Page:The Kobzar of the Ukraine.pdf/129

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After a while a new Ceasar came to the throne, a man who was thought to have liberal tendencies.

Shevchenko's friends at once busied themselves with efforts for his release. Finally amnesty was granted. Count Tolstoi, on receiving the news late at night, hastened to waken his household and there was a family jubilation.

But the new autocrat, though somewhat benevolently inclined, was also a little bit suspicious. The banished poet was a pretty dangerous character. He had even disturbed the conscience of autocracy itself, hence he was only allowed to approach his home country by degrees. Finally he was allowed to reside in Petrograd and later even in Ukraine, welcomed everywhere by loving and pitying friends.

His wish for his old age was to inhabit a little cottage on the Dnieper's banks. For this purpose he purchased a piece of land on one of those hills so often referred to in his poems.