[Note 74: Napoleon on his arrival in Moscow on the 14th September took up his quarters in the Kremlin, but on the 16th had to remove to the Petrovski Palace or Castle on account of the conflagration which broke out in all quarters of the city. He however returned to the Kremlin on the 19th September. The Palace itself is placed in the midst of extensive grounds just outside the city, on the road to Tver, i.e. to the northwest. It is perhaps worthy of remark, as one amongst numerous circumstances proving how extensively the poet interwove his own life-experiences with the plot of this poem, that it was by this road that he himself must have been in the habit of approaching Moscow from his favourite country residence of Mikhailovskoe, in the province of Pskoff.] XXXVI Adieu, thou witness of our glory, Petrovski Palace; come, astir! Drive on! the city barriers hoary Appear; along the road of Tver The coach is borne o’er ruts and holes, Past women, sentry-boxes, rolls, Past palaces and nunneries, Lamp-posts, shops, sledges, families, Bokharians, peasants, beds of greens, Boulevards, belfries, milliners, Huts, chemists, Cossacks, shopkeepers And fashionable magazines, Balconies, lion’s heads on doors, Jackdaws on every spire—in scores.(75) [Note 75: The first line refers to the prevailing shape of the cast-iron handles which adorn the _porte cochères_. The Russians are fond of tame birds—jackdaws, pigeons, starlings, etc., abound in Moscow and elsewhere.] XXXVII The weary way still incomplete, An hour passed by—another—till, Near Khariton’s in a side street The coach before a house stood still. At an old aunt’s they had arrived Who had for four long years survived An invalid from lung complaint. A Kalmuck gray, in caftan rent And spectacles, his knitting staid And the saloon threw open wide; The princess from the sofa cried And the newcomers welcome bade. The two old ladies then embraced And exclamations interlaced. XXXVIII “Princesse, mon ange!”—“Pachette!”— “Aline!” “Who would have thought it? As of yore! Is it for long?”—“Ma chère cousine!” “Sit down. How funny, to be sure! ’Tis a scene of romance, I vow!” “Tania, my eldest child, you know”— “Ah! come, Tattiana, come to me! Is it a dream, and can it be? Cousin, rememb’rest Grandison?” “What! Grandison?”—“Yes, certainly!” “Oh! I remember, where is he?”— “Here, he resides with Simeon. He called upon me Christmas Eve— His son is married, just conceive!” XXXIX