Exquisite, in the most wide acceptation of the term, in their costume—affectedly refined and aristocratic in their manners—_acharnés pour la danse_—“_passant la moitié de leur temps à rien faire, et l’autre moitié à faire des riens_,” the _attachés_ of M. de Boutenieff, upwards of thirty in number, are as busily employed in turning heads and winning hearts, as though the great stake which they came here to play were but the secondary object of their mission. Count Königsmark, the Prussian minister, is a high-bred and accomplished gentleman: distinguished by that calm and graceful _tenue_ that sits so well on men of rank, and which is the most becoming attribute alike of mental and of social aristocracy. The Sardinian Chargé d’Affaires, General Montiglio, is of very retiring habits, and mixes little in general society; but he is a person of considerable acquirements, and an indefatigable sportsman. His domestic history is a little romance, and may serve to account in a great measure for his love of retirement, and the hermit-like seclusion of his wife. Having made a _mariage d’inclination_ which was considered by the Sardinian court to be incompatible with his rank and position in society, he was sent into honourable exile to Smyrna, as Chargé d’Affaires, whence he was a short time since removed to Constantinople; where, as I before remarked, he is rarely met with amid the Perote crowd that fills the ambassadorial ball-rooms. The other foreign ministers play a comparatively insignificant _rôle_ in society; as, since the destruction of the several diplomatic residences in the great fire, they have been compelled to inhabit houses which are not calculated for reception; and it would appear as though they are likely to be long situated thus: the only palace in process of restoration being that of Russia. Here again is asserted the autocracy of the North—the English palace is in ruins, and parasites are wreathing, like emerald-coloured snakes, about its tottering walls—Holland, France, all save Austria, are “Driven from their parch’d and blacken’d halls.” The evil is general—but the remedy has been applied, as yet, only in one instance. Close the doors of the diplomatic residences, and little more can be said for the European society of Pera; it is about on a par with that of a third-rate provincial town in England. _Ennui_ succeeds to curiosity, and indifference to _ennui_; and you gladly step into your caïque, or your araba; or, better still, spring into your saddle, to recreate yourself among scenes of beauty and magnificence, and to escape from “the everlasting larum” of “rounded sentences which tend to nothing.” CHAPTER V.