They employed their time in visiting the public build-ings, the port,
and the docks. The preceptor of the youngest of these travellers, with
the permission of the Marshal of Vitry, made careful inquiry of the
consuls concerning the productions and commerce of Provence, the
condition of the merchant service, its equipment and destination,
evidently anxious, for the benefit of his pupil, to make a comparison
between the growing navy of the North and the navy of one of the most
important provinces of France.
One day these Muscovites directed their journey toward Toulon.
The eldest of the three foreigners appeared to be fifty years old. His
countenance presented a singular union of pride and severity. He was
attired in black velvet; a long red beard covered his breast, and
his hair, of the same colour, mingled with a few silver locks, showed
beneath a Tartar cap trimmed with costly fur. His sea-green eyes, his
sallow complexion, his hooked nose, his heavy eyebrows, and his thin
lips gave him a hard and ironical expression.
He walked at some distance from his companions, and seldom spoke, and
when he did it was only to hurl at them some bitter sarcasm.
The age and appearance of the two other Muscovites presented a striking
contrast.
One, who seemed to be the preceptor of the younger, was about forty-five
years old. He was short and fat, almost to obesity, although he seemed
to have a vigorous constitution.
He wore a long robe of coarsely woven brown silk, after the manner of
the Orientals, and an Asiatic cap; a Persian dagger of rare workmanship
ornamented his girdle of orange-coloured silk. His fat, ruddy
face, covered with a thick brown beard, and his thick lips breathed
sensuality; his small, gray eyes sparkled with malice. Sometimes, in
a shrill voice, he gave vent to some jest of audacious cynicism,
frequently in Latin, and always borrowed from Petronius or Martial;
so that the other two travellers, with allusion to the taste of their
companion for the works of Petronius, had given him the name of one of
the heroes of this writer, and called him Trimalcyon.
The pupil of this singular preceptor seemed at the most to be only
twenty years of age. His person was of the ordinary size, but most
elegant; his dress, like that of the Muscovites of the age, was a happy
union of the fashions of the North and the East, arranged with perfect
taste. His long brown hair fell in natural curls from a black cap, flat
and without brim, set on one side and ornamented with a gold and purple
band; the two ends of this band, finely embroidered and fringed, fell
over the collar of a black woollen jacket, embossed with designs in
purple and gold, and fastened to the hips by a cashmere shawl; a second
jacket with loose sleeves, made of rich black Venetian fabric, and lined
with scarlet taffeta, reached a little below the knees; large, loose
Moorish trousers, hanging over red morocco buskins, completed the
picturesque attire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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