PETERSBURG. 
can we wonder at the stories we read of regi- 
cides ? “ There is something,” says Mungo 
Park, “ in the frown of a tyrant, which rouses 
the most inward emotions of the soul.” In the 
prospect of dismay, of calamity, and of sorrow, 
which mankind might experience in the reign 
of Paul, we began to feel a true presentiment 
of his approaching death ; and do freely confess, 
much as we abhor the manner of it, that it was 
“ a consummation 
•Devoutly to be wish’d.” 
The season began to change before we left 
Petersburg. The cold became daily less intense ; 
and the inhabitants were busied in moving from 
the Neva large blocks of ice into their cellars. 
A most interesting and remarkable phenomenon 
took place the day before our departure, — the 
thermometer of Fahrenheit indicating only nine 
degrees of temperature below the freezing 
point ; and there was no wind. At this time, 
snow, in the most regular and beautiful crystals, 
fell gently upon our clothes, and upon the 
sledge, as we were driving through the streets. 
All of these crystals possessed exactly the 
same figure, and the same dimensions. Every 
one of them consisted of a wheel or star, with 
six equal rays, bounded by circumferences of 
equal diameters ; having all the same number 
11 
CHAP. 
I. 
Extraordi- 
nary Phe- 
nomenon. 
