M. Narischkin in the midst of this variety of pleasures, proposed to
us to drink a toast to the united arms of the Russians and English,
and gave at the same moment a signal to his artillery, which gave
almost as loud a salute as that of a sovereign. The inebriety of
hope seized all the guests; as for me, I felt myself bathed in
tears. Was it possible that a foreign tyrant should reduce me to
wish that the French should be beat? I wish, said I then, for the
fall of him, who is equally the oppressor of France and Europe; for
the true French will triumph if he is repulsed. The English and the
Russian guests, and particularly M. Narischkin, approved my idea,
and the name of France, formerly like that of Armida in its effects,
was once more heard with kindness by the knights of the east, and of
the sea, who were going to fight against her. Calrnucks with flat
features are still brought up in the houses of the Russian nobility,
as if to preserve a specimen of those Tartars who were conquered by
the Sclavonians. In the palace of Narischkin there were two or three
of these half-savage Calmucks running about. They are agreeable
enough in their infancy, but at the age of twenty they lose all the
charms of youth: obstinate, though slaves, they amuse their masters
by their resistance, like a squirrel fighting with the wires of his
cage. It was painful to look at this specimen of the human race
debased; I thought I saw, in the midst of all the pomp of luxury, an
image of what man may become, when he derives no dignity either from
religion or the laws, and this spectacle was calculated to humble
the pride which the enjoyments of splendor may inspire.
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