A few days after my arrival I received a summons to the Winter Palace to be presented to the Emperor. The ceremony was very different from the march past of many hundred men, which constitutes a levée at home. It was rather an ordeal, for I had to go by myself with no tutelary deity in the shape of an ambassador to present me and show me the ropes, as is done at most other courts. I found a batch of eleven other victims of all nations, who had been summoned for the same purpose, and we were shown into a rather shabbily-furnished room decorated with a few bad pictures of reviews—altogether a violent contrast to the magnificence of the staircase and corridors through which we were led by servants in gorgeous apparel, with soldiers in splendid uniforms mounting guard. Presently the Tsar came in, a tall, imposing figure with a very kindly face and genial manner. He called up each of us in turn, and when we had been presented by a chamberlain he had something amiable and pleasant to greet us with. Certainly the Emperor was a born king of men. His was a royalty about which there could be no doubt. His smile was charming, but when he was displeased he knew how to show it. I saw both smile and frown that morning. When it came to my turn to be named he asked me where I had been educated. I told him at Eton and Oxford. “Ah,” said His Majesty, “j’ai été à Oxford. L’orateur public a même prononcé un discours en Latin en mon honneur.” “Dont je suis sûr,” I answered, “que votre Majesté n’a pas compris un traître mot——” The clouds gathered on Jupiter’s brow and there was thunder in the air. “Who,” they said as plainly as speech itself, “is this whipper-snapper who dares to say that I, the Emperor of all the Russias, am an ignoramus that does not understand Latin?” —“A cause de notre prononciation barbare,” I continued. The clouds were dispersed, the sun shone again—all was well with the world. The Emperor laughed heartily at the expense of the public orator, and his “prononciation barbare,” and kept me talking for some few minutes. He was always very gracious afterwards when I met him at any entertainment, and never failed to give me a friendly little nod or word of recognition.