THE REIGN OF PAUL I.
From 1796 to 1801.
Accession of Paul I. to the Throne.--Influence of the Hereditary
Transmission of Power.--Extravagance of Paul.--His Despotism.--The
Horse Court Martialed.--Progress of the French Revolution.--Fears and
Violence of Paul I.--Hostility to Foreigners.--Russia Joins the
Coalition against France.--March of Suwarrow.--Character of
Suwarrow.--Battle on the Adda.--Battle of Novi.--Suwarrow Marches to
the Rhine.--His Defeat and Death.--Paul Abandons the Coalition and
Joins France.--Conspiracies at St. Petersburg.
Few sovereigns have ever ascended the throne more ignorant of affairs
of state than was Paul I. Catharine had endeavored to protract his
childhood, entrusting him with no responsibilities, and regulating
herself minutely all his domestic and private concerns. He was
carefully excluded from any participation in national affairs and was
not permitted to superintend even his own household. Catharine took
his children under her own protection as soon as they were born, and
the parents were seldom allowed to see them. Paul I. had experienced,
in his own person, all the burden of despotism ere he ascended
Russia's despotic throne. Naturally desirous to secure popularity, he
commenced his reign with acts which were much applauded. He introduced
economy into the expenditures of the court, forbade the depreciation
of the currency and the further issue of paper money, and withdrew the
army which Catharine had sent to Persia on a career of conquest.
Paul I. did not love his mother. He did not believe that he was her
legitimate child. Still, as his only title to the throne was founded
on his being the reputed child of Peter III., he did what he could to
rescue the memory of that prince from the infamy to which it had been
very properly consigned. He had felt so humiliated by the domineering
spirit of Catharine, that he resolved that Russia should not again
fall under the reign of a woman, and issued a decree that henceforth
the crown should descend in the male line only, and from father to
son. The new emperor manifested his hostility to his mother, by
endeavoring in various ways to undo what she had done.
The history of Europe is but a continued comment upon the folly of the
law of the hereditary descent of power, a law which is more likely to
place the crown upon the brow of a knave, a fool or a madman, than
upon that of one qualified to govern. Russia soon awoke to the
consciousness that the destinies of thirty millions of people were in
the hands of a maniac, whose conduct seemed to prove that his only
proper place was in one of the wards of Bedlam. The grossest
contradictions followed each other in constant succession. Today he
would caress his wife, to-morrow place her under military arrest. At
one hour he would load his children with favors, and the next endeavor
to expose them publicly to shame.
Though Paul severely blamed his mother for the vast sums she lavished
upon her court, these complaints did not prevent him from surpassing
her in extravagance. The innumerable palaces she had reared and
embellished with more than oriental splendor, were not sufficient for
him. Neither the Winter palace, nor the Summer palace, nor the palace
of Anitschkoff, nor the Marble palace, nor the Hermitage, whose
fairy-like gorgeousness amazed all beholders, nor a crowd of other
royal residences, too numerous to mention, and nearly all
world-renowned, were deemed worthy of the residence of the new
monarch. Pretending that he had received a celestial injunction to
construct a new palace, he built, reckless of expense, the chateau of
St. Michael.
The crown of Catharine was the wonder of Europe, but it was not rich
enough for the brow of Paul. A new one was constructed, and his
coronation at Moscow was attended with freaks of expenditure which
impoverished provinces. Boundless gifts were lavished upon his
favorites. But that he might enrich a single noble, ten thousand
peasants were robbed. The crown peasants were vassals, enjoying very
considerable freedom and many privileges. The peasantry of the nobles
were slaves, nearly as much so as those on a Cuban plantation, with
the single exception that custom prevented their being sold except
with the land. Like the buildings, the oaks and the elms, they were
inseparably attached to the soil. The emperor, at his coronation, gave
away eighty thousand families to his favorites. Their labor
henceforth, for life, was all to go to enrich their masters. These
courtiers, reveling in boundless luxury, surrendered their slaves to
overseers, whose reputation depended upon extorting as much as
possible from the miserable boors.
