costume of black, with ruffs, well-powdered wigs, and swords by their
sides. I regret to say that I must quit Hamburgh without seeing the Schöne
Marianna; but I hear she is now rather _passèe_, and I must console myself
for this mortification by gazing upon the first pair of bright eyes which
I shall meet to-morrow on my route to Kiel."

The Russian dwarfs afford our Captain much amusement.

"Madame Divoff, like many other Russian ladies, has a dwarf in her house,
who remains constantly with the company. He is less ugly and disagreeable
than others of his species. La Princesse Serge Gallitzin has a little
fellow of this sort; the Lisianskis have also one in constant attendance.
The pretty Mademoiselle Rosetti, two evenings ago, kept caressing the
dwarf at Madame Divoff's ball. ('Beauty and the Beast,' said I to her;
'Zemir et Azor.')

"At a very agreeable family party at the Prince Paul Gallitzin's were
masks; and a party of male and female dwarfs; these droll little urchins
were all very well made and good-looking; they frisked and frolicked about
with the children of the house as if they themselves were not (as in
reality they were) men and women, but children likewise. One of these poor
little mortals, equipped as an officer of hussars, danced a mazurka with
great grace and activity, and selected for his partner the _Gouvernante_,
a fine, fat bouncing woman of twenty-five. He likewise, at my request,
sang a Russian romance, which he accompanied on the piano-forte: his voice
was a very plaintive, but weak barytone. The kindness of the Russian
nobles to these unfortunate beings does infinite honour to the national
character."

We have only time for another extract or two. At Moscow, he notes: