PETERHOF 



by one of the fountains, supported by her ladies, 

 in European costume. Every one drank to every 

 one else, great polish and civility being displayed. 

 Peter himself observed extreme military sim- 

 plicity, bringing to his guests wine and beer in 

 wooden beakers, and he was waited on by 

 orderlies. The bands of Preobrazhensky and 

 Semenovsky played, and dancing went on till 

 twelve in the open gallery overlooking the Neva, 

 the evening ending with fireworks. 



No other great ruler was so faithfully patient 

 in the hour of adversity, so gratefully modest in 

 triumph. Though he was profoundly religious, 

 yet his rage was cyclonic, his banquets orgies, 

 his pastimes convulsions. He lived and loved 

 like one of the giants of old. 



He saw what Russia needed and he gave it to 

 her ; he taught her in the slow, sure way ; not, 

 except in a few initial cases, by importing 

 Western officials, but by training natives. He 

 never lost sight of the idiosyncrasies and 

 peculiarities of the people he had to govern, or 

 destroyed anything he was not able to replace 

 by something better. He had within him a 

 strain of sublime nobility. To a new Ambassador 



267 



