Notices to Correspondents.

Accepted: "The Caucasus and Georgia.” cession."

Declined, with thanks: "He suffered for us."

[We ought to have mentioned in our note on the Princess Françoise that she was great-grandmother to the late King of Italy, Victor Emanuel, a fact which gives some additional interest to her history.-Ed. C. C.]

27th February. Here we are at Ash-Wednesday, and for a whole year there will be no more dances nor amusements. Our guests are already leaving us. The Representative of His Majesty is gone, and the newly married pair will start the day after to-morrow. We are to accompany them as far as Sulgostów. M. le Staroste will not admit any stranger into his palace, because amusements are forbidden during Lent, but he makes one exception for the son of the Castellan Kochanowski. He ardently solicited this favour, and as he had been a fellow-student with the Staroste at college it was difficult to refuse him. I am revelling in the thought of the journey, as I am curious to see the village and palace and household of my darling sister. It is so difficult to accustom myself to saying Madame la Starostine, but it would be unsuitable to call her anything else, and even his lordship and her ladyship1 most frequently give her this title. She looks much more sedate since her marriage, it is true that she now wears a cap, a panier, and a dress with a long train, and seems several years older. She appears sad and hardly speaks; but no wonder, for she must regret leaving her paternal home and giving herself up so entirely to a husband she scarcely knows. That must always be very disagreeable. She is still so shy with M. le Staroste that no one would guess him to be her husband, she has never once 1 She means her parents.

called him so, though he speaks of her as his little wife, and frequently goes up to her, and addresses her oftener than he does our parents. After to-morrow we start for Sulgostów.

9th March, Saturday. Yesterday evening we returned from Sulgostów. I enjoyed myself very much there, and my only regret is that dear Madame la Starostine could not return with us. How time flies! it is already a week since she left the Castle. Last Friday, after the departure of our guests, Barbe went out very early in the morning and made her way to the Church of Lissów, where she presented to the chapel which contains the picture of her patron saint, a heart of gold, and then she took farewell of the priest. On her return to the Castle, she bade adieu to the courtiers and all the people of the suite, and afterwards repaired to the farm and distributed all her girlish treasures. She gave her cows, her geese, and her fowls to a poor peasant of Maleszów who has just lost everything through an incendiary, reserving for herself two tufted fowls, and the swans she wishes to take to Sulgostów, and leaving me her birds and flowers. After this distribution of all her possessions, she wished to visit every part of the Castle, and so she went through all the rooms going up to every story and lingering long in the chapel and in our bed-room. Scarcely was breakfast over when the cracking of whips was heard, and a page entered and announced that the carriages were ready. M. le Staroste went up to Barbe and told her she must prepare to depart. At these words, her chest heaving and the tears coursing each other down her cheeks, she threw herself at my parents' feet, and thanked them for all their love and care, and for the happiness they had given her during eighteen years, begging them to pardon anything she might have done amiss, and declaring that all she desired was to be as happy in the future as she had been in the past. For the first time in my life I saw my father shed tears, and oh! how tender were the blessings Barbe received. It was a most moving spectacle for all who were present at it. When we reached the drawbridge the captain of dragoons intercepted our passage, telling M. le Staroste that he should not let him go away until he had given him a pledge, which must be considered a tacit promise that he would one day bring Barbe back to the Castle. The Staroste presented him immediately with a beautiful diamond ring. During this colloquy I examined the carriages of the bride; they are really splendid, the first constructed to hold two persons is yellow, lined with red cloth, then came a beautiful landau, then a calèche and

several britszkas. They were all drawn by blood horses, and to the yellow were attached six dappled grey. This was for the bride and bridegroom, who went in it alone, and then I thought of what I said I never could believe to be possible. We were at the end of the cortège, for in the other carriages were the people belonging to the suite. Madame la Starostine was crying so that we could hear her sobs; she was followed during several stages of the road by many of the courtiers and peasants, who were loudly calling down blessings on her head. Barbe threw them all the money she had about her, and M. le Staroste's liberality knew no limits. Beginning with the steward and ending with the lowest servant of the Castle he made presents to all. Wherever we halted, either for resting the horses or for spending the night, we were admirably served. The Jews, who have a lease of the inns on the high road, were, with their children and belongings, turned out to make room for us, and we always upon our arrival found the tables laid, and everything we could possibly want in readiness. At last, on the evening of the second day, we reached Sulgostów. During the last stage we met the Palatin Swidzinski and the Abbé Vincent, who had come on before to receive Madame la Starostine in her new domain. At the frontier of the Custom House of Sulgostów the elders of the village, with the Soltys at their head, stopped the bridal carriage, and after offering as is customary bread and salt to the young bride, read an address at the end of which they all cried out, "A hundred years of life to the young couple." On our entrance into the court-yard a company of hussars, whom M. le Staroste retains at his court, greeted us with a volley of shots from their carabines, while their captain presented arms. In front of the doorway stood the Palatin with his nephew, and all the court, who joyfully and affectionately welcomed the young bride. Scarcely was she inside the Palace when M. le Staroste presented her with an immense bunch of keys, and at the same time placed the whole household under her superintendence. The following day she had already taken the reins of government, and everything worked with the most perfect order. It was a pleasure to see the manner in which she directed and ruled; but then as she was the eldest, my mother had accustomed her from her childhood to supply her own place occasionally.

The position of Sulgostów is quite different from that of Maleszów, it is a palace, not a castle, but it is a cheerful looking imposing structure 1 The Soltys is the Chief Magistrate or Justice of a village.

with a numerous court, excellent table, and spacious house; but what is of far more consequence to Barbe, every one is considerate towards her, and eager to please her, and I am sure she will soon cease to pine for our Castle. I have partaken of excellent things at Sulgostów. Amongst others, of coffee; my parents do not approve of this new beverage, which is never served in our house excepting for very distinguished guests; it is considered very unwholesome for young people as it heats their blood and spoils their complexions, so until lately I had only twice tasted it for fun, but at Sulgostów I drank as much of it as I liked. All M. le Staroste's family delight in it, and at his request my parents allowed me to take a small cup of it every day. We all laughed à propos of coffee, as we recalled the Poetess Dzuzbaczka's description of a young wife, who on her arrival at her husband's castle, complains that she did not find three grains of coffee, but that they brought her instead an immense tureen full of soup,1 made of beer and cheese. Certainly Madame la Starostine cannot make that complaint. We were very sorry to leave her and to return here. M. Kochanowski was the only person who enlivened me on the road home, he accompanied us on horseback all the way. They may well call him charming, and what must his Royal Master be! Madame la Starostine cried a good deal when she took leave of us. We arrived home last night, and I am writing early in the morning, and feeling already how dull and sad I shall be. I had a presentiment that my darling sister would carry all our liveliness away with her. The Castle seems to me as desolate as if there was no one in it, and as if our court and our gaiety had all departed with Barbe. My parents, too, are so melancholy, she being the eldest was more with them than we were, and she rendered them a thousand small services. I try to supply her place, but I can neither fill my father's pipes as well as she did, nor so cleverly match the shades of wool for my mother's embroideries. With time and GOD's help I may become more expert, but I shall never equal Basia (for this once I must call her so). I am always willing enough, but I so often forget things, while my sister never forgot anything. All the court mention her with so much affection. My parents are sending to-day a page into Sulgostów to ask for tidings of Madame la Starostine, and they are all disputing for the honour of being the messenger, and Michel Chronowski,

who only starts to-morrow for Opole, regrets his late occupation.

1 A national dish served with bread and cheese cut into dice.