It was, as I have before observed, a complete rivalry, for Count Nesselrode had entirely adopted the ideas of the European school. Since the year 1812, he had followed the political system opposed to the military principle of the French revolution, now pursued in concert by all the cabinets of Europe, whose ruling desire, from the year 1816, had been the repression of the liberal movement engendered by the resistance of the people to the conquests of Napoleon. Nesselrode perfectly agreed with Metternich on this point, and the Emperor Alexander's partiality for the liberal and Hellenic school of Capo d'Istria was a source of sorrow and vexation to them both. The difficulties they had to encounter were of a complicated nature, for religious feelings were mingled with political ideas--there was strong sympathy between the two churches of Moscow and Athens, and the patriarchs were in constant communion with each other. It was impossible openly to attack Alexander on this point; all that Nesselrode could do in opposition to Capo d'Istria, was to spread the alarm in every direction concerning the fearful progress made by the spirit of insurrection. As early as the close of 1815, the Emperor Alexander had conceived the project of the Holy Alliance--an idea resulting from the mystic and religious fancies of Madame Krüdner, but involving at bottom very positive resistance to the spirit of revolt; for the Holy Alliance was nothing more than a contract of mutual support, a sort of bond entered into by all the crowned heads against the revolutionary movement in Europe. Metternich and Nesselrode were certainly not the men for ideal transactions--there had been too much reality and matter of fact in their lives; still they saw the cabinets adopt these measures with satisfaction, as they both entertained hopes of bringing over the Emperor to their way of thinking; and, indeed, the general course of events at that time appeared to favour the common idea of Metternich and Nesselrode, for the secret societies in Germany had been greatly developed, and kept Prussia and Austria in a state of perpetual anxiety. They sent repeated despatches to St. Petersburg, and Nesselrode secretly supported the ideas of the alarmed cabinets. Thus the liberal plans advocated by Capo d'Istria met with secret opposition, and more than once the Emperor Alexander remained undecided among the various tendencies which disputed among themselves his mind, his power, and his affections.