Note 100 — Chapter 6 The Kremlin Department—Moscow University—Our Set—The Chemist—The Malov Affair—The Cholera—Filaret—V. Passek—General Lissovsky—The Sungurov Affair
Constance Garnett translation
Here is what Denis Davydov[101] tells in his Memoirs:
‘The Tsar said one day to A. P. Yermolov: “I was once in a very terrible position during the Polish War. My wife was expecting her confinement, the mutiny had broken out in Novgorod, I had only two squadrons of Horse Guards left me; the news from the army only reached me through Königsberg. I was forced to surround myself with soldiers discharged from hospital.”’
The Memoirs of this general of partisans leave no room for doubt that Nicholas, like Araktcheyev, like all cold-hearted, cruel and revengeful people, was a coward. Here is what General Tchetchensky told Davydov: ‘You know that I can appreciate manliness and so you will believe my words. I was near the Tsar on the 14th December, and I watched him all the time. I can assure you on my honour that the Tsar, who was very pale all the time, had his heart in his boots.’
And again Davydov himself tells us: ‘During the riot in the Haymarket, the Tsar only visited the capital on the second day when order was restored. The Tsar was at Peterhof, and himself observed casually, “I was standing all day with Volkonsky on a mound in the garden, listening for the sound of cannon-shot from the direction of Petersburg.” Instead of anxiously listening in the garden, and continually sending couriers to Petersburg,’ added Davydov, ‘he ought to have hastened there himself; any one of the least manliness would have done so. On the following day (when everything was quiet) the Tsar rode in his carriage into the crowd, which filled the square, and shouted to it, “On your knees!” and the crowd hurriedly obeyed the order. The Tsar, seeing several people dressed in parti-coloured clothes (among those following the carriage), imagined that they were suspicious characters, and ordered the poor wretches to be taken to the lock-up and, turning to the people, began shouting: “They are all wretched Poles, they have egged you on.” Such an ill-timed sally completely ruined the effect in my opinion.’
A strange sort of bird was this Nicholas!