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

268DESCRIPTION OF ТПЕ

proper sphere as a great actor would be on the boards. His attitude before the rebel-guard was so imposing, that while he harangued the troops one of the conspirators, it is said, advanced four times towards him with the intention of killing him, and four times his courage failed, like that of the Cumbrian's before Ma·rius.

An absurd falsehood was the instrument that the conspirators had employed to incite the army to this outbreak. They had spread a report that Nicholas had usurped the crown of his brother Constantine, who was, they said, on his way to Petersburg, to defend his rights by force of arms. The means through which they had induced the rebels to cry under the palace windows in favour of the Constitution, was by persuading them that this word Constitution was the name of the wife of Constantine. It was therefore an idea, of duty whieh actuated the soldiers, who believed the emperor an usurper, and who could only be led into rebellion by a fraud. The fact is, that Constantine had refused the crown through weakness: he dreaded being poisoned. God knows, and there are perhaps some men who know also, if his abdication saved him from the peril whieh he thus expected to avoid.

It was then in support of legitimacy that the deceived soldiers revolted against their legitimate sovereign. People remarked that, during the whole time the emperor remained among the troops, he did not once put his horse in rapid motion, but though so calm, he was very pale. He was putting his power to the test, and the success of the proof assured, him of the future obedience of his people.