“Suppose he fail to do it--” Instead of finishing his sentence, Emile heaved a long and bitter sigh, flung the ashes out of his pipe, sat up, and gazed sadly into the fire. Presently he resumed: “The iniquities of Alexander are twofold. He has not, as yet, bestowed upon Russia a perfect liberal constitution, as new and as faultless as a louis d’or fresh from the mint; and he has used, and is using, his enormous influence to repress in other countries the party of progress,--or of revolution, which you will,--such as the insurgents of Spain and the Carbonari of Italy. He even hesitates to assist the Greeks, who, by the way, seem really to deserve assistance and compassion.” “Ah,” cried Ivan with excitement, “there indeed the Czar’s perplexity is great. Every true Russian longs to trample in the dust that abominable Ottoman tyranny--cruel, cowardly, treacherous as it is--and to deliver our suffering fellow-Christians, from whom there is going up daily to the throne of God ‘the cry of the oppressed that have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter.’ Need I tell you that the first of Russians longs for it more than any of his subjects? But hitherto it could only have been done at the price of another European war. And even then it might have been done in vain.” “Why so?” asked Emile. “Because unless the Czar had a fleet in readiness to support his army, every Christian in Greece might be massacred before our troops could reach Constantinople.” “His position is a difficult one,” said Emile.