AS ATTACHfi AT ST. PETERSBURG -1854 -1855 453 



pageant I had ever seen. When his body was carried from 

 the palace to the Fortress Church, it was borne between 

 double lines of troops standing closely together on each 

 side of the avenues for a distance of five miles ; marshals 

 of the empire carried the lesser crowns and imperial in- 

 signia before his body; and finally were borne the great 

 imperial crown, orb, and scepter, the masses of jewels in 

 them, and especially the Orloff diamond swinging in the 

 top of the scepter, flashing forth vividly on that bright 

 winter morning, and casting their rays far along the ave- 

 nues. Behind the body walked the Emperor Alexander 

 and the male members of the imperial family. 



Later came the burial in the Fortress Church of St. 

 Peter and St. Paul, on the island of the Neva, nearly oppo- 

 site the Winter Palace. That, too, was most imposing. 

 Choirs had been assembled from the four great cathedrals 

 of the empire, and their music was beyond dreams. At 

 the proper point in the service, the Emperor and his bro- 

 thers, having taken the body of their father from its 

 coffin and wrapped it in a shroud of gold cloth, carried it 

 to the grave near that of Peter the Great, at the right of 

 the high altar; and, as it was laid to rest, and beautiful 

 music rose above us, the guns of the fortress on all sides 

 of the church sounded the battle-roll until the whole edi- 

 fice seemed to rock upon its foundations. Never had I 

 imagined a scene so impressive. 



Among the persons with whom it was my duty to deal, 

 in behalf of our representative, was the Prime Minister of 

 Eussia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Nessel- 

 rode. He was at that period the most noted diplomatist 

 in the world ; for, having been associated with Talleyrand, 

 Metternich, and their compeers at the Congress of Vienna, 

 he was now the last of the great diplomatists of the Napo- 

 leonic period. He received me most kindly and said, "So 

 you are beginning a diplomatic career ! ' ' My answer was 

 that I could not begin it more fitly than by making the 

 acquaintance of the Nestor of diplomacy, or words to that 

 effect, and these words seemed to please him. Whenever 



