Gilded cupolas announced Moscow from afar; however, as the surrounding country is only a plain, as well as the whole of Russia, you may arrive in that great city without being struck with its extent.  It has been well said by some one, that Moscow was rather a province than a city.  In fact, you there see huts, houses, palaces, a bazaar as in the East, churches, public buildings, pieces of water, woods and parks.  The variety of manners, and of the nations of which Russia is composed, are all exhibited in this immense residence.  Will you, I was asked, buy some Cashmere shawls in the Tartar quarter?  Have you seen the Chinese town?  Asia and Europe are found united in this immense city.  There is more liberty enjoyed in it than at Petersburg, where the court necessarily exercises great influence.  The great nobility settled at Moscow were not ambitious of places; but they proved their patriotism by munificent gifts to the state, either for public establishments during peace, or as aids during the war.  The colossal fortunes of the great Russian nobility are employed in making collections of all kinds, and in enterprises of which the Arabian Nights have given the models; these fortunes are also frequently lost by the unbridled passions of their possessors.  When I arrived at Moscow, nothing was talked of but the sacrifices that were made on account of the war.  A young Count de Momonoff raised a regiment for the state, and would only serve in it as a sublieutenant; a Countess Orloff, amiable and wealthy in the Asiatic style, gave the fourth of her income.  As I was passing before these palaces surrounded by gardens, where space was thrown away in a city as elsewhere in the middle of the country, I was told that the possessor of this superb residence had given a thousand peasants to the state:  and another, two hundred.  I had some difficulty in accommodating myself to the expression, giving men, but the peasants themselves offered their services with ardor, and their lords were in this war only their interpreters.

As soon as a Russian becomes a soldier, his beard is cut off, and from that moment he is free.  A desire was felt that all those who might have served in the militia should also be considered as free:  but in that case the nation would have been entirely so, for it rose almost en masse.  Let us hope that this so much desired emancipation may be effected without violence:  but in the mean time one would wish to have the beards preserved, so much strength and dignity do they add to the physiognomy.  The Russians with long beards never pass a church without making the sign of the cross, and their confidence in the visible images of religion is very affecting.  Their churches bear the mark of that taste for luxury which they have from Asia:  you see in them only ornaments of gold, and silver, and rubies.  I was told that a Russian had proposed to form an alphabet with precious stones, and to write a Bible in that manner.  He knew the best manner of interesting