The Russian Empire was at this time on the verge of one of those periodical insurrections to which she had long been subject, more especially since the final partition and absorption of Poland, and the annihilation of the Polish monarchy. In 1825, Nicholas I. succeeded his elder brother Alexander on the throne of Russia. He had not long been installed there before he gave evidence of that aggressive policy which he pursued through life, and which nearly thirty years later involved him in the Crimean War. Some years before his accession, his elder brother Constantine, the heir-apparent to the throne, had been entrusted with the military government of Poland, and in 1822 had resigned his right to the Russian throne in Nicholas's favour. Upon the latter's accession he continued his elder brother in his sovereignty of Poland. Constantine's administration of affairs in that unhappy country was arbitrary and despotic in the extreme, and little calculated to mollify the heartburnings of the inhabitants. His oppressions were not confined to the serfs, but extended to the nobility. The result of his tyranny was the formation of secret societies with a view to striking one more blow for Polish liberty. A widespread insurrection, wherein most of the Polish officers in the Imperial army were involved, finally broke out in 1830--the year in which the subject of this sketch received his commission. The success of the concurrent revolution in France, and the forced abdication of Charles X., inspired the insurgents with high hopes. In November of the year last mentioned the Grand Duke Constantine and his Russian adherents were driven out of Warsaw, the Polish capital. If the insurrectionary forces had been thoroughly organized, and if they had not been subjected to extraneous interference, there is reason for believing that their country might have been freed from the hateful domination of the Czar. Notwithstanding all the manifold disabilities under which they carried on the contest, they achieved a temporary success. After the expulsion of Constantine, a provisional government was formed under the presidency of Prince Czartoryski, and a series of desperate engagements was fought in which the patriots had in almost every instance a decided advantage. Their desperate courage and self-devotion, however, were of no permanent avail, for Prussia and Austria both lent their assistance to crush them, and towards the close of 1831 Warsaw was recaptured by the allied forces under Count Paskevitch, who was forthwith installed as viceroy of Poland. The crushing of the insurrection was of course marked by merciless severity and cruelty. In 1832 Poland was declared to be an integral part of the Russian Empire, and all the important prisoners were either put to death, banished to Siberia, or compelled to endure the horrors of a Russian prison.