rising out of the water like those of alligators.

Great applause welcomed this new and classicaladaptation of the
old custom of showing the LIVING fish, before cooking them, to

the guests at the table. The invention was due to Simon
Petrovitch, and was (if the truth must be confessed) the result of

certain carefully measured supplies of brandy which Prince Boris
himself had carried to the imprisoned poet.

After the sterlets had melted away to their backbones, and the
roasted geese had shrunk into drumsticks and breastplates, and here

and there a guest's ears began to redden with more rapid blood,
Prince Alexis judged that the time for diversion had arrived. He

first filled up the idiot's basin with fragments of all the dishes
within his reach,--fish, stewed fruits, goose fat, bread, boiled

cabbage, and beer,--the idiot grinning with delight all the while,
and singing, "Ne uyesjai golubchik moi," (Don't go away, my

little pigeon), between the handfuls which he crammed into his
mouth. The guests roared with laughter, especially when a juggler

or Calmuck stole out from under the gallery, and pretended to have
designs upon the basin. Mishka, the bear, had also been well fed,

and greedily drank ripe old Malaga from the golden dish. But,
alas! he would not dance. Sitting up on his hind legs, with his

fore paws hanging before him, he cast a drunken, languishing eye
upon the company, lolled out his tongue, and whined with an almost

human voice. The domestics, secretly incited by the Grand Marshal,
exhausted their ingenuity in coaxing him, but in vain. Finally,

one of them took a goblet of wine in one hand, and, embracing
Mishka with the other, began to waltz. The bear stretched out his

paw and clumsily followed the movements, whirling round and round
after the enticing goblet. The orchestra struck up, and the