would have broken out, or at least those who promoted it would not have had the pretext they found in the attempt to abrogate by a second oath the allegiance they had sworn to sixteen days before. The period from the 27th November to the 14th December was in truth an interregnum; though it has since been blotted out of the history of Russia by an ordinance which dated the reign of Nicholas from the 19th November, the day of Alexander's demise. Nicholas was aware of the existence of the military secret societies, and he could not but perceive the influence of an unsettled succession on disaffected men. Yet no precautions whatever were taken to avert the catastrophe. The city was silent, but agitated. The churches rang with Litanies for the dead Emperor. No military music was heard in the streets. Everywhere an indescribable uncertainty prevailed. The conspirators were awake, but without concert and without guidance.

'On the 12th December,' says our author, 'I was present at a council at the house of Prince E. P. Obolensky, at which the heads of the conspiracy then in St. Petersburgh attended. The means at our disposal and the objects of the enterprise were discussed. The chief command of the armed force was given to Prince Trubetzkoy, in case no better chief arrived in time from Moscow. It was resolved to collect the insurrectionary troops before the Senate House, and to march thither as many as could be got together under pretence of defending the rights of Constantine, and then to refuse the oath of obedience and allegiance to Nicholas. In the event of success the throne was to be declared vacant, and a provisional government of five members installed. This government was then to call together a constituent assembly from all parts of the empire. It was still uncertain on how many battalions or companies, or on what regiments, we could rely. Somebody present observed, "One cannot rehearse a thing of this kind as you do a parade." But when I heard them speaking with confidence of battalions of my own regiment, whose opinions I knew to be opposed to us, I protested against such rash miscalculations. I was met by the answer, "There may be no great chance of success, but a beginning must be made. The example will bear fruit." I think I hear the words still, "A beginning must be made!" It was young Conrad Rylėjew who uttered them.' (P. 44.)

The beginning was made. But Ryléjew expiated his impetuosity on the scaffold! Rosen, less credulous, determined nevertheless to adhere to his political friends and share their fate; but he gave no orders to his men or brother-officers which could implicate them in so doubtful an undertaking.

'On the 14th December, at dawn, all the officers of the regiment assembled in presence of the Commandant, who welcomed us with the announcement of a new Emperor. He read aloud the Will of Alex

ander, the abdication of Constantine, and the new manifesto of Nicholas. In presence of my brother-officers, I stepped forward, and said to the General, "If all the papers your Excellency has read to us are authentic, which I have no right to question, how is it that we were not at once called upon to swear the oath of allegiance to the Emperor Nicholas on the 27th November?" The General replied, with visible embarrassment, "You are wrong. It has been well considered by men older and more experienced than you are. Gentlemen, return to your battalions to give the oath." Our second battalion under Colonel Moller occupied the post of the Winter Palace and the first division of the city. There was no disturbance, and I returned home, where I found a note summoning me to the quarters of the Moscow regiment. I proceeded thither in a sledge, and there saw, at the other end of the Isaac bridge, a dense mass of people, and a portion of the Moscow regiment in one corner of the square. I approached this detachment on footit was standing just by the monument of Peter I.—and was received with a loud cheer. In the middle of the square stood Prince TchepinRostowsky, leaning on his sabre, exhausted by the combat he had sustained in his barracks, where, against great odds, he had refused the oath, wounded his commanding officer, and at last marched off his men with their standard. In the midst of all these stood J. J. Putschkin, who had quitted the service two years, and was in a civilian's dress; but his troops obeyed him. On my asking where I could meet with the Dictator Trubetskoy, I was told, "He has disappeared: bring us up some men if you can; if not, there are victims enough already!

