his chest. With the aid of the sportive
accomplices, a cord was passed round the victim's throat. It is said
that young Constantine took a malicious pleasure in putting into this
semblance of strangulation rather an unexpected deal of energy.

"For mercy's sake! For mercy's sake!" Alexander cried, with half-stifled
voice, and at last with a fearful yell.

Nicholas, hurrying out from his room, beheld the spectacle before him in
deep consternation. When the matter was explained to him, he severely
reproved and actually punished his eldest-born. "It is not worthy of an
Emperor," he said, "to call out for mercy!"

This well-authenticated anecdote has been told by writers who expressed
the most adulatory sentiments towards the present Czar. It is to be
found in Castille's highly flattering biography of Alexander II.,
published about the time of his accession to the throne. The incident,
loathsome as it must appear to every sensitive mind, strikingly paints
both the gloom that always hangs about the Russian Court, and the kind
of education given by Nicholas to his offspring.

The youthful despotic propensities of Alexander may be seen from an
account given by another of his admiring biographers, Mr. J. G.
Hesekiel. This writer enthusiastically swings the censer before Nicholas
as the "Iron Knight of Legitimacy" and the "Invincible Champion of
Government by the Grace of God." (I may mention in passing that Mr.
Hesekiel has done the life of Prince Bismarck into similar adulatory
prose). At the age of fourteen--he relates--the boy-prince, Alexander,
in going through a state room of the Palace, was respectfully greeted by
the assembled high dignitaries of the Empire, senators, generals, and
so forth. They all rose and bowed before the Heir-Apparent. The boy's
vanity being flattered, he purposely came back several times, expecting
the grey-beards on each occasion to rise and salaam before him. When he
found that they thought they had done their duty by the first
salutation, he angrily complained against them to his father. Nicholas,
however, blamed the son for his unreasonable exaction. This vicious
arrogance of the boy ripened afterwards into the haughtiness of the
despot, being but slightly mitigated by a naturally melancholy
disposition, which sometimes gave the appearance of comparative
softness.

Of Constantine, the second son of Nicholas, there is a further
characteristic anecdote on record. It is to be found even in