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472
REVOLUTION [chap. xxiv.
Rodzianko presided, with fine gestures, over the civil
burial of the noble victims of the splendid March days—
an imposing and brilliant apotheosis of this unique
Revolution, in which the people displayed truly
admirable moderation, discipline and mildness.
A Monarchist or counter-revolutionary current ? No,
that did not exist; that had never existed. A few
reactionaries still considered dangerous and the members
of the last Government, it is true, were arrested and took
the place in the cells of the Peter and Paul fortress of
the martyrs to liberty triumphantly set free. But even
these reactionaries and these fallen Ministers were in no
way opposed to the new principles; from their prison
they appealed to the Provisional Government and to the
Press, assuring them that they had always been friends
to liberty, that all that had happened was but a
misunderstanding and that they were prepared to serve the
people with the same devotion with which they had
formerly served the Monarch. In short every one was
of one mind, every one rejoiced, every one fraternised,
and what is more, amongst a large majority these
sentiments—at first anyhow—were absolutely genuine. And
this frame of mind spread to foreign parts and returned
thence enlarged and developed to increase Russian
enthusiasm still more.
The fakir having shut up a child in his basket had
stabbed it repeatedly through the wicker-work with a
sword; piercing shrieks had been heard and streams of
blood seen ; and when the magician opened the basket it
was full of roses. Innumerable white mice, coming out
of the operator’s hand, mounted an upright pole in a
spiral curve and disappeared one by one into the blue
sky. Finally a silken ladder, thrown with a skilful
movement, suspended itself in the air and the fakir
ascended it—immaterialised and triumphant!
We existed in Stockholm for a fortnight under the
spell of these admirable illusions. But gradually, alas !
the deceptive vapour began to disperse and things
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