OFFICIAL LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG 1892-1894 113 



return to St. Petersburg he bought another; resumed his 

 exercises upon it ; and will, no doubt, when he comes to the 

 throne, introduce that form of locomotion into the Moham 

 medan regions of Northern Asia. 



Among the greater displays of my final year were a 

 wedding and a funeral. The former was that of the Em 

 peror s eldest daughter, the Grand Duchess Xenia, at 

 Peterhof. It was very brilliant, and was conducted after 

 the usual Russian fashion, its most curious features being 

 the leading of the couple about the altar and their drink 

 ing out of the same cup. 



Coming from the ceremony in the chapel, we of the dip 

 lomatic corps found ourselves, at the foot of the great 

 staircase, in a crush. But just at the side was a large 

 door of plate-glass opening upon an outer gallery com 

 municating with other parts of the palace; and standing 

 guard at this door was one of the Nubians whom I had 

 noticed, from time to time, at the Winter Palace an enor 

 mous creature, very black, very glossy, with the most 

 brilliant costume possible. I had heard much of these 

 &quot;Nubians,&quot; and had been given to understand that they 

 had been brought from Central Africa by special com 

 mand. At great assemblages in the imperial palaces, 

 just before the doors were flung open for the entrance of 

 the Majesties and their cortege, two great black hands 

 were always to be seen put through the doors, ready to 

 open them in an instant the hands of two of these &quot;Nu 

 bians. I had built up in my mind quite a structure of ro 

 mance regarding them, and now found myself in the crush 

 at the foot of the grand staircase near one of them. As I 

 looked up at him he said to me, with deferential compas 

 sion, &quot;If you please, sah, would n t you like to git out of de 

 crowd, sah, through dis yere doah ! By his dialect he was 

 evidently one of my own compatriots, and, though in a sort 

 of daze at this discovery, I mechanically accepted his in 

 vitation; whereupon he opened the door, let us through, 

 and kept back the crowd. 



Splendid, too, in its way, was the funeral of the Grand 



II. 8 



