Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/14

 X THE YEAR 1853 AND THE YEAR 187C. Belgrade. To sustain the once kindled enthusiasm apt means were taken. The simple photograph, re- presenting the young Kireeff's noble features, soon expanded to large-sized portraits ; and Fable then springing forward in the path of Truth, but transcend- ing it with the swiftness of our modern appliances, there was constituted, in a strangely short time, one of those stirring legends which used to be the growth of long years — a legend half-warlike, half-supersti- tious, which exalted its really tall hero to the dimen- sions of a giant, and showed him piling up heca- tombs by a mighty slaughter of Turks.* The mine — the charged mine of enthusiasm upon which this kindling spark fell — was the same in many respects that we saw giving warlike impulsion to the Russia of 1853 ; but to the enthusiasm of a sensitive Church for the cause of its syn-orthodox brethren — to the passion of a northern and predatory State for conquest in sunny climes — to that kind of religious fervour which mainly yearned after masses under the dome of St Sophia — to that longing for a guardian-angelship which, however fraternal osten- sibly, might perhaps carry with it the priceless key in Servia took care to mention the exploit and death of Colonel Kireeff with more or less of detail, and the information they fur- nished is for the most part consistent with the scrutinised accounts on which I found the above narrative ; but it was only, of course, from the interior of Russia that a knowledge of the effect there pro- duced by the incident could be directly obtained. The corps in which the Colonel formerly served was that of the Cavalry of the Guards, but he had quitted the army long before the beginning of this year.
 * The able correspondents of our English newspapers lately acting