The extravagance of Catharine II. had rendered it necessary for her to
triple the capitation, or, as we should call it, the poll-tax, imposed
upon the peasants. Paul now doubled this tax, which his mother had
already tripled. The King of Prussia had issued a decree that no
subject should fall upon his knees before him, but that every man
should maintain in his presence and in that of the law the dignity of
humanity. Paul, on the contrary, reëstablished, in all its rigor, the
oriental etiquette, which Peter I. and Catharine had allowed to pass
into disuse, which required every individual, whether a citizen or a
stranger, to fall instantly upon his knees whenever the tzar made his
appearance. Thus, when Paul passed along the streets on horseback or
in his carriage, every man, woman and child, within sight of the royal
cortege, was compelled to kneel, whether in mud or snow, until the
cortege had passed. No one was exempted from the rule. Strangers and
citizens, nobles and peasants, were compelled to the degrading homage.
Those on horseback or in carriages were required instantly to
dismount and prostrate themselves before the despot.
A noble lady who came to St. Petersburg in her carriage, in great
haste, to seek medical aid for her husband, who had been suddenly
taken sick, in her trouble not having recognized the imperial livery,
was dragged from her carriage and thrust into prison. Her four
servants, who accompanied her, were seized and sent to the army,
although they plead earnestly that, coming from a distance, they were
ignorant of the law, the infraction of which was attributed to them as
a crime. The unhappy lady, thus separated from her sick husband, and
plunged into a dungeon, was so overwhelmed with anguish that she was
thrown into a fever. Reason was dethroned, and she became a hopeless
maniac. The husband died, being deprived of the succor his wife had
attempted to obtain.
The son of a rich merchant, passing rapidly in his sleigh, muffled in
furs, did not perceive the carriage of the emperor which he met, until
it had passed. The police seized him; his sleigh and horses were
confiscated. He was placed in close confinement for a month, and then,
after receiving fifty blows from the terrible knout, was delivered to
his friends a mangled form, barely alive.
A young lady, by some accident, had not thrown herself upon her knees
quick enough at the appearance of the imperial carriage in the streets
of Moscow. She was an orphan and resided with an aunt. They were both
imprisoned for a month and fed upon bread and water; the young lady
for failing in respect to the emperor, and the aunt for not having
better instructed her niece. How strange is this power of despotism,
by which one madman compels forty millions of people to tremble before
him!
One of the freaks of this crazy prince was to court-martial his horse.
The noble steed had tripped beneath his rider. A council was convened,
composed of the equerries of the palace. The horse was proved guilty
of failing in respect to his majesty, and was condemned to receive
fifty blows from a heavy whip. Paul stood by, as the sentence was
executed, counting off the blows.[24]
[Footnote 24: Memoires Secret, tome i., page 334.]
Twelve Polish gentlemen were condemned, for being "wanting in respect
to his majesty," to have their noses and ears cut off, and were then
sent to perpetual Siberian exile. When any one was admitted to an
audience with the tzar, it was necessary for him to fall upon his
knees so suddenly and heavily that his bones would ring upon the floor
like the butt of a musket. No gentle genuflexion satisfied the tzar. A
prince Gallatin was imprisoned for "kneeling and kissing the emperor's
hand too negligently." This contempt for humanity soon rendered Paul
very unpopular. He well knew that his legitimacy was doubted, and that
if an illegitimate child he had no right whatever to the throne. He
seemed to wish to prove that he was the son of Peter III. by imitating
all the silly and cruel caprices of that most contemptible prince.
The French Revolution was now in progress, the crushed people of that
kingdom endeavoring to throw off the yoke of intolerable oppression.
All the despots in Europe were alarmed lest popular liberty in France
should undermine their thrones. None were more alarmed than Paul. He
was so fearful that democratic ideas might enter his kingdom that he
forbade the introduction into his realms of any French journal or
pamphlet. All Frenchmen in his kingdom were also ordered immediately
to depart. All ships arriving were searched and if any French subjects
were on board, men or women, they were not permitted to land, but were
immediately sent out of the kingdom. Merchants, who had left their
families and their business for a temporary absence, were not
permitted again to set foot in the kingdom. The suffering which this
cruel edict occasioned was very great.
Day after day new decrees were issued, of ever increasing violence.
The tzar became suspicious of all strangers of whatever nation, and
endeavored to rear a wall of separation around his whole kingdom which
should exclude it from all intercourse with other parts of Europe. The
German universities were all declared to be tainted with superstition,
and all Russians were prohibited, under penalty of the confiscation of
their estates, from sending their sons to those institutions. No
foreigner, of whatever nation, was allowed to take part in any civil
or ecclesiastical service. The young Russians who were already in the
German universities, were commanded immediately to return to their
homes.
