ia
twenty-nine millions of dollars to defray the expenses of the war,
opened the Dardanelles to the free navigation of all Russian merchant
ships, and engaged not to maintain any fortified posts on the north of
the Danube.

In July, 1830, the Poles rose in a general insurrection, endeavoring
to shake off the Russian yoke. With hurricane fury the armies of
Nicholas swept the ill-fated territory, and Poland fell to rise no
more. The vengeance of the tzar was awful. For some time the roads to
Siberia were thronged with noble men driven into exile.

In the year 1833, Constantinople was imperiled by the armies of
Mohammed Ali, the energetic pacha of Egypt. The sultan implored aid of
Russia. Nicholas sent an army and a fleet, and drove Mohammed Ali back
to Egypt. As compensation for this essential aid, the sultan entered
into a treaty, by which both powers were bound to afford succor in
case either was attacked, and Turkey also agreed to close the
Dardanelles against any power with whom Russia might be at war.

The revolution in Paris of 1848, which expelled Louis Philippe from
the throne, excited the hopes of the republican party all over Europe.
The Hungarians rose, under Kossuth, in the endeavor to shake off the
Austrian yoke. Francis Joseph appealed to Russia for aid. Nicholas
dispatched two hundred thousand men to crush the Hungarians, and they
were crushed. Nicholas asked no remuneration for these services. He
felt amply repaid in having arrested the progress of constitutional
liberty in Europe.

Various circumstances, each one trivial in itself, conspired to lead
Nicholas in 1853 to make a new and menacing demonstration of power in
the direction of Constantinople. An army was marshaled on the
frontiers, and a large fleet assembled at Odessa and Sevastopol.
England and France were alarmed, and a French fleet of observation
entered the waters of Greece, while the English fleet at Malta
strengthened itself for any emergence. The prominent question
professedly at issue between Russia and Turkey was the protection
which should be extended to members of the Greek church residing
within the Turkish domains. The sultan, strengthened by the secret
support of France and England, refused to accede to the terms which
Russia demanded, and the armies of Nicholas were put on the march for
Constantinople. England and France dispatched their fleets for the
protection of Turkey. In the campaign of Sevastopol, with which our
reader