whistled, piped, and screamed, feathered throats of all species of the old world and the new. In his courts, above a hundred dogs, mastiffs, greyhounds, spaniels, and pointers, poodles, and what not, were Scouring about ; and thirty or forty were lodged in his own rooms. Their quarters were in the billiard-room, where they lay on fine carpets which the servants were obliged to lay down smoothly for their beds. Although the count, their master, admitted them to such great privileges, he kept up strict discipline among them, and administered the laws with his own hand. After dinner he took up a large whip, which indeed he seldom laid aside, any more than he did his huge bunch of keys, and looked about to see how matters had gone on in his absence, and woe to him who had sinned against the rules of cleanliness and propriety ! Sometimes he would give his French, German, Tartar, Russian, and Italian friends a fete on the roof of a garden-house, which formed a kind oi hanging garden with bowers, orange-trees, and fountains ; and at these fetes, rope-dancers, music, and ombres chinoises were never wanting. In one of his country houses he had made a kind of magic chamber at the end of a long suite of rooms, in which his servants set a wheel in motion that displayed a variety of figures in the brightest colom's, and imder a strong illumination, reflected them a hundredfold in the looking-glass walls of the chamber. The count then lay on his bed, at the further end of the dark suite of rooms, and feasted his eyes on the brilliant spectacle, in order, as he said, to fall asleep in the midst of agreeable images. A third country house boasted a fine collection of pictures, and a fourth one of nails and screws ! of all sizes, from the manufactories of all countries.
However much money this man might lavish on his house, he wasted but little on his person. His whole dress was not worth ten rubles, and consisted usually of an old dressing-gown and drawers, and sometimes of a waistcoat and pantaloons, and most important of all, large fur boots, which he wore winter and summer, and often kept on even in bed. As the count had not firmness enough to refuse any kind of bargain or exchange offered by Jew or Christian, his treasury was often in a bad condition, notwithstanding his large revenues. At times he would not have a kopeck in his pocket, and be under the necessity of borrowing a few "blue notes" (five i-ubles) of his physician. This would put a temporary stop to his proceedings, and throw the whole household into despair. After a time, a quantity of corn sold from his estates, or some mortgaged village would bring in some hundreds of thousands ; and then he was in the best humour again, and would say to his people, " Now, my children, let us go to work again. We have got a few kopecks again ! Now hammer and forge, and plane away as fast as you can." Of the death of this interesting person, I could not, unfortunately, learn any particulars. His museum was broken up and sold by auction after that event.
Some time before I went to Moscow, there died in a convent, whither he had retreated after the custom of the pious wealthy ones of his nation, a rich merchant, whose house had large establishments in Moscow, Constantinople, and Alexandria, and extensive connections throughout the East. Feeling the approach of age he had by degrees given up the toils of business to his sons ; his wife, by whose side he had passed through Ufe, was torn from him by the angel of death ; and the only beloved object, which even in the cloister was not divided from him, was — one large, beautiful oriental pearl !
This precious object had been purchased for him by some Persian or Arabian friend at a high price ; and, enchanted by its water, magnificent size and colour, its perfect shape and lustre, he would never part with it, however enormous the sum offered for it. Perhaps in the contemplation of its peerless beauty, as it lay before him in his leisure hours, he recalled the events of his early life and the glories of the East, as he had formerly beheld them with his own eyes. The fair dreams of his youth might seem to him embodied in its gleaming beauty ; enough — he fairly worshipped the costly globule. He himself inhabited an ordinary cell in the convent, but this object of his love was bedded on silk in a golden casket.