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

see thus humiliated in the sixteenth century ; nor has his family's right to succeed even them been undisputed : for, without speaking of the election of the Troubetzkoï, annulled by the intrigues of the Ro-manows and their friends, the crimes of several generations of princes coidd alone place the children of Catherine II. on the throne. It is not, therefore, without motive that the history of Russia is concealed from the Russians, and that it is wished to be concealed from the world. Assuredly, the rigidity of political principles in a prince seated upon a throne thus founded, is not one of the least singular features in the history of our times.

At the epoch when the grand-dukes of Moscow wore the degrading yoke of the Mongols, the spirit of chivalry flourished in Europe, especially in Spain, where the blood flowed in torrents for the honour and independence of Christianity. I do "not believe, notwithstanding the barbarism of the middle ages, a single monarch could have been found in western Europe capable of disgracing monarchy, by consenting to reign on the conditions imposed on the grand-dukes of Muscovy, during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, by their Tartar masters. Better to lose the crown than to lower the majesty of royalty. Such would have been the words of a French or Spanish prince, or any other king of ancient Europe. But in Russia, glory, like every thing else, is of recent date.

On the ground-floor of the palace of the Treasury, I was shown the state-coaches of the emperors and empresses of Russia. The old coach of the last patriarch is also included in the collection. Several