she was last ill. Be to her for the
future what you have been in my life-time, and salute my beautiful
Peterhoff, the first time you go there with her."

These interviews being closed, he addressed his son and Count
d'Adelberg respecting his obsequies. He selected the room in which his
remains were to be laid out, and the spot for his tomb in the
cathedral of the Apostles Peter and Paul. "Let my funeral," said he,
"be conducted with the least possible expense or display, as all the
resources of the empire are now needed for the prosecution of the
war." While conversing, news came that dispatches had arrived from
Sevastopol. The emperor deeming that he had already abdicated,
declined perusing them, saying, "I have nothing more to do with
earth." Alexander sat for several hours at the bed side, receiving the
last directions of his father.

On the 2d of March the emperor remained upon his bed, unable to
articulate a word, and with difficulty drawing each breath. At noon he
revived a little and requested his son, in his name, to thank the
garrison at Sevastopol for their heroism. He then sent a message to
the King of Prussia, whose sister he had married. "Say to Frederic
that I trust he will remain the same friend of Russia he has ever
been, and that he will never forget the dying words of our father."

The agony of death was now upon him, and he was speechless. His
confessor repeated the prayers for the dying. At twenty minutes past
twelve he expired, holding, till the last moment, the hand of the
empress and of his son Alexander.

Alexander II., who now occupies the throne, was born the 29th of
April, 1818. He is a young man of noble character and very thoroughly
educated. At the age of sixteen, according to the laws of the empire,
he was declared to be of age and took the oath of allegiance to the
throne. From that time he lived by his father's side in the cabinet
and in the court. His fare was frugal, his bed hard, and his duties
arduous in the extreme. In April, 1841, he married the princess Maria,
daughter of the Grand Duke of Darmstadt. She is reported to be a lady
of many accomplishments and of the most sincere and unaffected piety.
He is himself a man of deep religious feeling, and many who know him,
esteem him to be a sincere and spiritual Christian. What character the
temptations of the throne may develop, time only can determine. He is
now struggling, against the opposition of the nobles, to emancipate
the