The Fencing Master by Alexandre Dumas (Illustrated) by Alexandre Dumas

Author:Alexandre Dumas [DUMAS, ALEXANDRE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 5 of 43 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIII

THE Emperor Alexander was barely twenty-four years old when he ascended the throne. He had been educated under the supervision of his grandmother Catherine, on an original plan of her own, one of the principal tenets of which ran as follows: —

“The young Dukes are not to be taught either poetry or music, for to bear any fruit it would be necessary to dedicate too much time to their study.” Alexander therefore received a strict and severe education. His tutor, La Harpe, selected by Catherine herself and known at Court by the name of “the Jacobin,” because he was not only a Swiss but also a brother of the brave General La Harpe who served in the French Army, was exactly the man to impress his pupil with noble and upright ideas, so important in the case of those in whom the impressions of later life are likely to conflict with the recollections of youth. This choice of Catherine’s was remarkable at an epoch when thrones were tottering, shaken by the volcano of revolution, when Leopold died of poison, so it was said, Gustavus fell murdered by Ankarstrôm and Louis XVI. lost his head on the scaffold.

One of Catherine’s express commands was to keep all knowledge of the distinction between the sexes and of love which brought them together, from entering the heads of the young Dukes. The celebrated Pallas was giving them a course of Botany in the Imperial Gardens; the demonstration of the system of Linnaeus OR. the sexes of flowers and their method of reproduction led to a crowd of questions on the part of his august pupils which he found it very difficult to answer. Protasov, the superintendent of the Princes, was obliged to make a report to Catherine who, in an interview with Pallas, advised him to omit all details as to pistils and stamens. As this recommendation rendered the course of Botany almost impossible and the silence of the professor only led to a fresh outburst of questions, the study was definitely abandoned. However such a system of education did not last long and while Alexander was still quite a youth, Catherine had to consider the question of providing him with a wife.

Three young German Princesses were brought to the Russian Court, that the grandmother might make a selection for her grandson. Catherine heard of their arrival at St. Petersburg and eager to see and criticise them, she invited them to come to the Palace, and awaited them in rapt attention at a window whence she could see them alight in the Courtyard. Very soon the carriage which was conveying them drove up, the door was opened, and one of the Princesses jumped straight to the ground without putting foot on the step.

“That is not the one,” said Catherine shaking her head, “to be Empress of Russia, she is too lively.”

The second alighted in the same fashion, and catching her feet in her dress very nearly fell.

“That is not the one either, to be Empress of Russia,” said Catherine; “she is too clumsy.

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