"Prejudices these, nothing more. Travellers, like me, are here to rectify such errors. A proof that Russia is free, I can move about with perfect liberty."
"Have you seen the emperor?"
"Yesterday evening at the Théâtre Michel."
"Is he not a remarkably handsome man?"
"The handsomest I have ever seen."
"Sir, your permit must be ready by this time. Will you go and receive it, and prolong your stay in Russia as long as you please. You will see that you have judged our country correctly."
Notwithstanding all his efforts to conciliate European opinion, the Emperor Nicholas was not rewarded in his travels by any praise whatever. Once out of his own country, he quickly discovered he had deceived no one, and his despotism was in Europe the object of universal unpopularity.
From the Holy Father he received his first lesson: a lesson, however, both given and received with dignity.
It was well known that he had changed hundreds of Catholic into Greek churches, in all the western provinces of Russia and Poland.