The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-03 00:00:00

even now, not ten minutes ago, I have visited the sole survivor
out of six sisters, whose only brother was exiled about three
years ago, the Princess --; and great was her anguish, and
great the undertaking which procured her one parting word
from her wretched broken-hearted brother."

A tale of that melancholy nature must be worth recapitu-
lating," I rejoined, " and I should feel obliged if you would
furnish me with the facts."

Most willingly," replied the prince. " The more gene-
ra'ly such tales are circulated, the more pity they will excite ;
and although we bow to the yoke of an absolute sovereign,
and cheerfully obey his will and his orders, yet I fear that this
mode of disgracing nobility will shortly arm the most power-
ful against him. The revolution of 1825 lopped the branches,
but it only grazed the roots."
" I understand," said I ; " but in spite of this tyranny and
degradation you like your emperor."
" Who can help it ?" he replied ; " he is a spirited bold
prince, foremost in danger, the last in retreat : his private cha-
racter is without blemish, and his time is devoted to the good
of his country, the enlargement of his power, and the revision
of our laws. Such a man is worthy of a throne ; but it is a
sad reality, that those who most support him, stand in daily
jeopardy of a change of climate, almost without the show of a
judicial sentence."
" It is a bad system that of degrading nobility, for they alone
unhold him—but your story, my good prince. You are like
the sailors who lure sharks on to destruction by a small
bait, and harpoon them as they swallow it. Begin without
farther circumlocution, and I will listen." •

Yes ; and when you get home publish it with explanatory
notes, &c. But don't do as a certain Captain did, give an ac-
count of our drawing-rooms and our bed-rooms. He was only
in one of the former, and the latter might have been a secret ;
but-.

" On that day, and it has been a glorious result, although
we then thought it a fatal day, which heralded the Emperor
Nicholas to the throne, to the utter exclusion of that despicable
tyrant his brother, many of the conspirators lost their lives in
the actual fray, many were condemned to lose their heads, and
s: me hundreds were banished to Siberia. Although the na-
tural grief at parting with one we dearly love, can never be, by
the law of any emperor, prohibited, yet those who experience
the most bitter heart-rendings are studious to avoid any public
demonstration of their regret ; for tyranny might construe it
into defiance, and the law of nature yields to the law of neces-
sity. A Russian should be an automaton; it should wield
its arms when the Emperor desires; it should speak only to
flatter and to fawn; and when it is required, the figure of the
man should lie down and be buried."

We have left ourselves no space to enter into a
minute analysis of this captivating tale ; but cannot.
conclude without saying a word in praise of the many
shrewd reflections on life and manners that are cursorily
thrown into it. We like these the better, that there
is nothing of the parade or assumption of thought-
about them ; they grow naturally out of the subject,
and show the acute, disciplined observer, who is not
the less to be trusted, because he now and then evinces
a disposition to cynicism. We hate the Perfectibility
school of philosophers, and are of the opinion of
Voltaire's Memnon, when he had spent a handsome
fortune in the Quixotic attempt to weed out vice and
folly from human nature, that after all, the wisest way
is, to take the world as it goes. Bad as it confesses
itself to be, we fear it will never permit itself to be
preached into immaculateness.