Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

TASK OF THE EMPEROK.155

tyranny of a revolutionary administration, and on the other of the arrogance and the conspiracies of an aristocracy so much the more unquiet and formidable as its power is vague and undefined.

It must be owned that no sovereign has yet acquitted himself in this terrible task with so much firmness, talent, and good fortune as have been displayed by the Emperor Nicholas. He is the first of the modern Russian princes who has perceived the necessity of being a Russian in order to confer good upon the Russians. Undoubtedly history will say : This man was a great sovereign.

I have no time left for sleeping: the horses are already in my carriage, and I shall soon be on the road to Nijni.