admired so much, with a dark and sorrowful
expression, and even turned away from them
to look at the citadel; that he then sank
deep in thought, and even when, at last he
broke the silence, made no observation on the
magnificence of the view before him.

Some days before he commenced his journey
to the Crimea the emperor was working
in his cabinet, in the finest possible weather.
Suddenly such a cloud enveloped the sun that
he could not see to write. He rang for candles.
Aricimoff entered and received the order;
but, as the darkness suddenly cleared off, he
came again, but without bringing the lights.

"You don't bring in the candles," said the
emperor, giving way to some dark foreboding,
to which he had been subject for some time.
"Is it because people would say, if you burnt
candles by daylight, that a corpse was in the
room?  I thought of this myself."

When the emperor came to Taganrog, on
his return from the Crimea, where everything
had given him satisfaction, he went to his
room, and said to Aricimoff:  "Do you
remember your refusing to bring in the candles,
and what I said on the occasion?  Who knows,
but very likely, the saying may come true?

At dinner one day, at Bakshiserai, the
emperor, who hated physic, and never spoke
of it, especially at table, took it into his head
to ask Wylie, his physician, if he had any
strong antidote against fever.

"Yes, sire." said Wylie.

"Good; let it be brought in."

The medicine-chest was brought, and the
emperor, who was in perfect health, took a
pinch or two of the specific, though it had a
strong, disagreeable smell.

Whenever he stopped at a town, it was his
custom to go straight to the principal church
to say his prayers. When the empress arrived
at Taganrog, the emperor led her, as if under
the impulse of a presentiment, into the Greek
monastery instead of into the High Church.
And this monastery is the same in which his
body was laid in state, on the twenty-third of
December. On his arrival he expressed his
anxiety to visit the Crimea at once. This
anxiety, however, seemed to decrease as the
time of his departure drew near. The
expedition, indeed, was nearly put off till the
next spring;  but Woronzoff's arrival altered
this idea. Once he ordered Diebitsch to draw
out a plan of the journey, and bring it to him.
Deibitsch soon prepared one, as he was
ordered, but the emperor said, "This is too
long a route—make me a shorter one."  Next
day Diebitsch brought one which he thought
would please.

"Twenty days! " said the emperor; "you
have altered nothing—shorten it!  shorten
it!"  And at last, with difficulty, he
consented to a route reduced to little more than
a fortnight.

All the time the emperor's illness lasted
the dogs in Taganrog, as many people
remarked, howled in a strange and frightful
manner. Some had established themselves
under the windows of the imperial cabinet,
and made more hideous noises than the rest.
Prince Volkousky told me he had had a
hundred and fifty of them killed in three
days.

[After these preparatory statements, which
are all of very sinister augury, we get to the
emperor's visit to the Crimea.]

On the first of November, eighteen hundred
and twenty-five, the emperor began his journey,
and was gay and talkative for the first
few days.

He was evidently happy and contented
with everything. On the sixth he left
Simpheropol, on horseback, and rode five-and-thirty
versts to Yoursouff, on the south coast. The
carriages were ordered to wait for him two
days in Baidar. The maitre d'hotel was sent
off with, the carriages, and this, in Dr. Wylie's
opinion, was one of the chief causes of the
emperor's illness, because, during his absence,
the food was of an inferior quality, or, at
least, ill-prepared. On his arrival at
Yoursouff, on the sixth, he dined late; on the
following day, he went to Alupka, belonging to
Prince Woronzoff; he visited the Garden of
Nikita on his way, and walked a great deal;
then he went to Orienda, which he had
bought of Bezborodka; and, from that place,
went alone to Princess Galitziu. Diebitsch
has told me that the Ohol colony of the
princess was, at that very time, afflicted with
fever. He spent the night in a Tartar hut.
He dined very late on his arrival at Alupka,
and had eaten fruit on the journey. He rose
early, and walked some time before leaving
Alupka, and then rode at least forty versts.
During this ride he was in bad humour, and
very much discontented with his horse. It
was necessary to mount a very steep hill to
get to Marderinoff's estate in the interior,
and without tasting food he came to Baidar.
He was in a profuse perspiration and greatly
tired;  then, at last, he got into the carriage
to go to Sebastopol.  At the post-house, two
versts from Balaclava, he again got on horseback,
and rode out with Diebitsch to review
a Greek battalion, commanded by Ravalliotti;
with him he breakfasted, and ate a large
quantity of rich fish.  He resumed his
carriage at the post-house, and at the last station
rode alone to visit a Greek monastery
dedicated to St. George, wearing neither great
coat nor cloak, though the sun was set and
there was a cold wind blowing.  He stayed
perhaps two hours in the monastery, and
then rode back to the carriage, and reached
Sebastopol between eight and nine o'clock.
He betook himself immediately by torchlight
to the church, and getting into the carriage,
again drove to his quarters, near which he
reviewed (also by torchlight) the marines.
He ordered dinner on his arrival, but ate
nothing.He then busied himself about the
arrangements for the following day.

On that—namely the ninth—he saw a ship

.