Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/264

236 in a riding-school, and made me pass through the drawing-room in a diagonal line. My reluctance to kiss the Emperor's hand was compensated by the delight in raising my lips to that of the Empress, which was white, full and smooth, and deliciously perfumed. The Empress is remarkably handsome, and it was with pleasure, I must own, that I threw myself upon my knees before her. The same ceremony did not seem equally agreeable before her husband, but I was obliged to perform it. It was shocking to see even ladies subjected to that humilation; they wore large mourning dresses, with a crape, two yards at least of which, falling from their heads behind, trailed on the ground, and they had, besides, a large langue of black velvet upon their foreheads. These appeared like so many Andromaches at the feet, I was going to say, of Achilles; but the comparison would not be correct. Once being engaged in a lively conversation with a countrywoman of mine, and falling upon the subject of these genuflexions: “After all,” said she, “it is a thing of no