ied commanders resolved to attack the Crimea. _Russia was
unprepared._ It was the assault upon Russia's vaunted "holy soil,"
which gave a severe blow to the arbiter of Europe, at home as well as
abroad. Still with clogged energy the Russians worked to construct
defenses. On the 14th of September 500 troopships landed the allied
armies, and on the 20th, the Battle of the Alma opened the road to
Sebastopol. The port of Balaclava was captured by the allies, and
three bloody battles were fought, at Balaclava on the 25th of October,
at Inkermann on the 5th of November, and at Eupatoria on the 17th of
February, 1855.

It seemed as if the knowledge that an enemy was in Russia, aroused the
Russians from a torpor. Pamphlets and other publications denouncing
the government in withering terms, seemed to spring up from the
pavement. "Arise, Oh Russia!" says one unknown writer, "Devoured (p. 216)
by enemies, ruined by slavery, shamefully oppressed by the stupidity
of tchinovnik and spies, awaken from thy long sleep of ignorance and
apathy! We have been kept in bondage long enough _by the successors of
the Tartar khans_. Arise! and stand erect and calm before the throne
of the despot; demand of him a reckoning for the national misfortunes.
Tell him boldly that his throne is not the altar of God, and that God
has not condemned us to be slaves forever."

The feeling among his people was not unknown to Nicholas. Whatever may
be said of him, he was not weakling, fool, or hypocrite, and it was no
disgrace that he felt as if the ground were giving way under his feet.
He was upright and sincere, and had lived up to his convictions. There
is no doubt that when these convictions grew dim, his strength
vanished. He was heard to exclaim "My successor may do what he will: I
cannot change." The sincerity of this man of iron showed in his losing
his courage when doubts arose. Life ceased to have any value for him.
One day, in February, 1855, while suffering from a severe cold, he
went out without his overcoat. To the physician who tried to restrain
him, he said: "You have done your duty; now let me do mine!" A serious
illness followed, and he sent for his successor to whom he gave some
instructions. As a message to his people, and a last cry for sympathy,
he dictated the dispatch "The emperor is dying," which was sent to all
the large towns of Russia. On the 19th of March, 1855, Nicholas I was
dead.

Under his directions wealthy merchants wer