279

A MASQUERADE AT BERLIN.

Ir was one of those wet, disagreeable days which precede the breaking up of winter in northern countries, that I entered Berlin. In order to see this capital from the distance, I slept at the last relay, to arrive by daylight. I might have saved myself that trouble, for the rain fell in torrents, the day was close, cloudy, and disagreeable, and we splashed through the half-thawed streets to the dismay of some fair maidens of that elegant capital, and the no small amusement of the gentlemen at the windows, who, having begun a fourteenth pipe, were only roused from their torpid state by the infernal noise of the postillion's horn.

I had been recommended to Jagor's, a restaurateur on the Linden, a comfortable abode for single men, where dinner can be had à la minute, and every luxury of life within reach, and within doors. The Lord protect the traveller who confides his body to the care of the landlord of the Stadt Rome! Never was there, for a great inn, in a great capital, such a vile, dirty, stinking abode, where it requires more interest to get a dinner for which you pay roundly, than in other countries to get a dinner for which you are not required to pay at all. Our windows at Jagor's overlooked the splended line of trees commencing from the private palace to the Brandenburg gate: on the summit of the latter, the car of victory is drawn at a jog trot; while in Petersburg, emblematic of the Russian late advances, the horses are at a full gallop, and guided by the emperor. It is a splendid street (if street it can be called), the Linden; the long line of the Frederic and the Charlotten Strasse crossing it at right angles, the chateau, opera, palace, academy of arts and sciences, college, and arsenal, rendering it perhaps the finest sight in the whole world; gay, animated, and lively, the silent sledge, saving the bell, rushing with uncommon rapidity over the snow-covered streets, the driver fantastically dressed, the numbers of officers in their neat uniforms, the apparent content of all classes, made our abode so pleasant, that I inhabited it much longer than I originally intended.

What is a stranger in a foreign land without a lackey de place?— Nothing. Let his head be one Babylonian jumble of all languages, he still wants the guide to direct his steps; he wants the different arrangement of his sight-seeing days, which can only be procured from one who is intimately acquainted with the locale. Of course I had one, and a good one he was.

It was the carnival time-balls, routs, plays, operas, punch, masquerades, &c. were the nightly amusements; the king and the princes not unfrequently attended the different places, and the former was

sure to be seen at two, if not three, theatres every night. In the grand opera, where the royal box occupied half the tier, the princeroyal with his wife, and the present queen, with a crowd of starred nobles, were sometimes seen; but the king, that great amateur of scenic amusements, appeared in his military great coat, in a small sidebox, and only known to the foreigners, by the attendant always standing. I confess I like to see a king live amongst his people. I hate the secluded grandeur which throws away hundreds of thousands in private entertainments and nocturnal riot, only seen by a few, or known through a newspaper. It is the public manner in which the king of Prussia lives, his confidence in his subjects,-his attending early and late to public business and national improvement,—his anxiety for the well-being and justice of his subjects, which makes the eye of a Prussian sparkle with sincere gratification, as he points to a stranger the sovereign and the father of his people.

It was nine o'clock when I entered the theatre; Spontini's opera had given way, for the night, to the mixed merriment of a masquerade. The theatre was boarded over; a brilliant band attended; and I found myself in one moment after entering the house, in the midst of harlequins and columbines, dancing bears, Cossacks, play-actors, monkeys, devils, and angels. I had hardly planted my foot on the public arena, when a harlequin endeavoured to make me active by his wand, and the clown jumped over my head. I came for amusement, intending to remain until eleven, and then walk quietly, cocked hat, domino and all, to Jagor's, and wash the cobwebs from my throat with some excellent marcobrunner, and then to dream of past delights.

I found myself twirling round in a waltz with a Russian bear, and the next moment impelled along by a Spaniard in a gallopade. At last out of the round of riot, I began to view the company. Here and there police officers, in their uniforms, were stationed. If any one forgot what was due to the company, he was marched out in a moment. Here was no roaring, shouting, impertinent questions, or unhandsome remarks: every thing was orderly; and if you chose to dance with a bear, why the bear would dance with you, and his keeper would join and make a third-all was good-humour and liveliness. It was while gazing at the tetotum twirlers that my eye suddenly caught the light eye of a beautifully-formed flower-girl. “Inshallah," said I, for I once lived in Persia, "this must be one of the houris, only the houris, have black eyes, and, no doubt, wings. I looked at the light hair which peeped from beneath the hat-I admired the small waist and delicate frame-and when, by accident no doubt, my eye looked at her feet, I thought I saw all the beauty that

nature could bestow, and very true I felt the remark of Byron, that nakes one" wish to see the whole of the fine form which terminates so well." I was not a little pleased to observe that my dark eyes, sparkling no doubt with wine and animation, mixed up with a little inquisitorial brilliancy, seemed to have fascinated hers: we looked at each other, then away, I blushing deep scarlet, and distinctly seeing that my fair unknown was blushing, as the sailors say, eyes."

66

up to her

I must, however, introduce my companion to my readers before I continue my own adventures. My travelling companion was a young man, on the passport passing for twenty-five, but from some deep furrows on the cheek, some wrinkles under the eyes, and an occasional haggard look, might very well have passed, without suspicion for a man of thirty-five, who had seen his best days. He had travelled over a large portion of Europe; walked through the Palais Royal; stopped at 154; dived down to the bottom of the Sala silver mine in Sweden; and lost his way, by no means an uncommon accident with him, in the largest and the straightest street in Moscow. He was a man much admired by the women for his discreet and steady behaviour: his was no babbler's tongue, and the secret once confided was well and cautiously guarded by my wizened-face travelling companion.

