ILLUSTRATIONS. Vignette Title. Windsor Forest Home Dress for a Young Lady, and Evening Dress As Mr. Thomson, the African traveller, was once pursuing his route, attended only by a hottentot guide, they discovered the tracks of several wild animals, and their pursuer, the lion. The foot-prints of the latter were so frequent and so fresh, that it was evident these tyrants of the desert were numerous and near. The quantity of skeletons of animals scattered around gave sufficient proof that such was the case. Mr. T.'s apprehensions were soon confirmed by perceiving, about ten yards from them, two monstrous lions reclining under a minosa bush, with their jaws half open, and showing their terrific fangs. The guide was half asleep from fatigue, and did not perceive the danger, but his master at once did, and resolved, as escape was impossible, to move on in silence. "When we had got," says Mr. Thomson, "about seventy or eighty yards from them, I rode gently up to the guide, and desiring him to look over his shoulder, showed him the lions. But such a face of terror I never beheld, as he exhibited on L. 38. 1. A perceiving the danger we had so narrowly escaped. He was astonished, too, that he had not previously observed them, being, like most of his countrymen, very quick-sighted. He said, however, that I had acted very properly in not speaking, nor evincing the least alarm while passing the lions; for if I had, they would probably not have let us pass so quietly. Most likely, however, we owed our safety to their hunger being satiated, for they appeared to have been just devouring some animal they had killed." TRAITS OF FEMALE CHARACTER; THE numerous lamps which illuminated the road leading from St. Petersburgh to the magnificent palace of Czarskozelo, shining upon the columns of marble and jasper which mark the wersts; the splendily-attired horsemen galloping all in one direction over the frozen ground; the innumerable sledges that skimmed along the road with the speed of light; their musical peals of bells without, and still gayer peals of laughter from the furred and masked inmates within; all announced, that Catherine the Autocratrix and her sumptuous court were holding revelry that night. Every succeeding mile presented a pyramid of lamps, before which were erected booths, where the peasants of each nation in the civilized or uncivilized world seemed successively to have congregated, in honour of the imperial fête. Sometimes the cavalcade drew up to admire a party of fair-haired Brunswickers, with their high caps and laced bodices, waltzing to the sound of the horn; then their attention was attracted by a group of Italian peasants singing in chorus a Venetian baracole, little in unison with the blazing fires before which they warmed their freezing fingers; or again, by a band of warlike Cossacks stamping the frozen ground in time to their barbarous and clanging music. The foremost sledge advanced with astonishing rapidity. It was drawn by twenty fiery horses, whose brilliant caparisons, together with the splendour of the guards galloping with lighted torches on either side, announced a royal freight. As it approached, the whole multitude, Italians, Cossacks, Germans, Poles, and Russians, fell prostrate with their faces to the ground. Two thousand sledges followed in rapid suc. cession. Within half a mile of the palace, a burning mountain, no mimic representation of Vesuvius, vomited forth torrents of flame, and loud cries of admiration, and smothered shrieks of fear, real or affected, were heard from the fair Russians, as swiftly the joyous cavalcade swept along its base. At the extremity of a thick forest, whose gloom was banished by a temporary illumination, appeared Czarskozelo, the grandest of imperial palaces, stretching forth in one vast amphitheatre of light; while Chinese temples, villages, and bridges, English gardens, Turkish mosques, artificial lakes, Egyptian pyramids, and marble obelisks, shone forth in dazzling and grotesque splendor as far as the eye could reach. This night the interior of the palace realized in its gigantic and Asiatic luxury, the gorgeous imaginings of eastern romances. The long and lofty galleries, the number and size of the apartments, the countless multitude by which these were filled; the gorgeous dresses of the ladies and of the young grandees, who performed in appropriate costume the national dances of each country, Chinese, Turks, Armenians, Persians, Cossacks; all vieing with each other in the splendor of their dress and diamonds. The glittering halls of banquet, the flowers, music and jewellery; the whole scene was on a scale of fabulous splendor, and she at whose frown that multitude trembled; in whose smile they rejoiced; what marvel if, from her lofty elevation, they seemed to her mortal eye as a generation of pygmies, whose destinies she was born to wield en masse! At midnight the Empress took off her domino, and her example was followed by her ladies in waiting. The spacious hall destined for the reception of the élite of rank and royalty was suddenly thrown open; while the less favoured mortals, rushing to the galleries, beheld from afar, in awe. struck admiration, the golden banquet, which seemed to their wondering eyes like the hallowed council of Olympus. Prince Henry of Prussia, formal as an antique effigy in armour, took the offered hand of the Empress, and placed himself by her side; and as she went towards him in smiling majesty, all eyes were turned on the imperial countenance. |