Apprehensive that knowledge itself, by whomsoever communicated, might
make the people restless under their enormous wrongs, Paul suppressed
nearly all the schools which had been founded by Catharine II.,
reserving only a few to communicate instruction in the military art.
All books, but those issued under the surveillance of the government,
were interdicted. The greatest efforts were made to draw a broad line
of distinction between the people and the nobles, and to place a
barrier there which no plebeian could pass. Some one informed Paul
that in France the revolutionists wore the chapeau, or three-cornered
hat, with one of the corners in front. The tzar immediately issued a
decree that in Russia the hat should be worn with the corner behind.
We have said that Paul was bitterly hostile to all foreigners. The
emigrants, however, who fled from France, with arms in their hands,
imploring the courts of Europe to crush republican liberty in France,
he welcomed with the greatest cordiality and loaded with favors. The
princes and nobles of the French court received from Paul large
pensions, while, at the same time, he ignobly made them feel that he
was their master and they were his slaves. His dread of French liberty
was so great, that with all his soul he entered into the wide-spread
European coalition which the genius of Pitt had organized against
France, and which embraced even Turkey. And now for the first time the
spectacle was seen of the Russian and Turkish squadrons combining
against a common foe. Paul sent an army of one hundred thousand men to
coöperate with the allies. Republican France gathered up her energies
to resist Europe in arms. The young Napoleon, heading a heroic band of
half-famished soldiers, turned the Alps and fell like a thunderbolt
into the Austrian camp upon the plains of Italy. In a series of
victories which astounded the world he swept the foe before him, and
compelled the Austrians to sue for peace. The embassadors of France
and Germany met at Rastadt, in congress, and after spending many
months in negotiations, the congress was dissolved by the Emperor of
Germany, in April, 1799. The French embassadors set out to return, and
were less than a quarter of a mile from the city, when a troop of
Austrian hussars fell upon them, and two of their number, Roberjeot
and Bonnier, were treacherously assassinated. The third, Delry, though
left for dead, revived so far as to be able, covered with wounds and
blood, to crawl back to Rastadt.[25]
[Footnote 25: "Our plenipotentiaries were massacred at Rastadt, and
notwithstanding the indignation expressed by all France at that
atrocity, vengeance was still very tardy in overtaking the assassins.
The two Councils were the first to render a melancholy tribute of
honor to the victims. Who that saw that ceremony ever forgot its
solemnity? Who can recollect without emotion the religious silence
which reigned throughout the hall and galleries when the vote was put?
The president then turned towards the curule chairs of the victims, on
which lay the official costume of the assassinated representatives,
covered with black crape, bent over them, pronounced the names of
Roberjeot and Bonnier, and added, in a voice, the tone of which was
always thrilling, _Assassinated at the Congress of Rastadt_.
Immediately all the representatives responded, _May their blood be
upon the heads of their murderers_."--_Duchess of Abrantes_, p. 206.]
Napoleon was at this time in Egypt, endeavoring to assail England, the
most formidable foe of France, in India, the only vulnerable point
which could be reached. Fifty thousand Russians, in a single band,
were marching through Germany to coöperate with the Austrians on the
French frontiers. The more polished Germans were astonished at the
barbaric character of their allies. A Russian officer, in a freak of
passion, shot an Austrian postilion, and then took out his purse and
enquired of the employer of the postilion what damage was to be paid,
as coolly as if he had merely killed a horse or a cow. Even German law
was compelled to wink at such outrages, for an ally so essential as
Russia it was needful to conciliate at all hazards. Paul deemed
himself the most illustrious monarch of Europe, and resolved that none
but a Russian general should lead the allied armies. The Germans, on
the contrary, regarded the Russians as barbarians of wolfish courage
and gigantic strength, but far too ignorant of military science to be
entrusted with the plan of a campaign. After much contention the
Emperor of Austria was compelled to yield, and an old Russian general,
Suwarrow, was placed in command of the armies of the two most powerful
empires then on the globe.
