Neva reflected the marble quays and the palaces which surround it, I represented to myself all these wonders faded by the arrogance of a man who would come to say, like Satan on the top of a mountain, “The kingdoms of the earth are mine.”  All that was beautiful and good at Petersburg appeared to me in the presence of approaching destruction, and I could not enjoy them without having these painful ideas constantly pursuing me.

I went to see the establishments for education, founded by the empress, and there, even more than in the palaces, my anxiety was redoubled; for the breath of Bonaparte’s tyranny is sufficient, if it approach institutions tending to the improvement of the human race, to alter their purity.  The institute of St. Catherine is formed of two houses, each containing two hundred and fifty young ladies of the nobility and citizens; they are educated under the inspection of the empress, with a degree of care that even exceeds what a rich family would pay to its own children.  Order and elegance are remarkable in the most minute details of this institute, and the sentiment of the purest religion and morality there presides over all that the fine arts can develope.  The Russian females have so much natural grace, that on entering the hall where all the young ladies saluted us, I did not observe one who did not give to this simple action all the politeness and modesty which it was capable of expressing.  They were invited to exhibit us the different kinds of talent which distinguished them, and one of them, who knew by heart pieces of the best French authors, repeated to me several of the most eloquent pages of my father’s Course of Religious Morals.  This delicate attention probably came from the empress herself.  I felt the most lively emotion in hearing that language uttered, which for so many years had had no asylum but in my heart.  Beyond the empire of Bonaparte, in all countries posterity commences, and justice is shown towards those who even in the tomb, have felt the attack of his imperial calumnies.  The young ladies of the institute of St. Catherine, before sitting down to table, sung psalms in chorus:  this great number of voices, so pure and sweet, occasioned me an emotion of tender feeling mingled with bitterness.  What would war do, in the midst of such peaceable establishments?  Where could these doves fly to, from the arms of the conqueror?  After this meal, the young ladies assembled in a superb hall, where they all danced together.  There was nothing striking in their features as to beauty, but their gracefulness was extraordinary; these were daughters of the East, with all the decency which Christian manners have introduced among women.  They first executed an old dance to the tune of Long live Henry the Fourth, Long live this valiant King!  What a distance there was between the times which this tune reminded one of, and the present period!  Two little chubby girls of ten years old finished the ballet by the Russian step:  this dance sometimes assumes the voluptuous character of love, but executed by children, the innocence of that age was mingled with the’ national originality.  It is impossible to paint:  the interest inspired by these amiable talents, cultivated by the delicate and generous hand of a female and a sovereign.