anifesto of Alexander II.
afterwards said--"developed itself with incredible rapidity." The
manifesto added:--"Let us bow before the mysterious decrees of
Providence!"

Was the mystery a real or merely an apparent one?

Abroad a rumour quickly spread of foul play having once more taken
place in the Winter Palace. In the German and the Danish press--for
instance, in the Copenhagen _Faedrelandet_, and the Berlin _National
Zeitung_ and _Volks-Zeitung_--surmises were openly uttered that the
Russian Emperor had died from poison. Not a few thought he had fallen a
victim to a palace plot in the interest of the maintenance of the
dynasty which was endangered by his obstinacy. In a medical journal of
this country it was shown that the bulletins concerning the course of
his illness were, at all events, quite at variance with well-known
physiological laws. In a lithographed pamphlet--attributed to Dr. Mandt,
the physician-in-ordinary to Nicholas--it was alleged that the Czar, in
a fit of life-weariness, had himself asked for strychnine, and forced
his physician to prepare it for him. A noted Russian writer, Mr. Ivan
Golovin, in a book published at Leipzig about eight years ago,[47]
refers to the statement of this pamphlet. He himself remarks that the
reason for the head of the Emperor having been covered up, when lying in
state, was, that his features were so terribly disfigured by the poison
as to render it advisable to conceal the face.

It is impossible to unravel the truth. This much can, however, be said
beyond mere probability, that, if Nicholas had not been suddenly taken
away, the contrast between his iron rule at home and his continued
defeats on the field of battle would have roused a spirit of rebellion
and mutiny very similar to that against which he had to contend in the
ensanguined streets of the capital at the beginning of his reign. As it
was, men expected that his successor would prove more pliant. The
prevailing feeling of dissatisfaction did not, therefore, at first
assume a revolutionary shape.

Perhaps it was a consciousness of being surrounded by men who watched
him closely which made Alexander II. speak out in rather a peremptory
tone in his manifesto of March 2, 1855. Monarchs who fear an attack upon
their sovereign privileges often seek to terrify their would-be
antagonists by bold language. "I hereby declare solemnly," Alexander
said, "that I will remain faithful to all the views of my father, and
_p