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Diuers not onely that trauell abroad, but in the very markets and streetes of their Townes, are mortally pinched and killed withall: so that you shall see many drop downe in the streetes; many trauellers brought into the Townes sitting dead and stifle in their Sleds. Diuers lose their noses, the tips of their eares, and the bals of their cheeks, their toes, feete, &c.

Wind from the S. E. in the after part of the Day the Party with the Indians arrivd. we meet them under a Shade near the Boat and after a Short talk we gave them Provisions to eat & proceeded to the trail of Reed, he Confessed that he "Deserted & Stold a public Rifle Shot-pouch Powder & Bals" and requested we would be as favourable with him as we Could consistantly with our Oathes-which we were and only Sentenced him to run the Gantlet four times through the Party & that each man with 9 Swichies Should punish him and for him not to be considered in future as one of the Party

My memory goes back forty years to Russia, when I was on a bear-shooting expedition with Sir Robert Kennedy. Kennedy had killed two bears, and we were making our way back to Petrograd that night, for next evening there was to be one of the famous "Bals des Palmiers" at the Winter Palace which we neither of us wished to miss.

He was the son of a carpenter, and struggled up, by the hard instrumentality of third-rate masters and of picture-dealers, to the rank which he attained among artists, taking his stand from the first, however, as the painter of well-bred, well-apparelled people the frequenters of bals masqués, and fêtes champêtres, who were only playing at shepherds and shepherdesses.

It is unfortunately too true, that the changeableness of taste and inconstancy of fashion in France furnish an aliment to the luxury of other countries; but the principle of this communication is in the luxury of this gay and volatile people. You reproach me with being silent respecting the bals masques or masquerades, mentioned in my enumeration of the amusements of Paris.

A very expensive item was the carriage by road from Tsarskoe Selo of one hundred specially grown large palm trees in specially constructed frost-proof vans; there was also the heavy cost of the supper and wine, which for the "Bals des Palmiers" was provided on a far more sumptuous scale than at the ordinary Court entertainments and balls. Ichabod! Ichabod!

Those "Bals des Palmiers" were really like a scene from the Arabian Nights, what with the varied uniforms of the men, the impressive Russian Court dresses of the women, the jewels, the lights, and the masses of flowers.