The Czar

The nineteenth century was still very young; its eventful day--that day whose sunset we have yet to see--had but lately dawned upon the world. There were regions, even in Europe...

Ivan Barrinka, or Ivan Pojarsky, as he may now be called, was a genuine child of Russia. His nature was quick, mobile, restless, passionate. He was capable of strong determinati...

“Dir ist dein Ohr geklungen Vom Lob das man dir bot, Doch ist zu ihn gedrungen Ein schwacher Schrei der Noth. Der ist ein Held der Freien Der, wenn der Ruhm ihn kränzt, Noch glu...

No child ever dreams of being grateful for food and shelter, unless taught by the sad experience of destitution. The little guest expects to be welcomed to the feast of life, an...

Our travellers had still a long drive before them after they entered the stately gate called “the Gate of Triumph.” The ancient capital of the Czars enclosed, within the vast ci...

Petrovitch the merchant would have thought himself greatly lacking in his duty towards Ivan the boyar if he had suffered him to remain beneath his roof. As soon as he had provid...

Years came and went, changing the “little lord” of Nicolofsky into the graceful, handsome young nobleman, the ornament of the ball-rooms of Moscow. Ivan Ivanovitch--as he was us...

“Take thy banner, and beneath The battle-cloud’s encircling wreath, Guard it till our homes are free-- Guard it, God will prosper thee! In the dark and stormy hour, In the break...

It is the fair and pleasant land of France--a land of corn-fields and orchards and sunny garden-plots, where quiet villages nestle in shady nooks, and old châteaux stand proudly...

Clémence went into her own room, and Henri followed her. The chamber was severely simple, but scrupulously neat. The narrow bedstead might have suited a nun, and the table and c...

It was evening in a crowded barrack-room in Paris. Recruits, not yet clad in uniform, but wearing the blouses or the coarse fustian jackets they had brought from their native vi...

A great battle, and a great victory--this was what Henri de Talmont, in common with the six hundred thousand fighting men who crossed the Niemen under Napoleon, fully expected t...

It was evening. Ivan Pojarsky sat alone in the saloon of the Wertsch family mansion. The costly furniture with which it was strewn had that indescribable air of neglect and forl...

“Oh, sweet and strange it seems to me, that ere this day is done The voice that now is speaking may be beyond the sun, For ever and for ever with those just souls and true; And...

The slow hours that had dragged their weary length since the evacuation of the doomed city began, seemed a lifetime to Ivan. He almost felt as if the suspense, the dull, hushed...

Amidst the splendid environs of St. Petersburg, where Art has done all in her power to atone for the sparing hand with which Nature has strewn her bounties, there is a picturesq...

One evening towards the end of October, and just when the first snow of the year was beginning to fall, Ivan Pojarsky and Michael Ivanovitch entered the head-quarters of the Rus...

When Ivan waited upon Count Rostopchine that morning, he found his excellency in a very bad humour. The destruction of the Kremlin was perhaps enough to account for this; but th...

The following morning brought Ivan a request, equivalent of course to a command, that he would wait upon General Soltikoff. The Governor of St. Petersburg was a veteran approach...

It was one of the early days of a genuine Russian winter. The vast and desolate plain between Moscow and Smolensko was white with snow; bitter winds thick with falling flakes we...

“Milder yet thy snowy breezes Pour on yonder tented shores, Where the Rhine’s broad billow freezes, Or the tent-brown Danube roars. Oh, winds of winter, list ye there To many a...

The miserable fugitives who succeeded, at the cost of so much suffering, in crossing the icy waters of the Beresina, found no “promised land” on the other side. Better had it be...

The very next day Henri de Talmont was removed from the horrible Convent of St. Basil to one of the other hospitals of the town--in which, indeed, every palace, every public bui...

Between opening month of 1813 and that of the following year a great change swept over Europe. Men of Teutonic race, true-hearted sons of their dear Fatherland, look back upon t...

“Lay the sword on his breast; there’s no spot on its blade In whose cankering breath his bright laurels will fade: It was taken up first at humanity’s call; It was sheathed with...

“A poor man helped by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man served by thee shall make thee whole: Thou shalt be blessed thyself in every sense Of blessing which thou renderest.”

“It is enough: my son is yet alive; I shall see him before I die.” These were the first words Madame de Talmont found voice to falter, as, leaning heavily on the arm of Clémence...

Ivan recovered slowly from his severe and painful wound. He had just risen from his bed one day, and was sitting, pale and languid, near the table trying to read, when he heard...

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily pro...

Three or four days later, a solemn council met in the parlour of Madame de Salgues to consider the proposal for the hand of Clémence formally made the previous evening by Ivan t...

The bright spring-tide had ripened into a yet brighter summer, when one day Clémence entered the parlour where the two elder ladies sat at work. Her cheeks were glowing, and she...

Although every real obstacle to his marriage was now removed, it was several months before Ivan found himself at liberty to return to France and claim his bride. He had to go to...

“Yea, thou wilt answer for me, righteous Lord! Thine all the sorrow, mine the great reward: Thine the sharp thorns, and mine the golden crown; Mine the life won, and thine the l...

“A great battle! Napoleon is annihilated! Wellington and the English have done it!” Such was the cry with which Tolstoi rushed breathless into the guard-room where Ivan and othe...

Ivan could afford just now to be very generous and very patient, because he was very happy. There was sunshine not only on his path but in his heart. Almost at the same time tha...

“The shadow had passed from his heart and brow, And a deep calm filled his breast; For the peace of God was his portion now, And his weary soul found rest.”

“_Do I?_” she asked, looking confidingly into Ivan’s face while she leaned on his arm. They were standing at a window in the old castle of Nicolofsky, watching the white flakes...

A happy quiet year passed away at Nicolofsky; then Ivan and Clémence removed to St. Petersburg, where they established themselves for the coming winter in one of the palaces on...

Two or three weeks later Clémence sat alone one afternoon. A bright wood fire burned on the hearth, and on a little table near her lay a pile of needlework--garments for the poo...

“Waft, waft, ye winds, His story; And you, ye waters, roll, Till like a sea of glory It spreads from pole to pole; Till o’er our ransomed nature The Lamb for sinners slain, Rede...

One afternoon, in the spring of 1821, Clémence sat in her boudoir, a bright, pleasant room of the palace on the Fontanka, tastefully but not gaudily furnished. A lovely boy betw...

Five years have passed away. To Ivan they have been years of toil and conflict, and yet happy years. In the land of his exile he has laboured earnestly to introduce order, good...

Although the fast of Easter eve is the strictest known in the Greek Church, yet on this occasion willing hands quickly prepared a meal for the travellers, since, as Pope Yefim o...

“God’s Spirit sweet, Quench Thou the heat Of our passionate hearts when they rave and beat; Quiet their swell, And gently tell That His right hand doeth all things well.”