Standing there is a statue in the purest of marble, the only
statue in those vast halls. It has the place of honor. It looks proudly
over all that glory and keeps ward over all that treasure; and that
statue, in full majesty of imperial robes, and bees, and diadem, and
face, is of the First Napoleon. Admiration of his tyrannic will has at
last made him peaceful sovereign of the Kremlin.
This spirit of absolutism took its most offensive form in Nicholas's
attitude toward Europe. He was the very incarnation of reaction against
revolution, and he became the demigod of that horde of petty despots who
infest Central Europe. Whenever, then, any tyrant's lie was to be
baptized, he stood its godfather; whenever any God's truth was to be
crucified, he led on those who passed by, reviling and wagging their
heads. Whenever these oppressors revived some old feudal wrong, Nicholas
backed them in the name of religion; whenever their nations struggled to
preserve some great right, Nicholas crushed them in the name of law and
order.
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