Nichol, Nichol, little Czar, How I wonder where you are! You who thought it best to fly, Being so afraid to die. Now the sullen crowds are gone, Now there's nought to fire upon; Sweet your sleigh bells ring afar, Tinkle, tinkle, little Czar. Little Czar, with soul so small, How are you a Czar at all? Yours had been a happier lot In some peasant's humble cot. Yet to you was given a day With a noble part to play, As an Emperor and a Man; When it came--"then Nicky ran." Little Czar, beware the hour When the people strikes at Power; Soul and body held in thrall, They are human after all. Thrones that reek of blood and tears Fall before the avenging years. While you watch your sinking star, Tremble, tremble, little Czar! [Illustration: THE CZAR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS] The contrasted outlook in Russia and Japan is shown in "Peace and After"--gloom and storm in the one country, general rejoicing in the other. The signing of the Peace in October brought mutiny and insurrection in Russia, repressed for the moment by grape-shot and concessions. _Punch_ distrusted the former method, and warned the Tsar through the mouth of Louis XVI: "Side with the people, Sire, while there is yet time. _I_ was too late." The instalment of constitutional government granted was shorn of its grace by the antecedent display of ruthlessness. _Punch_ typified this situation in his cartoon of the Tsar armed with a sword and leaning on a cannon, with corpses strewn around, and saying: "Now I think the way is clear for universal suffrage." But _Punch_ was premature in saluting the first Duma--opened by the Tsar in person in May, 1906--as the Infant Hercules strangling the twin snakes of Bureaucracy and Despotism. It was the Duma which was strangled by these forces, of which the first was the more potent and malign. [Sidenote: _Belgium and Germany_]