CHAPTEK XX 



THE CZAR'S GOLDEN SNUFF-BOX AUDUBON's FOREST TALES 



NICHOLAS I, of the Romanoffs, had something of the 

 nature of Ivan the Terrible. It is said that Alexander I, 

 who was a benevolent monarch, desired to see the serfs 

 freed, and to call a council of nations to disarm Europe. 

 However this may have been and if it were so, the latter 

 were a high suggestion, which the world will some time fol- 

 low, for it is the law of moral life that the highest sugges- 

 tion shall ultimately be followed. Nicholas began ruling 

 with an iron hand. Wars followed. Hungary was crushed, 

 and the Crimean War at last broke his heart. 



But on the dismal days in his palaces the birds sang, and 

 the old Romanoff had a soft place in his heart for the 

 birds. 



The bulbuls, or Oriental nightingales, had a choice 

 window in his many palaces. These birds were the masters 

 of song; they made summer in winter and they kept sing- 

 ing-schools. It was an hour of almost divine music when 

 the master singer of these glorious nightingales taught his 

 caged school to sing. 



The language of the court was that of repression and 



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