Lord, and have sent forth their followers as "seekers after Christ" ("iskateli Christa"), to search through the world for the Redeemer. No prediction was too improbable, no extravagance too wild, for credence. Simple peasants, princes of national and foreign lineage, mighty warriors, have been announced as the long-expected Saviour. Napoleon, destroyer of kings, avenger of oppressed nationalities, was hailed as the victorious conqueror who was to put all things under his feet. There are still worshippers in secret at his shrine—his death is denied; he escaped from captivity and found refuge in the depths of Siberia, on the shores of Lake Baikal, from whence he shall come, in the fulness of time, to trample upon Satan and establish the kingdom of peace and righteousness. The ready acceptance of doctrines so strange and fanciful must be ascribed in great measure to the existence among the people of vague aspirations, similar to those among the ancient Jews, to ardent desire for freedom and for relief from slavery, to a universal longing for emancipation from serfdom and its burdens, to the hope and expectation of a future repartition of the soil. Promises of coming liberty and assurances of participation in the wealth of their masters, based on Biblical prophecies, were welcome to an oppressed and suffering population.
The abolition of serfdom was enthusiastically hailed as the commencement of the final revolution, the beginning of the end so eagerly desired and so long waited for. It deprived, for a while, the preachers of revolt and resistance of their most formidable arguments, and checked the growth of the extreme and fanatical sects of the Raskol. As, however, this benevolent measure failed to immediately realize their extravagant anticipations, in their ignorance and impatience, incapable of compre-
