Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/270

264 II. Were the poet alive to-day, he would add a seventh for the Danish wife of Alexander III., and an eighth for the wife of the young Nicholas, whoever she may he.

"However little Russian blood may be running at present in the veins of the Romanoff family, there is no question about the thoroughly Russian character of the persons most concerned. Born and bred in Russia, it would be strange if the men were otherwise than national in their feelings; and as for the women who have been married into the Imperial family, they seem to have left everything behind them when they came to make their homes in Muscovy. There was never a more thorough Russian than Catherine II. When she came to the Imperial court at the age of fifteen she immediately went to work to learn the language, and in after-life she used to say that if she knew of a drop of blood in her veins that had not become Russian she would have it drawn out.

"Before becoming the wives of the men of the Imperial family, all foreign princesses must be baptized and taken into the Russian Church. The ceremony is a very elaborate one, and is made a state affair. The members of the Imperial family are present, together with many high officials, who appear as witnesses, and there can be no exceptions to the rule that requires the Emperors bride to be of his religion. Family, home, religion, everything must be given up by the woman who is to become an Empress of Russia.

"Well, we will leave Romanoff House and the Kitai Gorod, and go to see something else. Our guide suggests the Church of the Saviour, which has only recently been completed. It was built to commemorate the retreat of the French from Moscow. Our guide, whose arithmetic is a good deal at fault, says they have been working at it for more than a hundred years.