The
enthusiasm ran so high that the idea was conceived to unhitch the horses
from his coach and carry him in his carriage. This, as Rostopchine tells
us, was the intention not only of the common people but of many
distinguished ones also, even of such as wore decorations. The emperor, to
avoid such exaggerated manifestations, was obliged to arrange for his entry
during the night. On the next morning when the Tzar, according to the old
custom, showed himself to his people on the red stairs, the hurrahs, the
shouts of the multitude drowned the sounds of the bells of the forty times
forty churches which were ringing in the city. At every step, thousands of
hands tried to touch the limbs of the sovereign or the flap of his uniform
which they kissed and wet with their tears.
"I learned during the night," writes Rostopchine, "and it was confirmed in
the morning, that there were some persons who had united to ask the emperor
how many troops we had, how many the enemy, and what were the means of
defense. This would have been a bold and, under the present circumstances,
a dangerous undertaking, although I hardly feared that these people would
venture to do so, because they were of those who are brave in private and
poltroons in public.
"At any rate, I had said repeatedly and before everybody that I hoped to
offer the emperor the spectacle of an assembly of a faithful and respectful
nobility, and that I should be in despair if some malevolent person should
permit himself to create disorder and forget the presence of the
sovereign.
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