THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 61 a mood so abstracted as to be pacing up and down chap. the long room with the air of a man half forget- . ting that he was not alone, who, although he allowed a few words to drop from his lips, was still rather intent on reflection than wishing to make his thoughts known. "With something of sadness he said : — ' "Well, well, there'll be war ; ' the Emperor has chosen to make this a personal ' question against me, and he must take the ' consequences.' On the 2d of March 1855, the misery of ' tak- ' ing the consequences ' had at last been endured to the full by unhappy Nicholas ; and, although the war might still rage, there at least was on that day an end of the great single combat maintained through many a year between the once haughty Czar and the always haughty Ambassador. It is interesting to know, as I do, that — mag- nanimous in spite of his wrath — the Ambassador had always acknowledged the best, the noblest qualities of his Imperial adversary, regarding him even as one who, by Eussians with Eussian ideas, might well be revered and admired. The Emperor's noble face after death wore an air of majestic repose ; and perhaps gave support to a writer who brought himself to believe that this man, after all, though betrayed into wrong and sinuous paths, when vanity had weakened his judgment, was not without love of honour* The fate of The fate of the Emperor Nicholas may be said Nicholas.
- See ante, vol. i. chap. iv.
