Juan demurr’d at this first notice to Quit; and though death had threaten’d an ejection, His youth and constitution bore him through, And sent the doctors in a new direction. But still his state was delicate: the hue Of health but flicker’d with a faint reflection Along his wasted cheek, and seem’d to gravel The faculty—who said that he must travel. The climate was too cold, they said, for him, Meridian-born, to bloom in. This opinion Made the chaste Catherine look a little grim, Who did not like at first to lose her minion: But when she saw his dazzling eye wax dim, And drooping like an eagle’s with clipt pinion, She then resolved to send him on a mission, But in a style becoming his condition. There was just then a kind of a discussion, A sort of treaty or negotiation Between the British cabinet and Russian, Maintain’d with all the due prevarication With which great states such things are apt to push on; Something about the Baltic’s navigation, Hides, train-oil, tallow, and the rights of Thetis, Which Britons deem their ‘uti possidetis.’ So Catherine, who had a handsome way Of fitting out her favourites, conferr’d This secret charge on Juan, to display At once her royal splendour, and reward His services. He kiss’d hands the next day, Received instructions how to play his card, Was laden with all kinds of gifts and honours, Which show’d what great discernment was the donor’s. But she was lucky, and luck ’s all. Your queens Are generally prosperous in reigning; Which puzzles us to know what Fortune means. But to continue: though her years were waning Her climacteric teased her like her teens; And though her dignity brook’d no complaining, So much did Juan’s setting off distress her, She could not find at first a fit successor. But time, the comforter, will come at last; And four-and-twenty hours, and twice that number Of candidates requesting to be placed, Made Catherine taste next night a quiet slumber:— Not that she meant to fix again in haste, Nor did she find the quantity encumber, But always choosing with deliberation, Kept the place open for their emulation. While this high post of honour ’s in abeyance, For one or two days, reader, we request You’ll mount with our young hero the conveyance Which wafted him from Petersburgh: the best Barouche, which had the glory to display once The fair czarina’s autocratic crest, When, a new lphigene, she went to Tauris, Was given to her favourite, and now bore his. A bull-dog, and a bullfinch, and an ermine, All private favourites of Don Juan;—for (Let deeper sages the true cause determine) He had a kind of inclination, or Weakness, for what most people deem mere vermin, Live animals: an old maid of threescore For cats and birds more penchant ne’er display’d, Although he was not old, nor even a maid;—