Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II by Catharine

Author:Catharine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: D. Appleton
Published: 1859-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

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those effects had been placed in a wardrobe over the hall which had caught fire. This hall servod as a vestibule to the grand hall of the palace. At ten o'clock in the morning, the men whose dutj it was to light the atovea had come to heat this entrance-halL Af^er patting the wood into the stove, they lighted it aa uaaal. This done, the room became filled with smoke; they thought tliat it escaped by some imperceptible holes in the stove, and set to work to cover with clay the jatersticea of the tiles. The smoke increasing, they tried to find some ciiinks in the stove, bat not finding any, they perceived that the outlet must bo between the partitions of the apartment. These partitions were only of wood. They got water, and put out the fire in the stove, bat the smoke still increased, and made its way into the ante-ohambcr, where there was a sentinel of the horse-guards. The latter, expecting to be jnufibcatcd, and not daring ti> move from his post, broke a pane of glass, and began to cry oat; but no one coming to his assistance, nor hearing him, he fired his masket through the window. The report was heard by the main guard, which was posted opposite the palace. They ran to Iiim, and on coming in, found the place filled with a dense smoke, out of which they withdrew the sentinel. The Btove heaters were pat under arrest. They had hoped to eztinguieb the fire, or at least prevent tho smoke from in-oreaaing without being obliged to give any alarm; and they had been hard at work with this view for five hours.

This fire gave rise to a discovery on the part of M. Tchoglokoff. The Grand Duke had in his apartments several very large cheats of drawers. As they wore being carried out, some of the drawers, being either open or badly fastened, disclosed to the spectators what they were filledwith. Who would have thought it? The drawers con-

ODO eonI<I tcU what she mc&nt by a oat in her noso. Bat nhout noon, as she was running along, she fell down, and struck against the tabic. This made her cry; while crying, she took out her pocket-handkerchief and wiped her nose, and in doing so the nut fell from it. I saw this myself, and could then understand how a nut, which could not be bcld in any European nose without being perceived, might be held ia the hollow of a Kalmuck nose, which is placed within the head between two inimcnBO cheekB.

Our clothes, aad crcrything else, had been left tu the mud in front of the burning palace, and were brought to us during the night and following day- What I roost regretted was my books. I was at this time just finishing the fourth volume of Bayle's Dictionary: I had spent two years in reading it, and got through a volume every sis months. From this one may judge of the solitude in which my life was passed.

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