Here he while he passed to his own room. which surrounded him, then he strode excitedly in the direction of the fire. Soon, however, he perceived that the destruction was universal, for, turn which way he would, the terrible element blocked up the path; so at last he was driven back to the Kremlin, as the only safe place. This, the palace of the Czars, he was determined he would not yield; yet, ere long, the cry of 66 Fire "9 once more arose. Twice the flames were extinguished, to burst forth again. But a Russian soldier succeeded in setting fire to the tower of the Arsenal. It could no longer be doubted that the edifice was doomed to destruction. This decided Napoleon, and on the 17th September he ordered a guide to conduct him from the city in the direction of St. Petersburg. It appeared, however, as though the walls were besieged by an ocean of Rostopchine was still Governor of Mosfire, and their first attempts were useless. cow, where he received, on his return, the At last, they escaped through a gate lead-most enthusiastic applause; the whole ing towards the Moskowa; but even then population forgetting their ruined homes they seemed for a time in still greater to greet him, who was here honoured as danger fire and smoke hemmed them the saviour of Russia. This, however, was in. Napoleon jumped from his horse, and not to last. When excitement had cooled ran down one narrow passage which alone down, the merchants and nobles realized was open. Those who followed him had the extent of their disaster, so that he was to cover their faces to protect them from treated at first with silence, then comscorching, while they seemed to be walk-plaints were raised against his administraing on red-hot coals. Fortunately for tion, until Alexander sent functionaries to them, a detachment of soldiers met and inquire into the matter. No immediate guided them in safety, though even in their result followed, but Rostopchine, who unHight they encountered fresh danger, for derstood human nature well, prepared to they were compelled to pass a large sup- resume his private life, though while conply of gunpowder. But we need not fol- tinuing at his post he exerted himself enlow their fortunes, since our interest at ergetically to restore public order. The present is with Rostopchine, who risked last events of his governorship were the this appalling act and all its consequences rejoicings at the conclusion of peace in rather than yield the pride of his country 1814. When, a month afterwards, the to the exultation of its foe. It is true Emperor entered Moscow, he treated Rosthat he has shrunk from the responsibility, topchine with marked coldness. There is or the glory, of acknowledging himself its reason to suppose they never came to an author, but the weight of evidence would open rurture, the Emperor conferring be difficult to disprove. Upon leaving upon Rostopchine the dignity of CounMoscow, he joined the army of Kovtovsow, sellor of the Empire, but it remained an which was marching towards the west, honorary one, and he retired permanently passing his splendid château at Voronovo. from the honours and duties of public life Rostopchine went towards it, and, in spite at the age of forty-nine. After this he of the remonstrances of those Generals who lived once more the routine of private accompanied him, he set fire to it. In the virtue, for which we have already had to presence of the Generals, he said, "What admire him, not, however, in the tranquilcould not myself do at Moscow, I will lity of his country home, as his health renaccomplish here, in setting fire, with my dered travelling desirable, and still more own hand, to this dwelling, which I would did the resentment and jealousy of the desire to be twenty times as beautiful and Russians compel him to seek repose on a costly." Sir Robert Wilson, who was foreign soil. His first journey was then with the Russian army, has left us an Toplitz, his second to Carlsbad, during account of this scene. When Rostopchine which we have many scraps of his penentered the châ'eau lighted torches were distributed to those who accompanied him, and who remained near the entrance, to manship, full as ever of tender affection, alternating with powerful hits of satire. For a time his health improved; but the following year he had again to wander, on which occasion he visited France for the first time, passing by Stuttgardt and Frankfort to Paris. There could hardly have been a more unfavourable time to visit this capital, still the scene of contending parties, as well as suffering from the results of previous war and revolution. To a man of his iron temperament, the character of the French must have appeared to great disadvantage, ready as they seemed to turn from one form of government to another, forgetful alike of revolutionary horrors and the disasters of war. At any rate, in Rostopchine's notes at this period there are many sharp satires against the French; nor does a close acquaintance seem to have altered his views, for even at the close of his sojourn, his descriptions breathe the same tone of contempt, at the same time that he prognosticates those further changes which eventually occurred. His sarcastic criticisms, however, apply chiefly to the political character of the people, and he rendered ample justice to their courtesy and amiability in private life. In his earlier history we were amused by the almost pathetic description of German slowness and obstinacy, especially in the matter of post-horses, and we are thus prepared to sympathize