Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/67

 Y old friend D, who used to spend the winter alone in the country, while his wife lived in Paris and he visited her there at rare intervals, often spent the long autumn evenings in conversation with an illiterate but very intelligent and respectable peasant, his village elder, who came to him in the evenings with his report. My friend told him among other things about the advantages of the French political system over our own. This happened just before the last Polish rising, and the intervention of the French Government in our affairs. The patriotic Russian newspapers were burning with indignation at this intervention at the time, and the governing classes were so furious that the position became greatly strained and there began to be talk of war with France.

My friend, who used to read the newspapers, told the village elder about the relations of France and Russia also. Influenced by the tone of the newspapers, my friend said that if there were war (he was an old military man) he should go back into the army and fight with France. In those days patriotic Russians