Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/95

THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 63 last: and, indeed, it was when he came in after chap. in one of these tasks that an uneasy panting for !_ breath disclosed his fatal illness. To judge from those letters of his which have happened to meet the light, he did not at all understand the won- drous defence of Sebastopol. I can hardly indeed even say that he knew who defended the place, for in all of the letters I have seen, he omits the illustrious name ! He was not a sovereign worthy of so great a subject as Todleben. By initiating that strife for Sebastopol from which neither they nor the Czar could recede without something like shame, the Allies had built up a new quarrel less easy perhaps to assuage than the one which a few months before had caused them to take up arms ; but now be- sides, there was danger that — freshly acceding to empire — a Czar more gentle than Nicholas might scarcely have power enough to make his subjects content with a plainly inglorious peace. Thus, strangely enough, it resulted that the prospects of peace were not strengthened by even the death of a Czar who, without the advice or support of any true statesman, had recklessly brought on the war.