460 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-I 



To steer a proper course in the midst of such fellow- 

 citizens was often difficult, and I recall multitudes of other 

 examples hardly less troublesome; indeed, the career of 

 this same deputy sheriff at St. Petersburg was full of 

 other passages requiring careful diplomatic intervention 

 to prevent his arrest. 



Luckily for these gentlemen, the Russian government 

 felt, just at that time, special need of maintaining friendly 

 relations with the powers not at war with her, and the 

 public functionaries of all sorts were evidently ordered 

 to treat Americans with extreme courtesy and forbear- 

 ance. 



One experience of this was somewhat curious. Our first 

 secretary of legation and I, having gone on Easter eve to 

 the midnight mass at the Kazan cathedral, we were shown 

 at once into a place of honor in front of the great silver 

 iconostase and stationed immediately before one of the 

 doors opening through it into the inner sanctuary. At 

 first the service went on in darkness, only mitigated by 

 a few tapers at the high altar ; but as the clock struck the 

 hour of midnight there came suddenly the roaring of the 

 fortress guns, the booming of great bells above and 

 around us, and a light, which appeared at the opposite 

 end of the cathedral, seemed to shoot in all directions, 

 leaving trains of fire, until all was ablaze, every person 

 present holding a lighted taper. Then came the mass, 

 celebrated by a bishop and his acolytes gorgeously at- 

 tired, with the swinging of censers, not only toward the 

 ecclesiastics, but toward the persons of importance pres- 

 ent, among whom we were evidently included. Suddenly 

 there came a dead stop, stillness, and an evident atmo- 

 sphere of embarrassment. Then the ceremony began again, 

 and again the censers were swung toward us, and again 

 a dead stop. Everything seemed paralyzed. Presently 

 there came softly to my side a gentleman who said in a 

 low tone, "You are of the American legation f" I an- 

 swered in the affirmative. He said, ' ' This is a very inter- 

 esting ceremony. " To this I also assented. He then said, 