And who was Suwarrow? Behold his portrait. Born in a village of the
Ukraine, the boy was sent by his father, an army officer, to the
military academy at St. Petersburg, whence he entered the army as a
common soldier, and ever after, for more than sixty years, he lived in
incessant battles in Sweden, Turkey, Poland. In the storm of Ismael,
forty thousand men, women and, children fell in indiscriminate
massacre at his command. In the campaign which resulted in the
partition of Poland, twenty thousand Poles were cut down by his
dragoons. A stranger to fear, grossly illiterate, and with no human
sympathies, he appears on the arena but as a thunderbolt of war. Next
to the emperor Paul, he was perhaps the most fantastic man on the
continent. In a war with the Turks he killed a large number with his
own hands, and brought, on his shoulders, a sackful of heads, which he
rolled out at the feet of his general. This was the commencement of
his reputation.[26] His whole military career was in accordance with
this act. He had but one passion, love of war. He would often, even in
mid-winter, have one or two pailsful of cold water poured upon him,
as he rose from his bed, and then, in his shirt, leap upon an
unsaddled horse and scour the camp with the speed of the wind.
Sometimes he would appear, in the early morning, at the door of his
tent, stark naked, and crow like a cock. This was a signal for the
tented host to spring to arms. Occasionally he would visit the
hospital, pretending that he was a physician, and would prescribe
medicine for those whom he thought sick, and scourgings for those whom
he imagined to be feigning sickness. Sometimes he would turn all the
patients out of the doors, sick and well, saying that it was not
permitted for the soldiers of Suwarrow to be sick. He was as merciless
to himself as he was to his soldiers. Hunger, cold, fatigue, seemed to
him to be pleasures. Hardships which to many would render life a scene
of insupportable torture, were to him joys. He usually traveled in a
coarse cart, which he made his home, sleeping in it at night, with but
the slightest protection from the weather. Whenever he lodged in a
house, his _aides_ took the precaution to remove the windows from his
room, as he would otherwise inevitably smash every glass.
[Footnote 26: Histoire Philosophique et Politique de Russie. Tome
cinquième, p. 233.]
Notwithstanding this ostentatious display of his hatred of all luxury,
he was excessively fond of diamonds and other precious stones. He was
also exceedingly superstitious, ever falling upon his knees before
whatever priest he might meet, and imploring his benediction. Such men
generally feel that the observance of ceremonial rites absolves them
from the guilt of social crimes. With these democratic manners
Suwarrow utterly detested liberty. The French, as the most
liberty-loving people of Europe, he abhorred above all others. He
foamed with rage when he spoke of them. In the sham fights with which
he frequently exercised the army, when he gave the order to "_charge
the miserable French_," every soldier was to make two thrusts of the
bayonet in advance, as if twice to pierce the heart of the foe, and a
third thrust into the ground, that the man, twice bayoneted, might be
pinned in death to the earth. Such was the general whom Paul sent "to
destroy the impious government," as he expressed it, "which dominated
over France."
With blind confidence Suwarrow marched down upon the plains of
Lombardy, dreaming that in those fertile realms nothing awaited him
but an easy triumph over those who had been guilty of the crime of
abolishing despotism. The French had heard appalling rumors of the
prowess and ferocity of these warriors of the North, and awaited the
shock with no little solicitude.[27] The two armies met on the banks
of the Adda, which flows into the northern part of the Lake of Como.
Suwarrow led sixty thousand Russians and Austrians. The French
general, Moreau, to oppose them, had the wreck of an army, consisting
of twenty-five thousand men, disheartened by defeat. On the 17th of
April, 1799, the first Russian regiment appeared in sight of the
bridge of Lecco. The French, indignant at the interference of the
Russians in a quarrel with which they had no concern, dashed upon them
with their bayonets, and repulsed them with great carnage. But the
hosts of Russia and Austria came pouring on in such overwhelming
numbers, that Moreau, with his forces reduced to twenty thousand men,
was compelled to retreat before an army which could concentrate ninety
thousand troops in line of battle. Pressed by the enemy, he retreated
through Milan to Turin. Suwarrow tarried in Milan to enjoy a triumph
accorded to him by the priests and the nobles, the creatures of
Austria.
[Footnote 27: "Suwarrow was a genuine barbarian, fortunately
incapable of calculating the employment of his forces, otherwise the
republic might perhaps have succumbed. His army was like himself. It
had a bravery that was extraordinary and bordered on fanaticism, but
no instruction. It was expert only at the use of the bayonet.
