used to designate any serviceable
compromise between parliamentary rule, autocracy, and flamboyant
militarism. The Cronstadt _fetes_ helped on the warping process.

[Footnote 271: L.E. Flourens, _Alexandre III.: sa Vie, son Oeuvre_, p.
319.]

Whether any definite compact was there signed is open to doubt. The
_Times_ correspondent, writing on July 31 from St. Petersburg, stated
that Admiral Gervais had brought with him from Paris a draft of a
convention, which was to be considered and thereafter signed by the
Russian Ministers for Foreign Affairs, War, and the Navy, but not by the
Czar himself until the need for it arose. Probably, then, no alliance
was formed, but military and naval conventions were drawn up to serve as
bases for common action if an emergency should arise. These agreements
were elaborated in conferences held by the Russian generals, Vanoffski
and Obrucheff, with the French generals, Saussier, Miribel, and
Boisdeffre. A Russian loan was soon afterwards floated at Paris amidst
great enthusiasm.

For the present the French had to be satisfied with this exchange of
secret assurances and hard cash. The Czar refused to move further,
mainly because the scandals connected with the Panama affair once more
aroused his fears and disgust. De Cyon states that the degrading
revelations which came to light, at the close of 1891 and early in 1892,
did more than anything to delay the advent of a definite alliance. The
return visit of a Russian squadron to French waters was therefore
postponed to the month of October 1893, when there were wild rejoicings
at Toulon. The Czar and President exchanged telegrams, the former
referring to "the bonds which unite the two countries."

It appeared for a time that Russia meant to keep her squadron in the
Mediterranean; and representations on this subject are known to have
been made by England and Italy, which once again drew close together. A
British squadron visited Italian ports--an event which seemed to
foreshadow the entrance of the Island Power to the Triple Alliance. The
Russian fleet, however, left the Mediterranean, and the diplomatic
situation remained unchanged. Despite all the passionate wooing of the
Gallic race, no contract of marriage took place during the life of
Alexander III. He died on November 1, 1894, and his memory was extolled
in many quarters as that of the great peacemaker of the age.

How far he deserved this praise, to which every statesman of the fi