Here it is necessary I should mention all the difficulties of Nesselrode's situation. Nothing could be more changeable and more prone to sudden impressions than the mind of Alexander, who passed from one enthusiastic fancy to another with inconceivable rapidity; when he had taken up one idea it was difficult to put it out of his head; and if you followed in the same track, some time afterwards he would meet with some other fancy, which he adopted with equal warmth. We may, therefore, imagine how difficult was the part of a secretary of state desirous of giving some consistency to these projects, of classing them in a certain order, and of producing any result from them all. From the close of 1813, Alexander had been deeply imbued with the mysticism of Madame Krüdner, and he mingled with his manifestoes on the principles of Europe, and his theories of peace and war, a species of ascetic worship and enthusiastic superstition very difficult to translate or apply to the real business of life, and of which the ultimate object was not always understood by powers like England and Austria. At the congress of Vienna they had to treat of serious affairs, and it was necessary to give a positive meaning to the vague conceptions of Alexander, and translate theories into treaties. Poland was occupied by a Russian army, and the diplomatists of the old Muscovite school, in hopes this occupation would become permanent, pressed the annexation of Poland to Russia, without a constitution or any free state privileges. Alexander, who was desirous of wearing the crown of Poland, was entirely opposed to these demands, and wanted to collect the ruins of that kingdom into one system of political organisation; and Count Nesselrode faithfully executed this idea of his sovereign at the congress of Vienna. The question of Poland was his sole anxiety, as the integrality of Saxony and the restoration of the House of Bourbon at Naples was the exclusive thought of Prince Talleyrand.