Rosen returned hastily to the barracks of his regiment, and, in the absence of any superior officer, got four companies of the Finnish Chasseurs under arms, and marched them on to the Isaac bridge. Unwilling to commit his men to a rash enterprise of which he foresaw the result, and resolved at the same time not to act against his political friends, our young mutineer took the neutral course of halting his men upon the bridge-a measure which had the effect of blocking it up against the arrival of reinforcements, and of opening a path of escape to the Moscow regiment if they determined to cut their way through to the bridge. It was now two o'clock. About 1,000 men of the Moscow regiment (insurgents) were formed in a square in front of the Senate House; somewhat later they were joined by a whole battalion of Marines of the Guard-in all about 2,000 men. Such a body of troops, efficiently commanded, resolved to act, and not unsupported by the populace, might even then have produced a revolution. But their attitude was passive and inert. All authority was wanting. The men had stood without their great coats and without food through a Russian December day under ten degrees of frost and a cutting east wind. Reinforcements were arriving to support the Emperor Nicholas, though the fidelity of several

other regiments was doubtful. The Grand Duke Michael rode to the angle of the square, entreating the men to give in; he narrowly escaped being shot. Even the Metropolitan Prelate Seraphim, in full canonicals, attended by a host of the clergy, bearing the uplifted cross before him, conjured the insurgents to yield, and promised them a full pardon. Go home, Father,' said the soldiers; pray for us there-pray for all; here you have nothing to do.'

'A December day in a high northern latitude is soon over. At three it began to be dusk. Doubtless as darkness came on, the populace would have sided with the insurrectionists which they were only restrained from doing by force; there was no time left for hesitation. It was Count Toll who, as the dusk thickened, drew near the Emperor and said, "Sire, you must either give the command to clear the square with cannon, or renounce the throne!" The first cannon-shot, a blank cartridge, thundered forth. The second and third shots threw balls which lodged in the Senate House, or crossed the Newa in the direction of the Academy of Arts. To these shots the mutineers responded with a fierce hurrah! The guns were re-loaded with grapeshot. Colonel Nesterowsky pointed a piece straight on the square. The bombardier crossed himself, the Emperor himself gave the word of command, and Captain Bathunin took the match from the hand of a soldier. In an instant a storm of grape burst on the devoted square. The mutineers fled along the Galley Street and across the Newa; the guns rolled forward to the shore of the river, from whence they continued a very wanton fire, tripling the number of victims, innocent and guilty, soldiers and spectators. By this time the Isaac bridge was also occupied with guns. The shot broke the ice, and many perished in the river. Without this circumstance Batuschew might still have fallen back on the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. Yet, strange to say, none of the officers concerned in the plot, my unhappy comrades, were killed or hurt.'

Rosen withdrew to his barracks, fetched a cloak from his house, saw his wife again for an instant-he had only been married to her eight months-and parted with her for how long? On the following morning he was arrested. Before we follow the thread of his personal adventures, his reflections on this eventful day deserve to be cited.

'On a deliberate review of these events, I am still of opinion that the insurrection might easily have succeeded. More than 2,000 men, and a far greater number of the people, were prepared to obey the first signal of a leader. The leader had been appointed, and the choice seemed a wise one. I have since lived six years with Prince Trubetskoy, many of us still longer, and we are all agreed that he was at that time an honourable and energetic man, on whom one could rely. No one has ever found out why he was not in his place at the proper moment. I believe he does not himself know the reason: he lost his

head. This single circumstance, not to be reckoned on, was decisive. Prince Obolensky, who was suddenly called upon to act in Trubetskoy's place, was himself conscious that he was quite unfit to fill it. While these discussions were going on the most precious moments of the day passed by, and all unity of action was wanting. The troops and officers who were streaming to the insurrection, could not learn what to do or to whom they should turn. The troops on the square stood passive, but they repelled five attacks of the horse-guards, and they rejected alike the threats and entreaties even of their clergy. There they stood, as it were, spell-bound, in spite of the resolution they showed, when they might with comparative ease have taken the battery of guns which was drawn up against them. These guns were covered by a detachment of the Noble Guard, under the orders of Lieutenant Annenkow, who was himself a member of the Secret Society, yet no one thought of availing themselves of this circumstance. Again, the Ismailow regiment, in which there were numerous members of the plot, might without difficulty have been brought over to the insurgents. Captain Bogdanowitsch, of that regiment, shot himself in the night of the 14th, because he could not bear the reproach of having failed to act with his political comrades. Several other regiments were in the same condition. It is equally unintelligible that the military did not drive away the police, and arm the people with staves and hatchets. The guard of the Winter Palace on that day was taken from my own (Finnish) regiment, and commanded by Colonel Moller, who was himself in the plot. On the Admiralty Quay, twenty paces from the Emperor, stood Colonel Bulatow, with two loaded pistols, firmly resolved to shoot the sovereign; but some unseen power held him back. When the Emperor confronted him on his first interrogatory, and expressed surprise that he should be a conspirator, Bulatow replied that, on the contrary, what surprised him was to see the Emperor there. "How so?" said Nicholas. "Why, Sire, I was standing yesterday for two hours within twenty paces of your Majesty, with loaded pistols, fully resolved to shoot you; but as often as I put my hand to the trigger, my heart failed me!" The Emperor was pleased with this frankness, and ordered the Colonel to be better treated in the fortress than the rest of us. Some weeks later Bulatow starved himself to death. He sustained the most terrific struggle, and refused all food, though he actually devoured his own finger-nails from hunger. One would not have supposed that a man of that stamp would have wanted resolution.' (P. 65.)

