Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/109

 BETWEEN THE CZAE AND THE SULTAN. G7 ness as an English 'gentleman.'* It is known chap. IV also that his ideal of human grandeur was the ' character of the Duke of Wellington. No man could have made that choice without having truth in him. It would seem, however, that beneath the vir- tues which for more than a quarter of a century had enabled the Czar to stand before Europe as a man of honour and truth, there lurked a set of opposite qualities ; and that when he reached the period of life which has often been found a trying une to men of the Koraanoff family, a deterioration began to take place which shook the ascendant of his better nature. After the beginning of 1853 there Mere strange alternations in his conduct. At one time he seemed to be so frank and straight- forward that the most wary statesman could not and would not believe him to be intending deceit. Then, and even within a few hours, he would steal off and be false. But the vice which he disclosed in those weak intervals was not the profound de- ceit of statecraft, but rather the odd purposeless cunning of a gypsy or a savage, who shows by some sudden and harmless sign of his wild blood that, even alter years of conformity to European ways, he has not been completely reclaimed. For the present, however, the Emperor Nicholas must be looked upon not merely as he was, but as he our public men he would with great energy extend his open hand, and vow that with our people he never wanted more than what- in somewhat composite language— he called the ' parole de gentleman.'
 * Sometimes when declaring his reliance upon the honour of