Show > > IMPERIAL CAPRICE The Empress Anna of Russia in the last year of her reign carried out one of the most mighty and magnificent caprices that ever entered into the head of even a supreme monarch In 1739 one of her nobles Prince Go litzer offended her and she varied the usual programme did not send him to Siberia but instead made him court page and buffoon He was a widower the empress commanded him to marry again The prince carried out her instructions in-structions in the spirit of his new profession I pro-fession and selected a girl of low degree de-gree greeHer majesty took on herself all the I wedding arrangements the winter of 173040 was extraordinarily severe she ordered a house built entirely of ice it consisted of two rooms and all the furniture even to the bedstead was of I ice alone In front of the house were I placed four small cannon and two mortars I I mor-tars and these were of Ice they were fired too several times without bursting burst-ing When the wedding day came there was a procession of 300 persons mostly peasants from every part of Russia The empress had commatulpfl them to j be sent to her by her provincial governors gov-ernors each person wore the costume of his or her own province and some were drawn in sledges by reindeer some by dogs some by goats some by oxen The bride and groom rode in the midst in a great iron cage placed on the back of an elephant After marching march-ing through the principal streets of St Petersburg they went to the buildingj we hear of as the Duke of Courlands 1 riding house and there supper was served in many different fashions for each guest supped as he would have i done at home and the customs in different dif-ferent parts of Russia then differed greatlymore even than they do now A ball followed and the dancing was as varied as the cookery After the ball the unfortunate bridal pair were escorted to the ice house where they had to spend the night for j guards were placed before the door to see that they didntget out |