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

HIS UNENVIABLE STATE.223

and afterwards with a feeling of pity. Who would not commiserate the state of this glorious exile ? I cannot tell whether the Emperor Nicholas has re-ceiyed from God a heart susceptible of friendship, but I feel as though the desire of testifying a disinterested attachment to a man to whom society refuses equals, might take the place of ambition. The danger even, would give to such zeal the charm of enthusiasm. What! it will be said, attachment for a man who has nothing of humanity about him ; whose severe physiognomy inspires a respect always mingled with fear, whose firm and fixed looks, in excluding familiarity, command obedience, and whose mouth, when it smiles, does not harmonise with the expression of the eyes; attachment for a man, in short, who never for a moment forgets to play his part as an absolute monarch !

And wherefore not ? This want of harmony, this apparent harshness, is not a crime but a misfortune. I view in it a forced habit, not a natural character; and believing that, I can see into this man whom you calumniate as much by your fears and your precautions as your flatteries, I can feel all that it must cost him to perform his duty as a sovereign, and I woiúd not abandon so pitiable a deity of earth to the implacable envy and the hypocritical submission of his slaves. To find again the neighbour in the prince, to love him as a brother, would be a religious vocation, and a work of charity that would gain the blessing of heaven.

The more we see of the court, more especially of

the court of Russia, the greater compassion must we

feel for him who has to preside over it. It is a

theatre, on whose boards the actors pass their life in

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