After an interval of several days, which Rosen was compelled to spend, after his arrest, in one of the guard-rooms of the Palace, behind a glass door, without a bed, clothes, or even sufficient food, on the evening of the 21st December, he was interrogated in the following manner:

'At ten in the evening an escort of ten soldiers conducted me from the place I was in to the interior of the Palace. In half an hour more I was brought into the presence of the Adjutant of the day, General Levaschow. He was sitting at a writing-table, and proceeded to take down

the answer I gave to his questions; but no sooner had he begun, than a side door opened, and the Emperor entered. I advanced a few steps to salute him. He cried out, "Halt!" and putting his hand on my epaulette, repeated, "Further back!-Further back!-Further back! following me till I had resumed my former place, and stood with the light burning on the table full in my eyes. He looked me steadily in the face, expressed his satisfaction with my service, and added that he had more than once distinguished me. He then observed that heavy charges were made against me, that he expected from me a frank acknowledgment of the truth, and he ended by promising to do all he could to save me. He then withdrew, and the interrogatory proceeded as soon as he left the room. I found myself in an embarrassing position. I had no motive to conceal, and no possibility of concealing, anything that related to myself; but it was impossible for me to tell the whole truth, and least of all could I name any of the originators of or sharers in the enterprise. In half an hour the Emperor again came in, took the sheet of paper with my answers from General Levaschow, and read them. In my replies no name was mentioned. He looked at me kindly, and encouraged me to be frank. The Emperor wore, as he had done as Grand Duke, an old uniform of the Ismailow regiment, without epaulettes. His pallid countenance, his bloodshot eyes, showed that he worked intensely, and would examine, hear, and read everything himself. As he again withdrew into his closet, he reopened the door, and the last words I heard from him were, Dich rette ich gern. "I should be glad to save thee." When the schedule of my answers was placed before me to sign, I hesitated as I gave General Levaschow to understand that the whole truth I could not disclose. My signature was, however, exacted, and this hesitation on my part, which was reported to the Emperor, produced a bad effect, as he regarded it as a slight on his gracious promise to save me. Certain it is that my sentence was not only not diminished, but it was made more severe.' (P. 74.)

Some of the details of the interrogatories of the other prisoners are very curious. To one of them Levaschow said, Vous savez l'Empereur n'a qu'à dire un mot et vous avez ' vécu :' to another who hesitated to answer, Mais il y a des moyens pour vous faire avouer,' which elicited a reply that we were living in the nineteenth century, and that torture had been abolished in Russia by a law of the late Emperor. One sort of torture was actually employed, by loading some of the prisoners with irons of fifteen pounds' weight on their wrists, until they answered the questions put to them. But one of the most remarkable was that of N. A. Betushew ::

It was by this mode of pressure that the authorities discovered Pestel's 'Constitution of the Empire.' This document had been buried in the earth on the discovery of the plot, and the place of its concealment was only known to two persons besides Pestel himself. These persons were kept in heavy irons till they disclosed the spot. The Constitution' was found there, exhumed, and Pestel hanged.