The flower-girl was hanging on the arm of a tall man in domino, and on his other arm reclined another little nymph, who had fixed her love-darting look on the now animated glance of my companion. They measured each other; the nymph then looked at her companion, then whispered, then observed me, and then said in a beautifully sweet voice, "Charlotte, 'tis them." Now I must here take leave to say, that many travellers have spoken lightly of the virtue and the morality of the German nation, some going so far as to mix all up in one immense cauldron of hot flesh and loose habits; some telling odd stories of intrigues, assignations, elopements, and other conjugal infelicities, nearly as common in our own as in any other country. What we wish we are always ready to believe; and on this occasion, as we both wished for an adventure, we, I am sorrow to say, both gave implicit, credit to the rhodomontade anecdotes of former visitors of Berlin. If it was possible to look love, confidence, and admiration, we both did it; my eyes began to ache, and my heart to palpitate. We walked round the fair objects of our attachment apparently unobserved, by the man, or, if observed, never noticed: this we placed to the right account of stoical indifference in a lazy pipe-smoking German husband. The waltz was now in its highest twirl; the couples passed us with rapid steps and long strides, and whenever I met the eye of the object of my affection, I read distinctly in her altered looks, "Why don't you ask me to dance?"--thinks I. I will. I advanced

some few steps, then called a halt to take counsel, then consulted on the probability of being able to kick the husband, and then determined to make a joint attack upon his two wives, or two daughters, and commence an adventure. In Germany, if a lady is dancing with a gentleman, it is by no means reckoned impolite, but rather the contrary, to ask the gentleman to allow the lady to dance one or two rounds with you; and it is a rule that, at the expiration of the said round, the lady is returned to her original partner. Knowing these German regulations, whereby ball-room society becomes doubly pleasant, comparatively speaking, with our own, and where, when the eye is struck by the angelic appearance of some earthly sylph, it is permitted to mortals to approach the lovely fair uninterrupted by the cold freezing glance of formal presentation, or the more elegant refinement of positive acquaintance, I advanced, and with the firm eye of confidence looked at the long husband, or father, and stammered out, "Elaubensi mir." In the meantime my companion made an approach to the object of his affections, and the kind and considerate father relinquished his two blushing daughters, becoming like the balance of scales without the appendages; and in two minutes we were twisting round like spinning-jennies, or galloping like long-legged racers.

As I gazed on the animated eye of my partner, and encircled her taper waist, thoughts, poetic thoughts, no doubt, entered my imagination. I was within the grasp of what I most solicited; it was decidedly the commencement of a most romantic intrigue. I formed plans of elopement, thought of retiring to the magnificent banks of the Elbe, and then looked with an eye of despair on the dark black thick crape which fell from the nose of the mask, and which, when fluitered by the passing air, as we twirled in giddy rapidity, showed a nicely rounded chin, and lips, such lips as would entice the most Attic of bees to settle thereon, and to gain more honey from their fragrant sweetness than from half the miserable flowers in the creation. The music suddenly stopped, and with it all the tetotums stopped; there, there was the long-legged monster of a father, cocked-hat and all, within a foot of us. I felt I must relinquish the object of so much solicitude, and began the usual roundabout complimentary nothing -the pleasure I had received-her father waiting-future hopes of renewed acquaintance-extravagant wish to see her beloved countenance-and-" Let us seek my sister," she said.

My companion had evidently been in the paradise of hope and imagination. The two sisters commenced a conversation with a volubility which precluded the possibility of understanding one word, especially as they took good care to be in the sotto voce, as much as to approximate a whisper. My friend was resolved to follow it up. Never was there such a light airy figure; never woman had so deli

cate a form, or so sweet a voice. Both becoming of the same opinion, for I allowed my morality for once to be overruled, but resolved to make ample amends by a speedy reformation after this last transgression, I proposed to take our partners to the supper-room, and there to try the effects of champaigne, as a prelude to further discoveries. O wine! glorious, excellent wine! how often hast thou inspired me with eloquence, relieved me from the trammels of fancied imprisonment, given new life, new hope, new existence to my weather-beaten frame, and to my palled imagination!-to thee, O Bacchus! I am indebted for many a social hour, many a lively thought, many an excellent companion, which, without thy influence on my uncultivated brain, would have been a tedious time, a homely expression, or a milkand-water associate!-to thee again I must resort, and hence the future gleams of happiness in this life.

Our principal object, as my reader would suppose, was to remove the masks, and thus unriddle the subject. Here were two females, apparently of good society, to us perfect strangers, but with us intimately acquainted; they knew even our names, remarked our carriage and our suite, complimented us on our acquaintance with the grand chamberlain, our apparent knowledge of different persons; even our walks in the morning, our visits to Charlottenburg, our rambles round the town,-all seemed to them familiar; but as to ourselves, even in collecting our senses and recollections, we were certain, certain beyond contradiction, that we had not broken our English silence to one female German, or one female of any description, since we entered Berlin-which to be sure was only thirty hours past,-and which I here publicly acknowledge to be a most glaring piece of ungallant neglect, and which shall never happen again to me (an opportunity offering), this I swear.

In vain we offered the wine to forward our view-our views being more extensive, of course, was an after-consideration. Each lady, on receiving the glass, merely lifted up the smallest possible part of the above-mentioned veil; and to be sure, for ladies, I will admit they got rid of the wine as expeditiously as one of the late members for York. We were four,-two known knights, who drank after and to their mistresses; and they, dear souls! equally enraptured with our society, disdained the mawkish, spiritless, refusal of our young ladies in England to renew the glass: they drank,-to put it into plain intelligible English, which no blockhead could misunderstand,—they drank their respective shares of the contents of the bottle, now and then relieving the palate by some bonbons, and now and then tasting a little Rhine wine, which long custom had placed upon a level with our water drinking. They took champaigne for pleasure, Rhine wine as water, and ice to cool them; supper they ate with a degree of girlish modesty