Page 734 - the-idiot

into the secrecy of the great man’s private room. At nights I
have heard the groans and wailings of this ‘giant in distress.’
He could feel no shame in weeping before such a mere child
as I was, though I understood even then that the reason for
his suffering was the silence of the Emperor Alexander.’
‘Yes, of course; he had written letters to the latter with
proposals of peace, had he not?’ put in the prince.
‘We did not know the details of his proposals, but he
wrote letter after letter, all day and every day. He was dread-
fully agitated. Sometimes at night I would throw myself
upon his breast with tears (Oh, how I loved that man!). ‘Ask
forgiveness, Oh, ask forgiveness of the Emperor Alexan-
der!’ I would cry. I should have said, of course, ‘Make peace
with Alexander,’ but as a child I expressed my idea in the
naive way recorded. ‘Oh, my child,’ he would say (he loved
to talk to me and seemed to forget my tender years), ‘Oh,
my child, I am ready to kiss Alexander’s feet, but I hate and
abominate the King of Prussia and the Austrian Emperor,
and—and—but you know nothing of politics, my child.’
He would pull up, remembering whom he was speaking to,
but his eyes would sparkle for a long while after this. Well
now, if I were to describe all this, and I have seen greater
events than these, all these critical gentlemen of the press
and political parties—Oh, no thanks! I’m their very hum-
ble servant, but no thanks!’
‘Quite so—parties—you are very right,’ said the prince. ‘I
was reading a book about Napoleon and the Waterloo cam-
paign only the other day, by Charasse, in which the author
does not attempt to conceal his joy at Napoleon’s discom-