in his dclight at the promptitude with which these arrangements could be made in France. He writes to his wife The roads are splendid,... the management of the poste excellent; without the horses having been ordered beforehand, they were changed in ten minutes. But what may surprise you most is that they only employ three horses, while in Germany one had a fight to be let off with six. I have cordially made my peace with the French; in their own country they are so different from elsewhere. Their character is one of ready politeness, which is evidently instinctive, for even the peasants, beggars, and postillions make pretty speeches to you quite naturally. At our first interview he was much struck with the formation of my head, and exclaimed, "You have a wonderfully well shaped head; I never saw one equal to it, except a skull which I have in my collection." I trust, however, he will not deprive me of my head; but I fancy if I died, he would take possession, and use it for his observations. The Count was not mistaken as to the sentiments of the great phrenologist, for when they parted after several years of friendship Dr. Gall embraced him cordially, and with a voice broken by grief, assured him that after his death he would at any cost procure his skull, in order to study its bumps and enrich his collection! Rostopchine spent much of his time in visiting the principal objects of interest at Paris, paying special attention to those that were in any way connected with Marie Antoinette, for whose memory he felt great admiration and compassion. Among other eminent persons, he became acquainted with Madame de Staël, but they had no affection for one another, and he offended her by refusing an invitation to dinner, when she had hoped to add him to her circle of admirers. This so irritated her, that when they met in society some little passage of arms was sure to take place. Upon one occasion he writes thus of a skirmish of words which passed between them when they met at the Duc d'Escars She got into a passion, but I retained my self-possession. It was the subject of her famous Benjamin Coustant, who had said that Russia was not even a country. Every one was on my side, for Madame de Staël is feared more than she is loved. She attempted to joke, telling me she had written that I was born before the age of civilization. I replied by informing her that I had called her a therefore we were quits. This caused great pious conspirator," and laughter, so, according to the precepts of the country, after this hit I took my leave. 66 Of all the public institutions of Paris, the Hotel Dieu chiefly excited his sympathy. Immediately upon his arrival at Paris, His was a very generous nature, and one Rostopchine found himself sought after as that could well appreciate the devoted life a celebrity. But he was determined not led by Sisters of Charity; in fact, we gather to be made a lion of, contenting himself from some of his letters to his wife, that with introductions to those who, either his own time was much occupied in consolfrom merit or rank, might lay special claiming and assisting the poor, the love of reto his notice. Amongst others we distin- lieving distress being one of his most specguish the names of Louis the Eighteenth, ial characteristics. the Duc d'Orleans, the Princes, Talleyrand, Madame Swetchine, and Madame de Staël, but the accounts that remain of his impressions are of a very passing nature. An amusing specimen is given us of his intimacy with the celebrated Dr. Gall. Rostopchine writes At last, finding his health did not improve, and growing weary of separation from his family which he loved so dearly, he begged his wife to join him at Paris with all his family. This she readily consented to, and they spent five years there together, she occupying herself chiefly in was clear that the work of conversion had been going on perhaps unexpressed for fear of incurring her father's displeasure. Madame Rostopchine acquainted him with her daughter's wishes, to which he gave no consent, but as he made no objection the Curé of Moscow was sent for; he at once reconciled Lisa to the Catholic Church, then gave her the last sacraments whilst she was still fully conscious, and in a few hours she died peacefully. piety, good works, and literary labours, would not embrace the Catholic faith. while he continued to enter into society From the readiness of her acquiescence it occasionally, but with great moderation. During this time two of his daughters were married, one, who remained in the Greek Church, became the wife of Dmitri Narischkine, a young Russian officer, nephew to a very old friend of Rostopchine's. The other daughter, who became a Catholic, married Count Eugène de Ségur. Thus the tie was strengthened that bound Rostopchine to French soil; but the necessity of attending to his estates, as well as his strong love for his na- Rostopchine seems never to have rallied tive country, led him to decide on a return thoroughly from this affliction. His own thither, which he accomplished in the health grew more and more precarious, so spring of 1823. The first few months that that after the somewhat unexpected death he again spent in Russia, he passed at his of Alexander, he was unable to repair to château of Voronovo, which had been in a the Cathedral to take his oath to the new great measure restored. Here he wrote Emperor, having to go through this formthose memoirs, part of which have fur- ality in his own salon. Later, at the abnished our narrative, but the great