232 
FROM MOSCOW 
chat, portrait' upon the wall? It is a face to make 
■ ' _ Englishmen tremble.” The author endeavoured 
to answer him in his own way, saying, “ The 
Emperor, truly! If he knew how shamefully 
you have slandered his countenance by that vile 
representation, your head would come off sooner 
than my hat.” Finding his gasconade had not 
succeeded, he caused it to be intimated, that he 
wanted a rouble. We could hardly credit what 
we heard; and should have been ashamed to 
offer it, if he had not afterwards told us so 
himself. Horses now came quick enough, and 
half-a-dozen fine speeches into the bargain. 
River Oka. About a verst from this town we crossed the 
Oka, by a ferry. This river falls into the Volga 
at Kolomna. It is a noble piece of water, almost 
as broad as the Thames, and well stocked with 
fish. We had been detained so long at Serpuchof, 
that evening was coming on when we arrived 
upon its banks. Peasants were seated in groupes 
around different fires, singing, and boiling their 
fish upon the shore. Innumerable frogs, whose 
croaking may be heard to a great distance 
(l) Copies of the Emperor's Portrait, for which see the Vignette to 
the First Chapter, were sent, by order of Paul, to all public offices of 
his empire. Some of those pictures were executed in a most wretched 
manner. All persons, however, were ordered to stand bareheaded 
before them, as if in the despot’s presence. The peasants fell pros- 
trate, and offered their adoration, as before their BOGH. 