Suwarrow, extremely insolent to the allies, gave Russian officers
to the Austrians to teach them the use of the bayonet. Fortunately
his brutal energy, after doing a great deal of mischief, had to
encounter the energy of skill and calculation, and was foiled by the
latter."--_Thiers' History French Revolution_, vol. iv., p. 346.]
Moreau entrenched himself at Alexandria, awaiting the arrival of
General Macdonald with reinforcements. Suwarrow approached with an
army now exceeding one hundred thousand men. Again Moreau was
compelled to retreat, pursued by Suwarrow, and took refuge on the
crest of the Apennines, in the vicinity of Genoa. By immense exertions
he had assembled forty thousand men. Suwarrow came thundering upon him
with sixty thousand. The French army was formed in a semicircle on the
slopes of the Monte Rotundo, about twenty miles north of Genoa. The
Austro-Russian army spread over the whole plain below. At five o'clock
in the morning of the 15th of August, 1799, the fierce battle of Novi
commenced. Suwarrow, a fierce fighter, but totally unacquainted with
the science of strategy, in characteristic words gave the order of
battle. "Kray," said he, "will attack the left--the Russians the
center--Melas the right." To the soldiers he said, "God wills, the
emperor orders, Suwarrow commands, that to-morrow the enemy be
conquered." Dressed in his usual costume, in his shirt down to the
waist, he led his troops into battle. Enormous slaughter ensued;
numbers prevailing against science, and the French, driven out of
Italy, took refuge along the ridges of the Apennines.
Suwarrow, satisfied with his dearly-bought victory, for he had lost
ten thousand men in the conflict, did not venture to pursue the
retiring foe, but with his bleeding and exhausted army fell back to
Coni; and thence established garrisons throughout Piedmont and
Lombardy. Paul was almost delirious with joy at this great victory. He
issued a decree declaring Suwarrow to be the greatest general "of all
times, of all peoples and of all quarters of the globe." In his pride
he declared that republican France, for the crime of rebelling against
legitimate authority, should receive punishment which should warn all
nations against following her example. The Russian squadron combined
with that of the Turks, formed a junction with the victorious fleet of
Nelson, and sailing from the bay of Aboukir, swept the French fleet
from the Mediterranean.
The Austrians and Russians, thus victorious, now marched to assail
Massena at Zurich on the Rhine, intending there to cross the stream
and invade France. For a month, in September and October, 1799, there
was a series of incessant battles. But the republican armies were
triumphant. The banners of France struggled proudly through many
scenes of blood and woe, and the shores of Lake Zurich and the
fastnesses of the Alps, were strewed with the dead bodies of the
Russians. In fourteen days twenty thousand Russians and six thousand
Austrians were slain. Suwarrow, the intrepid barbarian, with but ten
thousand men saved from his proud army, retreated overwhelmed with
confusion and rage. Republican France was saved. The rage which
Suwarrow displayed is represented as truly maniacal. He foamed at the
mouth and roared like a bull. As a wounded lion turns upon his
pursuers, from time to time he stopped in his retreat, and rushed back
upon the foe. He was crushed in body and mind by this defeat. Having
wearied himself in denouncing, in unmeasured terms, all his generals
and soldiers, he became taciturn and moody. Secluding himself from his
fellow-men he courted solitude, and surrendered himself to a fantastic
and superstitious devotion. Enveloped in a cloak, and with his eyes
fixed upon the ground, he would occasionally pass through the camp,
condescending to notice no one.
Paul had also sent an army into Holland, against France, which had
been utterly repulsed by General Brune, with the loss of many slain
and taken prisoners. The tidings of these disasters roused, in the
bosom of Paul, fury equal to that which Suwarrow had displayed. He
bitterly cursed his allies, England and Austria, declaring that they,
in the pursuit of their own selfish interests, had abandoned his
armies to destruction. Suwarrow, deprived of further command, and
overwhelmed with disgrace, retired to one of his rural retreats where
he soon died of chagrin.
The Austrian and English embassadors at the court of St. Petersburg,
Paul loaded with reproaches and even with insults. His conduct became
so whimsical as to lead many to suppose that he was actually insane.
He had long hated the French republicans, but now, with a new and a
fresher fury, he hated the allies. The wrecks of his armies were
ordered to return to Russia, and he ceased to take an active part in
the prosecution of the war, without however professing, in any way, to
withdraw from the coalition. Neither the Austrian nor the English
embassador could obtain an audience with the emperor. He treated them
with utter neglect, and, the court following the example of the
sovereign, these embassadors were left in perfect solitude. They could
not even secure an audience with any of the ministry.
