[52] Englishmen who were in Paris during 1814 bear testimony to this interesting fact.
[53] “Ses ennemis cessaient de l’être à ses yeux, dès qu’ils étaient malheureux.”—Madame de Choiseul-Gouffier.
[54] He established two; one in St. Petersburg, and the other in Warsaw.
[55] Domergues, a Frenchman bitterly prejudiced against everything Russian, pronounces this allowance really “munificent” under the circumstances, and says the prisoners were able to live upon it in the greatest comfort.
[56] A well-known form of punishment in Russia. Alexander himself inflicted it upon some personages of the highest rank, for gross acts of peculation and dishonesty.
[57] Alexander always referred to the day of Austerlitz as “his unfortunate day,” and never ceased to mourn the slaughter to which he led his brave army upon that occasion.
[58] A similar act of imperial munificence, performed in a similar way, drew the comment from De Maistre: “En fait d’élégance souveraine, l’Empereur de Russie est un grand artiste.”
[59] It is understood, of course, that Ivan speaks from the Russian point of view.
[60] “In Russia every coxcomb is a prince.”
[61] All this, as also the account given at the end of this chapter, is strictly historical.