bulk dication of Constantine, the insurrection, of which are kept back from publicity by and the taking possession of the throne by the Russian Government. From Vorono- Nicholas, Rostopchine was already convo he went to St. Petersburg, then settled fined to his bed. He suffered greatly for the winter in the only one of his resi- from his chest, growing daily worse until, dences at Moscow that had been spared in the month of January, 1826, those by the conflagration. Immediately upon his arrival in Russia, Rostopchine sent in his resignation of all civil or military appointments, which the Emperor accepted, leaving him the purely honorary title of Grand Chamberlain. It was about this time that being asked to write his memoirs, he composed the sketch that gained such notoriety, entitled Simple Memoirs of Myself: written in Ten Minutes. His special gifts of originality, wit, satire, candour, and powers of observation are combined and prominent in this brochure, which has been translated into almost every European language. Amid all his disappointments and trials one sorrow had hitherto been spared to Rostopchine. He had never felt any severe domestic loss, but in the death of his unmarried daughter, Lisa, he was now to experience a grief which overcame him to an extent which no public calamity had done. She is described as young, beautiful, charming; and the parents were slow to realize that consumption had laid its fatal hand upon her. The father's letters written at this time are but another proof of his deeply tender nature, but the Countess had an object dearer to her heart than even the life of her child, the salvation of her soul. At first she contented herself with prayers, but when she perceived that Lisa was indeed hastening to the grave, she inquired whether she around him became convinced that his end was approaching. The faith in Christianity, which had accompanied him through life awoke in full vigour at the last hour, and he begged that a priest might render him the rites of his Church. His wife lost no time in fulfilling his wishes. It is true she would have given all things to see him a Catholic, but since it was impossible, there was much consolation for her in the good faith with which he received those sacraments which, although schismatical, were valid. After his interview with the priest, Rostopchine addressed to his wife words of calm resignation, while his features expressed a holy peace. He remained stretched upon his bed, his eyes closed, apparently asleep, when suddenly Madame Rostopchine, who was praying at his side, perceived that he raised himself, opened his eyes, and made distinctly the sign of the Cross; then he fell back upon his pillow - he had breathed his last sigh. Thus died Count Rostopchine, on the 30th of January, 1826, aged sixty years and a few months. The Countess survived him many years, leading the life of a true Christian widow. She died at Moscow, the 28th September, 1859, at the age of eighty-three. Two of their children are still living: the youngest son, André, and the second daughter, who married the Count de Ségur. F. G. From The Cornhill Magazine. A CONTEMPORARY STORY. I. the recipient, who conferred the favour by accepting it, and that the donor was touched to the heart, overjoyed and proud beyond measure at so much condescension. This, after mature reflection, was the only mode M. de Ris had been able to devise for preventing that each benefit conferred should become a cause of undying enmity. By leading persons to believe that in accepting his money and not returning it they were placing him under a lasting obligation, he had put matters upon a footing satisfactory and honourable to both parties. The Count's fourth and most important rule absolute, was to eschew politics. WHEN young Telemachus was undergoing his competitive examination for the kingship of Crete, one of the questions set him was to define a happy man, and the wise. Mentor who stood behind to prompt him, conformably to a practice since abolished in competitive examinations, bade him answer that the really happy man was he who considered himself so. Admitting this definition to be correct, then M. le Comte Fortuné de Ris, deputy of the National Assembly, who rented a first-floor Now this for a deputy of the Assembly flat in a house of the Boulevard Males- was rather a knotty problem; but M. de herbes, Paris, where no cats or parrots Ris was not a deputy through any fault of were kept, was the happiest man out. He his own. He had been returned in the had everything to make him happy, and winter of 1871, after the capitulation of sense enough to know it:-a handsome Paris, when an assembly had been hastily face, good figure, fine health, an income convoked to meet at Bordeaux, and conlarger than people suspected, though he stituencies were selecting the most popupassed for rich and no profession, save lar men they could find, without much that of enjoying himself, which is a pleas- reference to their tastes or their fitness. ant profession when one succeeds in it. M. de Ris was nominated by the electoral In age M. de Ris was two-and-forty, but committee of the department in which he looked younger; in complexion florid and owned a country seat, and had been rejovial; in statue the same height as other turned out of hand. He was much chaFrenchmen. In a general way he was grined by this result, which was communiblithe-tempered, witty, and so thoroughly cated to him before he had yet left Paris, agreeable with women that he numbered where, during the