e of February. The fact that his troops
had been repulsed by the hated Turks touched the pride of Nicholas to
the quick, and is believed to have brought on the fatal illness which
seized him a few days later. On February 27, just after the Emperor had
left the parade-ground on which he had been reviewing his troops, he was
struck down by paralysis, and, after lingering in a hopeless condition
for a day or two, died a baffled and disappointed man. The irony of the
situation was reflected with sombre and dramatic realism in a political
cartoon which appeared in 'Punch.' It represented a skeleton in armour,
laying an icy hand, amid the falling snow, on the prostrate Czar's
heart. The picture--one of the most powerful that has ever appeared,
even in this remarkable mirror of the times--was entitled, 'General
Fevrier turned Traitor,' and underneath was the dead Emperor's cruel
boast, 'Russia has two generals on whom she can confide--Generals
Janvier and Fevrier.' Prior to the resignation of the Peelites the
second Congress of Vienna assembled, and Lord John Russell attended it
as a plenipotentiary for England; and France, Austria, Turkey, and
Russia were also represented. The 'four points' which formed the basis
of the negotiations were that Russia should abandon all control over
Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia; that the new Czar, Alexander II.,
should surrender his claim to command the entrance of the Danube; that
all treaties should be annulled which gave Russia supremacy in the Black
Sea; and that she should dismiss her pretensions to an exclusive right
to protect in her own fashion the Christians in the Ottoman Empire.
Nicholas, though at one time favourable to this scheme as a basis of
peace, eventually fell back on the assertion that he would not consent
to any limitation of his naval power in the Black Sea. Though the
parleyings at Vienna after his death were protracted, the old difficulty
asserted itself again, with the result that the second Congress proved,
as spring gave way to summer, as futile as the first.

Although subjects which vitally affected the Turkish Empire were under
consideration, the Turkish Ambassador at Vienna had received anything
but explicit directions, and Lord John was forced to the conclusion that
the negotiations were not regarded as serious at Constantinople. Indeed,
he had, in Mr. Spencer Walpole's words, 'reason to suspect that the
absence of a properly credited Turk was not due to the di