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DEATH OF THE CZAR
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and behind the nose and eye and out through the other side! He is shockingly disfigured, but is recovered. I feel so much for them, and am so fond of my dear soldiers—so proud of them! We could not have avoided sending the Guards; it would have been their ruin if they had not gone. . . .

I must now conclude. Ever your devoted Niece, Victoria R.


Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon. BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 1st March 1855. The Queen thanks Lord Clarendon for his letter received this evening, and will return the enclosures to-morrow.

The Queen gathers from what she has read that the Emperor is bent upon going, and that nothing in the shape of remonstrance or argument will turn him from his purpose.

Should the Emperor’s journey take place, Lord Cowley’s accompanying him appears to the Queen in all respects a most useful step, and the Queen gives accordingly her permission for him to go.

The Emperor’s taking the management of the whole Campaign, as well as the command of our Forces, entirely into his own hands, involves so many considerations that it may be worth considering whether we ought not previously to come to a more direct and comprehensive understanding with him, such as full and verbal discussion would alone afford—to which, in some shape or other, his present stay at Boulogne might afford some facilities.


From Sir Ralph Abercromby.[1]

THE HAGUE. 2nd March 1855. (Received 3.45 P.M.) The Emperor Nicholas died this morning at 1 a.m. of Pulmonic Apoplexy, after an attack of Influenza.[2]

  1. Who had married the sister of Lady John Russell.
  2. Nothing had been known publicly of the Czar’s illness, and the startling news of his death caused a sensation in England of tragedy rather than of joy. Mr Kinglake has vividly depicted the feelings of agony and mortification with which the news of the earlier Russian reverses had been received by Nicholas. On the 1st of March, he received the full account of the disaster at Eupatoria, after which he became delirious, and died on the following day. He had stated, in referring to the horrors of that Crimean winter, that Russia had still two Generals on whom she could rely: Generals Janvier and Février; and Leech, with matchless art, now made his famous cartoon—“General Février turned traitor,” depicting Death, in the uniform of a Russian officer, laying his bony hand on the Emperor's heart.