AS ATTACHfi AT ST. PETERSBURG- 1854-1855 451 



The Czar at that period, Nicholas I, was a most im- 

 posing personage, and was generally considered the most 

 perfect specimen of a human being, physically speaking, 

 in all Europe. At court, in the vast rooms filled with 

 representatives from all parts of the world, and at the 

 great reviews of his troops, he loomed up majestically, 

 and among the things most strongly impressed upon 

 my memory is his appearance as I saw him, just before 

 his death, driving in his sledge and giving the military- 

 salute. 



Nor was he less majestic in death. In the spring of 1855 

 he yielded very suddenly to an attack of pneumonia, 

 doubtless rendered fatal by the depression due to the ill 

 success of the war into which he had rashly plunged; 

 and a day or two afterward it was made my duty to at- 

 tend, with our minister, at the Winter Palace, the first 

 presentation of the diplomatic corps to the new Emperor, 

 Alexander II. The scene was impressive. The foreign 

 ministers having been arranged in a semicircle, with their 

 secretaries and attaches beside them, the great doors were 

 flung open, and the young Emperor, conducted by his 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Nesselrode, entered 

 the room. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he 

 gave his address with deep feeling. He declared that if 

 the Holy Alliance made in 1815 had been broken, it was 

 not the fault of Russia ; that though he longed for peace, 

 if terms should be insisted upon by the Western powers, at 

 the approaching Paris conference, incompatible with Rus- 

 sian honor, he would put himself at the head of his faith- 

 ful country, would retreat into Siberia, would die ra- 

 ther than yield. 



Then occurred an incident especially striking. From 

 Austria, which only seven years before had been saved by 

 Russia from destruction in the Austro-Hungarian revolu- 

 tion, Russia had expected, in ordinary gratitude, at least 

 some show of neutrality. But it had become evident that 

 gratitude had not prevented Austria from secretly joining 

 the hostile nations ; therefore it was that, in the course of 



