them the
irrespective nuances of different nationality, something exotic in
accent and moral ideas, so far as this was not merged in their
cosmopolitanism."_

To this "one great family" the organization of society apportioned with
one hand special privileges and exemptions, with the other special
hardships and dangers. Revolution, to these professional rulers, was
what successful trade rivalry is to a store-keeper; assassination was a
daily risk to which store-keepers are commonly not exposed:

_"... Such is the life of rulers: the emperor lay dead, killed by a
simple pistol-shot; and the court chamberlain was very busy, the masters
of ceremonies unable to agree; the pomp of an imperial funeral was
prepared in all its intricacy; through all Europe sped the after-shudder
of fright; every newspaper was filled with telegrams and long
articles...._

_"All this was because of one shot from a fanatic, a martyr for the
people's rights._

_"The Empress Elizabeth stared with wide-open eyes at the fate that had
overtaken her. Not thus had she ever pictured to herself that it would
come, thus, so rudely, in the midst of that festivity and in the
presence of their royal guest...."_

It is to be understood, none the less, that she had always expected it
to come: assassination is one of the special risks attaching to majesty
at all times when one form of kingship or the whole institution of kings
is debated and criticized. _"When the intellectual developments or
culture of a race,"_ wrote Heine, in _The Citizen Kingdom in 1832,
"cease to accord with its old established institutions, the necessary
result is a combat in which the latter are overthrown. This is called a
revolution. Until this revolution is complete, so long as the reform of
these institutions does not agree at all points with the intellectual
development, the habits and the wants of the people, during this period
the national malady is not wholly cured and the ailing and agitated
people will often relapse into the weakness of exhaustion and at times
be subject to fits of burning fever. When this fever is upon them, they
tear the lightest bandages and the most healing lint from their old
wounds, throw the most benevolent and noble-hearted nurses out of window
and themselves roll about in agony, until at length they find themselves
in circumstances or adapt themselves to institutions that suit them
better."_

So much for the race, in the gripe of growing-pains; b