Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/194

 The invitation of the Emperor of Russia was remembered and acted upon the following year. This visit was the summit of earthly splendour and success to which Rachel was to attain. It reads like a fairy tale, with its princes and palaces, and jewels, and sunshine; but we must tell it in her own words. The first letter is written to her mother from Warsaw:—

She wrote to her sister Sarah, from St. Petersburg, one of her amusing letters:—

Yesterday evening your humble servant was entertained like a queen. No sham tragedy queen with a gilt pasteboard crown, but a real queen, stamped with the stamp of the Royal Mint. First of all, I must inform you that all the Boyards here pursue me, and stare at me as though I were some strange beast, I cannot take a step without having a crowd of them following me. In the street, in the shops, everywhere I go, I am looked at, pointed at, and remarked. I no longer belong to myself.

To sum up all, I was invited the other day to a grand banquet given in my honour at the Imperial Palace. A fact, O daughter of Papa and Mama Félix It took place yesterday. What splendour! Behold! at my arrival at the palace, great footmen powdered and covered with gold lace, as in Paris, awaited my arrival, and escorted me up-stairs. One took my cloak, another went in front and announced me, and I entered a drawing-room gilded from floor to ceiling, the occupants of which seemed to me to rush forward to greet me. One of the Grand Dukes, a brother of the Emperor, conducted me to the dinner-table. An immense table, raised upon a dais, but not laid for