“There is no doubt he used for the purpose,” Henri continued, “that strain of hereditary melancholy which flows through the life-current of his race, and which might--might have--God dealt tenderly with him, after all, though it is hard to see it now.” After a long pause he resumed: “Even when he walked in darkness and had no light he ceased not to trust in the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God. In the darkest hours his word was his comfort; and those who feared his name, however poor or lowly, were the men he delighted to honour. You remember doubtless, before you left St. Petersburg, the visit of those noble-hearted philanthropists, Grellet and Allen; and you may have heard of their interview with the Emperor;--how the three, the great monarch and the two obscure travellers, knelt side by side, and poured out their full hearts to God, feeling themselves truly one in that love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Allen saw him once more, at Verona, when the shadows of the grave had already begun to deepen over him. Finding him weary and oppressed with work, the Englishman spoke of mental prayer, and said that even in the midst of engrossing occupations a man might lift up his heart to God. ‘It is my constant practice, and I know not what I should do without it,’ was Alexander’s answer. To an appeal made to him by the same friend on behalf of the suffering and indigent Waldenses, he responded with a prompt and sympathetic munificence which evidently had its root in the sense that they were his brethren in Christ Jesus. “The last year of his life was marked by peculiar sorrows. A terrible inundation of the Neva destroyed a great part of St. Petersburg, and brought death and desolation to thousands of families. While the inundation continued, he spared no effort to rescue the perishing; and for weeks afterwards he went every day to the homes of those who had lost their relatives, relieving their necessities, and speaking words of hope and comfort about the ‘city which cannot be moved.’ Then another and a deeper sorrow came to him--but of that I will not speak.”[84] Here the child’s clear voice broke in. “Oh, father,” he asked wondering, “why did not God comfort him?”