Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/259

Rh to be opened, and saw nothing but ashes and some remains of uniform, buttons and boots. Moved to tears, he gave orders for a state-bed like that of his mother to be immediately erected in the same church, and appointed officers of his court to do duty there as in the palace; then, he went twice a day, in the morning and evening, to worship the dead, as they call it, bowing respectfully three times before them, and kissing his mother's hand. The Empress, princes and princesses, courtiers, and after them all persons decently dressed, were admitted to this honour. The same ceremony was performed at Catherine's coffin as at that of Peter III, with this difference, that as there was nothing to be kissed at the Emperor's, a genuflection was made instead. The air of weakness and emotion with which Zubow prostrated himself before the body of his late mistress was really a curious sight. It was, doubtless, the first time that he had kissed that hand gratuitously; formerly, it was always the more open to him the more he pressed it.