Paul had been very justly called the Don Quixote of the coalition, and
the other powers were now not a little apprehensive of the course he
might adopt, for madman as he was, he was the powerful monarch of some
forty millions of people. Soon he ordered the Russian fleet, which in
coöperation with the squadrons of the allies was blockading Malta, to
withdraw from the conflict. Then he recalled his ministers from London
and Vienna, declaring that neither England nor Austria was contending
for any principle, but that they were fighting merely for their own
selfish interests. England had already openly declared her intention
of appropriating Malta to herself.
Napoleon had now returned from Egypt and had been invested with the
supreme power in France as First Consul. There were many French
prisoners in the hands of the allies. France had also ten thousand
Russian prisoners. Napoleon proposed an exchange. Both England and
Austria refused to exchange French prisoners for Russians.
"What," exclaimed Napoleon, "do you refuse to liberate the Russians,
who were your allies, who were fighting in your ranks and under your
commanders? Do you refuse to restore to their country those men to
whom you are indebted for your victories and conquests in Italy, and
who have left in your hands a multitude of French prisoners whom they
have taken? Such injustice excites my indignation."
With characteristic magnanimity he added, "I will restore them to the
tzar without exchange. He shall see how I esteem brave men."
These Russian prisoners were assembled at Aix la Chapelle. They were
all furnished with a complete suit of new clothing, in the uniform of
their own regiments, and were thoroughly supplied with weapons of the
best French manufacture. And thus they were returned to their homes.
Paul was exactly in that mood of mind which best enabled him to
appreciate such a deed. He at once abandoned the alliance, and with
his own hand wrote to Napoleon as follows:
"Citizen First Consul,--I do not write to you to discuss the rights of
men or of citizens. Every country governs itself as it pleases.
Whenever I see, at the head of a nation, a man who knows how to rule
and how to fight, my heart is attracted towards him. I write to
acquaint you with my dissatisfaction with England, who violates every
article of the law of nations and has no guide but her egotism and her
interest. I wish to unite with you to put an end to the unjust
proceedings of that government."
Friendly relations were immediately established between France and
Russia, and they exchanged embassadors. Paul had conferred an annual
pension of two hundred thousand rubles (about $150,000) upon the Count
of Provence, subsequently Louis XVIII., and had given him an asylum at
Mittau. He now withdrew that pension and protection. He induced the
King of Denmark to forbid the English fleet from passing the Sound,
which led into the Baltic Sea, engaging, should the English attempt to
force the passage, to send a fleet of twenty-one ships to assist the
Danes. The battle of Hohenlinden and the peace of Luneville detached
Austria from the coalition, and England was left to struggle alone
against the new opinions in France.
The nobles of Russia, harmonizing with the aristocracy of Europe,
were quite dissatisfied with this alliance between Russia and France.
Though the form of the republic was changed to that of the consulate,
they saw that the principles of popular liberty remained unchanged in
France. The wife of Paul and her children, victims of the inexplicable
caprice of the tzar, lived in constant constraint and fear. The
empress had three sons--Alexander, Constantine and Nicholas. The heir
apparent, Alexander, was watched with the most rigorous scrutiny, and
was exposed to a thousand mortifications. The suspicious father became
the jailer of his son, examining all his correspondence, and
superintending his mode of life in its minutest details. The most
whimsical and annoying orders were issued, which rendered life, in the
vicinity of the court, almost a burden. The army officers were
forbidden to attend evening parties lest they should be too weary for
morning parade. Every one who passed the imperial palace, even in the
most inclement weather, was compelled to go with head uncovered. The
enforcement of his arbitrary measures rendered the intervention of the
troops often necessary. The palace was so fortified and guarded as to
resemble a prison. St. Petersburg, filled with the machinery of war,
presented the aspect of a city besieged. Every one was exposed to
arrest. No one was sure of passing the night in tranquillity, there
were so many domiciliary visits; and many persons, silently arrested,
disappeared without it ever being known what became of them. Spies
moved about everywhere, and their number was infinite. Paul thus
enlisted against himself the animosity of all classes of his
subjects--his own family, foreigners, the court, the nobles and the
bourgeois. Such were the influences which originated the conspiracy
which resulted in the assassination of the tzar.