you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the King hearkened not unto the people.... So when all Israel saw that the King hearkened not unto them, the people answered the King, saying, What portion have we in David?... To your tents, O Israel.... So Israel departed unto their tents.... Therefore King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against the house of David.’ “That is the whole history of the reign of Nicholas II., and it is the history of many other reigns also. There are no new elements in history. History is a kaleidoscope containing a limited number of bits of many-coloured glass, which, by being perpetually shaken, form patterns which recur, and combinations which seem new, but which in reality have been before and will be again. That is why the people who are snubbed for saying the revolutionary movement in Russia resembles the French Revolution are not so far wrong, because the same causes produce the same effects, and the situations, though superficially widely different, are alike in their essentials. Well, what is it you want to talk to me about?” “I want to know what you think of the present situation,” I answered. “Providence,” said Dimitri Nikolaievitch, “has been kind to the Government in vouchsafing them a foreign loan, in spite of the German Emperor’s disapproval.” “Do you think that the bitterness it has created among the parties of the Left is a serious matter?” I interrupted.