hoever has power on his
side, and is about to strike.

"As to the Emperor of Russia, he is a man infinitely superior to
Frederic William or Francis. He possesses wit, grace, information, and
is fascinating, but he is not to be trusted. He is devoid of candor, a
true _Greek of the Lower Empire_. At the same time he is not without
ideology, real or assumed; after all it may only be a smattering,
derived from his education and his preceptor. Would you believe what I
had to discuss with him? He maintained that _inheritance_ was an abuse
in monarchy, and I had to spend more than an hour, and employ all my
eloquence and logic in proving to him that this right constituted the
peace and happiness of the people. It may be too that he was
mystifying, for he is cunning, false, adroit and hypocritical. I
repeat it, he is a Greek of the Lower Empire.

"If I die here he will be my real heir in Europe. I alone was able to
stop him with his deluge of Tartars. The crisis is great, and will
have lasting effects upon the continent of Europe, especially upon
Constantinople. He was solicitous with me for the possession of it. I
have had much coaxing upon this subject, but I constantly turned a
deaf ear to it. The Turkish empire, shattered as it appeared, would
constantly have remained a point of separation between us. It was the
marsh which prevented my right from being turned.

"As to Greece it is another matter. Greece awaits a liberator. There
will be a brilliant crown of glory. He will inscribe his name for ever
with those of Homer, Plato and Epaminondas. I perhaps was not far from
it. When, during my campaign in Italy, I arrived on the shores of the
Adriatic, I wrote to the Directory, that I had before my eyes the
kingdom of Alexander. Still later I entered into engagements with Ali
Pacha; and when Corfu was taken, they must have found there
ammunition, and a complete equipment for an army of forty or fifty
thousand men. I had caused maps to be made of Macedonia, Servia,
Albania. Greece, the Peloponnesus at least, must be the lot of the
European power which shall possess Egypt. It should be ours; and then
an independent kingdom in the north, Constantinople, with its
provinces, to serve as a barrier to the power of Russia, as they have
pretended to do with respect to France, by creating the kingdom of
Belgium."

CHAPTER XXXI.

NICHOLAS.

From 1825 to 1855.

Abdication of Constantine.--Accession of Nicholas.--Insurrection