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Updated: May 25, 2025
You cannot fail to notice them, for, ten chances to one, they will rush towards you with fierce growls; and were it not that a strong chain hinders them from reaching you, you might have reason to repent having entered the courtyard of the palace Grodonoff.
On the banks of the Neva, near the great city of Saint Petersburg, stands a splendid palace, known as the Palace Grodonoff. It is the property of a Russian nobleman of that name, as it is also his place of residence. Were you to drive up to the front gate of this grand palace, you would see a coat-of-arms sculptured in granite over the entrance.
You may know by all this, that it is the coat-of-arms of the Baron Grodonoff, whose crest is a bear with a blade buried in its breast, and a human band clutching the haft. You will naturally conclude that there is some history connected with this singular tableau that it is the commemoration of some deed done by a Grodonoff, entitling him to use the bear as his heraldic device.
We shall not detail the parting interview between the Baron Grodonoff and his sons; there was the usual interchange of affectionate expressions, with as much feeling as is common on such occasions. Neither need we relate the ordinary incidents of travel which befell our expeditionists, on their way to the mountains of Lapland.
It is not so handsome as that of the prince: for he would be an unskilful artist one utterly reckless of his own fortune who should paint the features of a peasant as handsome as those of a prince. In Russia, as elsewhere, such an imprudent painter would be a rara avis indeed. The picture of which we are speaking is the piece de resistance of the Grodonoff gallery.
This moment of the bear's embarrassment was not lost upon the hunters, who ran rapidly up till within ten paces of the prostrate animal and discharging their guns into his body, prevented him from ever again getting to his feet. His hide was the only part of him that afterwards attained the erect attitude; and that was when it was mounted in the museum of the Palace Grodonoff.
You may be some years older before I see you again; but I trust the time will not be mis-spent; and that upon your return you may be able to give a proper account of yourselves, is the earnest hope and wish of your affectionate father, Michael Grodonoff."
In reality it is a prince who is depicted in the group of the gallery Grodonoff but not a German prince. He is a Russian, and the bear is the Russian bear. The other hunter he who had given its death-blow to the fierce quadruped is dressed in a style entirely different.
Grodonoff, he in whose palace hangs the picture we have described. In one of the apartments of the palace Grodonoff, behold its proprietor, the baron himself! He is seated in an old oak chair, with a heavy table of the same material in front of him. On the table is spread out a map of the world; and by the side of the chair stands a large terrestrial globe.
No doubt that stab would have given the bear his death-blow; but still more fatal had been the bullet from the rifle of Alexis, which had passed through Bruin's brain, crushing his skull like a shell! The skinning of the animal was accomplished with great care; for the coat was one of the finest, and the boys knew with what interest it would be regarded on its arrival at the palace Grodonoff.
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