An Imperial Lover by Mary Imlay Taylor

WHEN I warned M. de Lambert of Apraxin's jealousy, he treated it with the scorn that I had anticipated. To him the disappointed lover seemed but a sulky boy, and he attached no importance to his threats until he found that mademoiselle came no more to the cathedral. It was evident that the ill-tempered youth had become a tale-bearer; failing to execute his threat in any other way, he separated mademoiselle from her lover by the interposition of her uncle's authority. M. Guillaume fretted and fumed to no purpose; if he had met Apraxin he would undoubtedly have given him a thrashing, but the young fellow had cleverness enough to evade him, and time passed with no news from mademoiselle. The day arrived for the semi-annual blessing of the river Moskva before this silence was broken.

The blessing of the river was a ceremony as old and as sacred in the eyes of the Moscovite as the holy white city of Moscow itself. Four years before, Peter had made one of those changes which shocked the conservative Russian. It had been the custom to begin the year on the 1st of September, dating from the beginning of the world, for the Russians believed that the earth was created in the autumn with its perfected fruits. By an imperial decree, his Majesty ordered the year to begin on the 1st of January, dating from the birth of our Blessed Lord, as all the nations of Europe were accustomed to date it. This was in 1700, and his people received the change with as little favor as they received the czar's other innovations. The custom of blessing the river fell upon the Feast of Epiphany, and was a solemn event. The patriarch and all the clergy of Moscow were present with the czar and the court officials, foreign ministers and residents; rich and great, poor and humble, assembled on the banks of the river to witness the benediction.