The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1855-12-29
G,istorilal.
From Frank Leslie's Journal
THE TOMBS OF THE GLARS.

Thousands in the northern capital of the
Gar. who rose OH the morning Of the lst Of
March, without more than an ordinary inca
sure OF CAFE. became anxious restless, moody
and apprehensive, as the day wore on. and
the dark night returned to their streets,
squares, quays, and dwellings. Thoughts of
the war were banished. One concern, more
Immediately domestic, absorbed every mind.
The fact oozed out, and spread in whispers
low and swift through the city, that the en-
pcror was sorcly stricken. Was it a severe
but transient illness merely! Or had the
angel of death really crossed the threshold Of
the Winter Palace to wrestle with Its master,
and take him for a spoil and for a prey g
These were questions with which all st. Pc
tcrsburg was agitatcd. while the rest OF Europe
was profoundly ignorant of the imperillcd
circumstances of the imperial potontate, and
only referred to him as a still stalwart man,
driving along in his drosky, reviewing his
battaons. inspecting his arsenals, reading
the dispatches of Menschikof, or in eager
council with Nessclrodc and Dolgorouki.
The hcaye of public feeling in the capital,
from the hopeful to the opposite solution Of
the problem and back again, was over when
the next morning dawncd. That very night
his thoughts persisted thoughts of arms and
armies, fleets and cannon, batteries and bat
ties, camps and sicses, diplomacy and proto-
coils; and the mighty lord of q territory
stretching from tho shores of the Arctic ocean
TO the southern slopes of the Caucasus, from
the barren rocks of Kamschatka to the sandy
coasts of the Baltic, lay upon a couch. as in
different to empire as the thick-ribbed ice
which then mantled the surface of the Neva
With storm-likc rapidly, the sentence ad-
dressed to the great ones of the earth. aye
shall die like men," was executed in the case
of Nicholas, for he was a helpless corpse
when the cabinets of the west were eIfgrosscd
with him as an active enemy, the vigilant and
unwearied ruler of all the Russians.
The Cars where are they Previous to the
foundation OF st. Petersburg, their bones were
laid in the Arkangeiski SAILOR, the church of
the archangcd Michael at Moscow. This is
rude barbaric building on the height of the
Krcmlin, remarkable only for its dark inter-
ior, the small windows scarcely admitting
sufficient light to reveal its sepulchral monu-
mens and bcdizcncd shrincs Men offulious
passions and evil deeds lie beneath its pave
ment, to some of whom the blackncss of dark
ness is appropriate. Portraits of the Cars,
large as life, are painted in fresco on the walls
Each appears wrapped in white mantle,
placed by his own tomb, as if watching it,
They are wholly without artistic merit. and
arc not likcnesses having been apparently
copied from a common pattern. The tombs
are mere heaps of whitencd brick-work, with
inscriptions in the following style: I'm the
year of the world 1902, and in the year after
Christ 1884, in the month of March, on the
10Th day, departed the orthodox and Christ
loving lord, the lord Car and grand duke
Feodore, the son of John, ruler and general of
all the Russians" In small chapel near
the altar, Ivan the terrible and his son, the
murderer and the murdered are side by side,
as if nothing in life but love had passed be-
tween them. VANS iron pointed staff, with
w hich he struck the fatal blow, and once
pinned to the ground the foot Of an unhappy