Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/836

830 the men, he whispered to me to say to them, "Sdărōva," on which they all shouted some words which meant welcome! Then home to rest and to dinner. I declined the play to-night, it being a Russian piece. I sat between Princesse Kutusoff and Princesse Apraxin, both very pleasant. After dinner I was glad to renew acquaintance with Detaille, the French painter, who is here on a special engagement to the Emperor to paint military subjects. His works are well known, and he has often been in England. We have our orders now for next week. On Monday we shall redistribute our luggage, and send all that we do not absolutely want to St Petersburg, to the hotel. On Tuesday the generals go with the Emperor to the neighbourhood of Narva for the five days of grand manœuvres. I expect we shall have to rough it. The others go with the headquarters of the opposing sides, and will certainly have to rough it. On the 26th, I believe, we all return to St Petersburg, and I therefore suppose that on the 27th I am a free agent again. I shall probably employ 27th and 28th in visiting St Petersburg, and then go to Moscow for two nights, returning to St Petersburg, and home by Stockholm and Gottenburg, or else go to Warsaw and Berlin, and home by Flushing.

St Petersburg, Sunday, 17th Aug.

I must close this as post goes, and I am off to St Isaac's and to the English church. I went this morning to the Kazan Cathedral, and then to St Isaac's, of which I will not attempt to give a description, though it merits one. I shall visit it for its architecture again. To-day I went for the church music, and indeed the choir is heavenly. Never did I hear anything to equal it: the boys' voices so pure, the altos so clear and bright, the basses so deep; time and tune, harmony and taste, all far beyond any church singing I had ever heard. No instruments. Since breakfast a visit en masse to photographers, where we have been immortalised in a group; then to the fortress and the church of St Peter and St Paul, where we saw the royal tombs and much gilding and pomp. Then to the house of Peter the Great, and now we are waiting for the train to go to Krasnoe Seló, where there are camp races at 6 P.M.

The field-day of the Guards yesterday was good and instructive, and the spectacle very fine. The Empress rode. I write in haste, for Count Stenbock is calling to us to come to the train.

Grand Hôtel de l'Europe, St Petersburg, Aug. 19, 1884 (Old Style, Aug. 7), 6 P.M.

We reached the camp at 5.30 on Sunday afternoon, and were taken straight to the Imperial stand, into the state tribune, to which we generals were specially admitted. The racing was amusing, officers and Cossacks riding their own horses. The Empress came across the room and talked to me a long while about her sister and England, and seemed interested to hear news of people she had known. The Emperor, too, talked a little, and many of the Grand-Dukes. At 7.30 I thought we were going home to dinner ; but we were driven to the theatre instead, where we heard "La Mascotte," with long intervals between acts, till nearly twelve o'clock. One of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg sat in the next stall to me, and we talked a good deal; but I was growing