16 A CLUB-ROOM. 



of profound accomplishment; of singular skill as a 

 linguist, speaking every modern tongue with the flu- 

 ency and ease of a native ; a diplomatist of perfect 

 ■finesse, though at the period of which we write his 

 abilities in that line were undeveloped ; he was, in ad- 

 dition to all this, as agreeable an associate, as amiable 

 a companion, and as good a fellow as ever was sent to 

 represent one foreign power near the court of another. 



At this particular time, the diplomatic situation of 

 the Count Matuschevitz was somewhat anomalous, 

 for, although he was known to be connected with the 

 embassy, at the head of which then was the magnifi- 

 cent Prince Lieven, his duties were singularly unbur- 

 thensome, his sole occupations seeming to be killing 

 the time by means of all those stirring and athletic 

 exercises, games and sports which have in all ages, 

 and under all sovereigns, been the peculiar favorites 

 of the manly aristocracy of old England. 



In after days it came out, that the avocations and 

 duties of the gay and gallant count were identical ; 

 and that the best shot, the best rider, the best fencer, 

 tennis-player, sparrer, in the Russian empire, he was 

 sent by the great and shrewd ruler of that wonderful 

 semi-barbarous power, all of whose rulers seem to be, 

 by hereditary right and the grace of God, great and 

 wise, and shrewd and crafty, for the express end and 

 purpose of riding and shooting, sparring and fencing 

 himself into the good graces of the English gentry and 

 nobility ; and so becoming the associate of their pri- 

 vate hours, and the judge of their characters, to a de- 

 gree unattainable by the envoys of any other court. 



How far Nicholas succeeded in his purpose it is not 

 within the scope of this paper to divulge ; but this 

 much is certain, that, although in the omnibus box at 

 the opera, in the drawing-rooms, or ball-rooms of the 

 metropolis, the French or the Italian, the Austrian or 

 the Prussian envoys and attaches might keep pace 