siege, he had fought more of them on the list of his intimate with distinction as a commandant of friends than would have sufficed for the Gardes Mobiles. His first impulse was to vanity of ten less-favoured beings, even send in his resignation, and it is even said supposing these ten to have been covetous. that his letter on this subject was ready But M. de Ris was not happy because signed and sealed; but somebody pointed Nature had ordained it so beforehand, just out to him so eloquently that in times of as she settles for us whether we shall have trouble a man owes willing service to his brown hair or red. He was happy be- country; and somebody else produced cause for the conduct of his life he had laid such telling arguments to show that a down certain simple rules which experi- deputy need not know more about politics ence had taught him gave happiness to than any ordinary man, that M. de Ris others, and which he never transgressed. gave in. He took his seat at Bordeaux in In the first place, he never spoke ill of the very centre of the Assembly — so cenpeople, but suffered them to think that he trally, indeed, that if you had drawn a admired them sincerely all round: an illu- string from President Grévy's chair right sion which did them no harm nor him either. across the Chamber, you would have found In the next place, he always kept his Count de Ris at the end of it. This meant word, a surer recipe for contentment that he was a "neutral;" that between than many persons appear to imagine, Henry V., the Count of Paris, Napoleon though it must be stated that he avoided III., and the Republic, he had no choice such rash promises as swearing to love whatever; and that on every occasion one woman eternally, or vowing that he where his vote was called for he intended would never shake hands with such-and-recording it in such a way as not to comsuch a friend again if he did this or that that was contrary to the public mood. M. de Ris's third rule was to render as many services as he could, and always to do so in such an enthusiastic way as to make the person obliged esteem that it was he, promise him. This was rather like tightrope dancing, but M. de Ris's logic on the subject was unanswerable. If I make a selection," said he, "before I know which of the four is going to win, I shall be obliged to adhere to it during the rest of my life under pain of being thought a bers the Pritchard case now? The hotrenegade, which is absurd. The Count of headed and crippled patriot stumped Chambord is a prince of great honour, through life bitterly anathematizing the whom I venerate; the Count of Paris day when he was induced to part with his could hold his own in point of intelligence leg for a cause about which nobody cared with any sovereign or president in Chris- a pin six months after it had been settled; tendom; Nopoleon III. was always ex- and which went clean out of the public tremely gracious to me, and decorated me mind long before the victim of it had with his own hand without my having ever learned to do without crutches. This exasked for such a favour; the Empress also ample had always struck M. de Ris most is charming; as for the Republic, to declare powerfully. He often thought of what it myself an anti-republican is to say that I would be if he himself were to lose his leg don't believe we French are capable of in over-zealous debate, and though he was governing ourselves, which is an opinion not a fearer of duels, having fought several only good for foreigners." The party- without much detriment to himself or his whips endeavoured to shake this neutral- adversaries, he caused the name "Pritism by adroit flatteries, and the party-wits to undermine it by banter; but M. de Ris was impervious to flattery, and, when tackled by a wit, he put his case in a nutshell by saying: "I know four ladies of equal beauty: the Marquise de Rosecroix, who is a legitimist; the Countess de Potofeu, who holds for Louis-Philippe II.; the Baroness de Diamantelle, who is enamoured of the Napoleons; and Mdme. Garrulet, the deputy's wife, who is a Rupublican. If I were to enlist on the side of one of these ladies, the doors of the other three would be closed to me, and that I do not want." Whereat the wit would laugh, and let M. de Ris alone. In France they always let a man alone who knows how to defend himself. It should be mentioned in passing, that M. de Ris's independence was not quite the effect of political poltroonery, though a foreigner might have opined that there was a strong spice of this foible flavouring it. His was rather the eclecticism and sceptic epicureanism of politics. He thought there was something good to be said for every party, and said it. He also thought that to pin one's faith to a set of doctrines which may be as unwearable in a year as last twelvemonth's fashions, to cast in one's lot with a particular dynasty or system which may be less long of life than a deciduous leaf, is the act neither of a clever man nor of a wise one. There was a friend of his, who, towards the close of Louis Philippe's reign, had taken an undue interest in the Pritchard indemnity case. Every time the name of Pritchard was mentioned this hot-headed patriot foamed at the mouth, rolled flaming eyeballs, and launched such fulminating declamations against the policy of M. Guizot, that he ended by exasperating a supporter of that statesman, who called him out, and wounded him so badly that his right leg had to be amputated. Alas! who remem at his chard" to be neatly set in red enamel on |