note E: Gurowski,--also Wolowski in _Revue des Deux Mondes_.]

As this base of hideous wrong was thus widened and deepened, the
nobles built higher and stronger their superstructure of arrogance and
pretension. Not many years after Peter's death, they so over-awed the
Empress Anne that she thrust into the codes of the Empire statutes which
allowed the nobles to sell serfs apart from the soil. So did serfage
bloom _fully_ into slavery.

But in the latter half of the eighteenth century Russia gained a ruler
from whom the world came to expect much.

To mount the throne, Catharine II. had murdered her husband; to keep the
throne, she had murdered two claimants whose title was better than
her own. She then became, with her agents in these horrors, a second
Messalina.

To set herself right in the eyes of Europe, she paid eager court to
that hierarchy of skepticism which in that age made or marred European
reputations. She flattered the fierce Deists by owning fealty to "_Le
Roi Voltaire_;" she flattered the mild Deists by calling in La Harpe
as the tutor of her grandson; she flattered the Atheists by calling in
Diderot as a tutor for herself.

Her murders and orgies were soon forgotten in the new hopes for Russian
regeneration. Her dealings with Russia strengthened these hopes. The
official style required that all persons presenting petitions should
subscribe themselves "Your Majesty's humble serf." This formula she
abolished, and boasted that she had cast out the word serf from the
Russian language. Poets and philosophers echoed this boast over Europe,
--and the serfs waited.

The great Empress spurred hope by another movement. She proposed to
an academy the question of serf-emancipation as a subject for their
prize-essay. The essay was written and crowned. It was filled with
beautiful things about liberty, practical things about moderation,
flattering things about "the Great Catharine,"--and the serfs waited.

Again she aroused hope. It was given out that her most intense delight
came from the sight of happy serfs and prosperous villages. Accordingly,
in her journey to the Crimea, Potemkin squandered millions on millions
in rearing pasteboard villages,--in dragging forth thousands of wretched
peasants to fill them,--in costuming them to look thrifty,--in training
them to look happy. Catharine was rejoiced,--Europe sang paeans,--the
serfs waited.[F]

[Footnote F: For further growth of the sentimental fashion thus se