GHEDIMIN AND ZENEIDA
Ghedimin was no longer a prince, but became, in Tobolsk, the happiest of men.
Five children, all sons, were born to him there, not one of whom has become a prince. One is a tanner, another a furrier; but they are prosperous, and know nothing of the ancestral palace in St. Petersburg.
This, it is true, is a prosaic ending; but we may not observe silence upon it, for it is true to history, and, moreover, no exceptional case. How many a descendant of princely families tans and works the skins of that ermine once worn by his ancestors!
The eldest of the three brothers Turgenieff, Michael, who presided at that memorable "green-book" conference, was, although absent in a foreign country at the time of the insurrection, condemned to death, and his property confiscated. The news of this sentence broke the heart of his younger brother Sergius. His other brother, Alexander, followed the condemned man into exile and shared his own fortune with him.
Such hearts as these, too, the fatherland of ice can bring forth!
THE ROMANCE OF CONSTANTINE
Krizsanowski was perfectly right when he maintained that the Poles had no reason to unite their fate with any schemes of Russian aspirants after freedom.
The Polish people needed no explanation of the meaning of "Constitution."
But this, too, is true—that to a Pole the wife of Constantine was wellnigh the equivalent. She was their Providence—turning evil into good, wrath into gentleness, remitting punishments—a Providence bringing blessings in its train.