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    308 MADAME SWETCHINE.

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    Tim Biography Of A Hussian Lady Of High ...

    familiar with , tlie learned and touching harmonies of the north as with the brilliant xnelodies of Italy ; she read music at sight , and

    accompanied herself on the piano . In personal appearance she was not striking ; but her physiognomy , her gestures , and her voice ,

    were all attractive and sympathetic . Her blue eyes were small and slihtlirregularbut very animated and sweet in expression ; her

    nose g had y la pointe , Kcdmouk ; and her complexion was dazzling . She was not tallbut walked easily and welland every word and every

    movement were , alike stamped with the , mark of delicacy and distinction .

    This aristocratic young maiden was naturally sought by many arcLent suitors ; and the despotic and capricious character of the

    Russian court was such as to cause a parent the greatest anxiety in regard to the future of a daughter . No manhowever high in

    posi-, tion and public repute , could tell that he might not find himself suddenly exiled to Siberia or to the shores of the Black Sea : and

    M . Soymonof , seeing the frequent fate which struck men invested with office under the late Empress Catherine , feared that disgrace

    might also come to him in his turn . He looked about , therefore , after the fashion of anxious aristocratic fathersfor a son-in-law

    who should " insure a brilliant existenceand in , all circumstances prove a protector" to his child . He cast , his eyes upon a man of

    great distinction , and one already his own personal friend , General Swetehine , who had served with honor in the military career . The

    proposed husband was a tall imposing-looking man , with a firm upriht character combined with a calm gentle spirit ; his age was

    forty g -two . Sophie received her father ' s choice with affectionate deference , as she received everything which came to her by his will .

    She had lost her mother several years before : and that which chiefly attracted her in this marriage , thus planned for her by her elders ,

    was the assurance that her little sister should not be separated from her , but should remain with her under her maternal care . It is

    said that there was a young-Russian nobleman of high birth , _larg-e fortuneand great talentswho would fain have had Mademoiselle

    Soymonof , for a wife : Count , Strogonof was his name ; and his grief remains on record , —an old-world tale of sixty years ago . But at

    last he " resigned himself to another marriage ; " and what Sophie thought or felt about him we are not told . It is certain , however ,

    that she was for fifty years a fond and faithful wife to General Swetchine ; and that her father judged not unwisely in the choice

    he made . But his own presentiments had been too true : he enjoyed a vivid

    but fleeting pleasure in witnessing his daughter's early married life , from which he had promised himself a peaceful old age . The

    Emperor Paul suddenly , and without even allowing Sophie or the general time to intercedeexiled M . Soymonof from St . Petersburg *]! .

    , Moscow offered a natural and honorable retreat , and thither he

    repaired ; but the bitterness of his disgrace , the separation from his

    308 Madame Swetchine.

    308 MADAME SWETCHINE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1860, page 308, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071860/page/20/