Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-02
TERRIBLE EYES.
Wonderful Power in she Gaze of Rich.
 elieu And Emperor Nicholas.

elteu And Emperor Ntch01a@s [The Gentleman's Magazine.l Two men possessed eyes whose cold glance
 seemed to read the scheme of any opponent from their inception to their completion, and whose recollection haunted those on whom they had been turned for years afterward- as in Zach case contemporary witness have left on record-eyen when no result of any injurious character followed. One of these was Richelieu. Probably no man ever ruled 8 kingdom more despoticslly yet, on the
 whole, more successfully when surrounded from first to last by multitude of enemies perennially increasing, yet in every case foiled by the minister's giant intellect. Yet very much of this success was due to the idea that Riche1ieu knew far more than he actually did of the conspiracies of his foes, ! and that, therefore, it was useless to plot against him beyond a certain point. Certain it is that when he entered the 1 council room and gazed with full, cold, fixed glance on the most astute plotter who was there for examination, the most hardened torture chamber had no terrors, covered un- der the silent scrutiny, and ultimately poured forth 8 full confession under the idea that great part, if not all, was already known and did so simply under the mes- merle power of those much feared eyes of the cardinal.
 To have been under the hostile gaze, no word or sign added, of Richelieu was to se- cure 8 memory which for years after gave
 the possessor of it, however changed the
 scene and circumstances might be, a thrill
 of most unpleasant personal fear. And
 very analogous case within the memories of
 our own time can be adduced. It is that of
 a man who certainly, as far as personal ad-
 vantages went, was every inch king. With
 Herculean frame and inherited beauty of
 manly features, he had that dignity which,
 as was noticed by another royal hand seemed
 to spring from the sense of unlimited power,
 which the same observer mentions as par
 ticularly characteristic of the large, full
 eyes. It is of those eyes that we have more to add.
 Not did they imply long experience of
 unlimited sovereignty, but they spoke in
 tones ot terror to all those on whom they
 were bent ia anger. For those who were in-
 innate with the ways of the Russian court
 have unanimously recorded how much of in-
 huence in the shape of absolute fear there
 was in the eyes of the Emperor Nicholas. He
 looked at eulprits or suspected culprits with
 his slow stare of anger. and the unhappy
 wretches felt, in very different sense from that in which the phrase was originally used,
 "under the wand Of the enchanter." But,
 large aS were tu0 CLar s 6y0S-Luo ISOluAuOu
 inheritance from their beautiful, statuesque
 German aucestress-there was no brilliant
 or sparkling glance of ire when they were di-
 rected toward an offender.
 On the contrary, those who have had most
 experience of them describe them as being
 dull, cold, almost fish like in aspect. Stolid
 as the gaze was, none recorded in history
 ever produced more terrorizing effect on it's
 objects. In many cases where there was any
 real ground of offense the person at whom
 the czar in his accustomed silent fashion was
 looking frequently, did not wait to be inter-
 rogated, sometimes was hardly suspected, but,
 like the victim of Richelieu, as just men, tioned, poured forth full confession under the gaze of the phlegmatic sovereign. Thus, in both the case of Richelieu and Nicholas, the influence of fear in their eyes was more subjective than objective, and operated by the potency of strong minds over weak ones not so much from any active aspect of an- ger at that particular time.