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igi 6]
PROPHETIC VERSES
423
Tel m’apparait le Tsar Theodore:
Un lieu saint mais pas sur. • . . Dans son ame
Qui ne sait distinguer l’ami de l’ennemi,
Habitent l’amour, la bont£ et la pri£re ;
Un doux son de cloches semble y retentir. . . .
Mais k quoi bon toute cette bontd et toute cette saintete,
Lorsque ni l’empire ni ses serviteurs n’y trouvent un ferme appui ? "
It is in these terms that Alexis Tolstoy in one of his
historic dramas has described, through the lips of Boris
Godunoff, the character of the Tsar Theodore,1 the
pious and timid son of John the Terrible. These verses
appeared in 1868, the very year in which the future
Emperor, Nicolas II., was born, and it is as if the poet—
the Vates as Victor Hugo would have said—had seen
before him the image of the most indulgent, the most
mystical, the weakest and the most unfortunate of the
Sovereigns of the tragic dynasty of the Romanoffs. And
yet it is this Sovereign who clung so firmly to his
autocracy; it is he who considered it a crime against
history and against his people to renounce his empty
privileges of omnipotence and who intended to hand
these down in their original integrit}’ to this same
adored son!
In June, 1916, the offensive in Galicia was begun,
commanded by General Brussiloff, and the heroic—and
1 <l The Tsar Theodore Joannovitch," the second part of the well-known
trilogy. Count Alexis Tolstoy, lyrical poet, who was rather popular in
Russia, must not be confused with his cousin the famous Count Leo
Tolstoy.
" There are some limpid lakes in our dense dark forests, covered
with green reeds and flowers near their banks ; but these reeds and these
flowers mask bottomless swamps which swallow up the imprudent
shepherd and his sheep. People say that these lakes conceal churches
(which Divine Pity wished to shield from merciless hordes), and on clear
and calm evenings a sound of bells echoes from their depths, and sacred
canticles. Such, meseems, is the Tsar Theodore : a holy shrine but not
sure. ... In his soul, which cannot tell friend from foe, dwell love,
goodness and prayer ; a sweet sound of bells seems to echo there. But
what avails all this goodness and all this holiness if neither Empire nor
servants find in them a firm stay ?"
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