Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/107

BETWEEN THE CZAK AND THE SULTAN. G5 they were giving instant effect to his will in chap regions far away. He was of a stern, unrelenting L_ nature. He displayed, when he came to he tried, a sameness of ideas and of language and a want of resource which indicated poverty of intellect ; but this dearth within was masked by the brilliancy of the qualities which adorned the surface ; and he was so capable of business, and had such a vast activity, that he was able to arrogate to him- self an immense share of the actual governance of his subjects. Indeed, by striving to extend his management beyond the proper compass of a single mind he disturbed the march of business, and so far superseded the responsibility of his ser- vants that he ended by lessening to a perilous ex- tent the number of gifted men who in former times had taken part in the counsels of the State. Still, this widely-ranging activity kept alive the awe with which his subjects watched to see where next he would strike ; and made the nation feel that, along with his vast stature and his command- ing presence, he carried the actual power of the State. He had been merciless towards the Polish nation; but whilst this sternness made him an object of hatred to millions of discomfited men, and to other millions of men who felt for them in their sorrows, it tended, perhaps, at the time to increase his ascendancy, by making him an object of dread, and it trebled the delight of being with him in his gentle mood. When he was friendly, or chose to seem so, there was a glow and frank- ness in his manner which had an irresistible VOL. I. E