The news that Nicholas I, who had been weighing on liberals and reformists for nearly thirty years, was about to die was naturally overwhelming. You can imagine how many liberals and reformists would be like old Igor after learning this news.
Ready to move.
This kind of impatience is understandable, but it is unacceptable to Count Rostovtsev. After working hard for thirty years until today, he will definitely not allow the impatience of some uncool people to ruin his good deeds.
.
So how to deal with these stupid and bad behaviors?
Count Rostovtsev believes that the only way is to be tougher and stick to his point of view without making any concessions. If necessary, he can kill as a warning to others!
He only cares about the overall situation. Anyway, many people have died in Russia because of reforms, and more deaths are acceptable. If the death of a small number of people can control the overall situation, he is willing to bear this price.
This is the reason why he treats old friends like old Igor toughly. He knows that the more critical the moment, the more he must stand firm and must not be implicated by a bunch of pig teammates. After all, the Decembrists
The lesson is there!
Sure enough, his toughness worked. Old Igor's attitude softened after he found out that he was out of luck. Probably old Igor also knew that if he didn't follow Count Rostovtsev's plan, what he wanted would be
Seizing power is simply impossible.
The most important thing now is to seize power. As long as the tyranny of Nicholas I can be destroyed, there is hope. Otherwise, everything is empty talk.
"Okay, you win!" Old Igor sighed and said sadly: "The issue of profit distribution can be discussed later, but you must tell me now what to do next!"
Count Rostovtsev looked at him coldly, and after making sure that old Igor was honest, he replied: "You don't need anything now, just wait quietly. The man is not dead yet. Taking action at this time is tantamount to committing suicide."
Take destruction!”
Old Igor frowned and said, "Just waiting? Isn't this too passive?"
Count Rostovtsev took a breath and replied solemnly: "Believe me, I have been observing that man for almost thirty years, and all his actions cannot be hidden from my eyes. Now is the most dangerous time. No move is worse than this." Be quiet!"
Old Igor opened his mouth but said nothing in the end, because he knew Count Rostovtsev's temper, and he would not speak if he didn't want to say that you put a gun to his head.
But his curiosity couldn't be contained, and finally he couldn't help but quietly asked: "What arrangements do you think that guy will make?"
Count Rostovtsev snorted contemptuously: "Now he is probably telling Crown Prince Alexander in the royal study room of the Winter Palace that in order to rule this country with an iron fist, we must firmly grasp the power, especially the army, absolutely
No dissenters will be tolerated."
Old Igor snorted. This seemed to be the style of Nicholas I. He was a control freak who would never relax his authority until his death, nor would he give up his suffocating rule.
"Then what?" he continued.
"Then?" Count Rostovtsev snorted and replied with narrowed eyes: "Then he will let Crown Prince Alexander go out and say goodbye to his family one by one..."
Old Igor was stunned, because he felt that with Nicholas I's personality, at the last and most critical moment, he had to teach a few more words, otherwise the crown prince might not be able to secure that position with his weak personality.
.
When he was alive, didn't he always take the trouble to teach Crown Prince Alexander a lesson when he got the chance? Why did he let go at the critical moment?
But Count Rostovtsev was right. The situation in the Winter Palace was almost exactly the same as what he described. After the increasingly weak Nicholas I sent away Crown Prince Alexander, he immediately called his queen and others.
Family members, he blessed these people one by one, took the hand of his favorite daughter-in-law Martha and said to the queen: "Take good care of Martha, let her become a good wife and a good queen like you!"
After blessing everyone, he stared at everyone and said: "Remember what I always say: be friends!"
At this time, Nicholas I had almost run out of oil lamp, and at this time the queen with tears in her eyes walked gently to his side and whispered: "Arya Baranova, Ikotrina Zengaosen
, and Flinka Nelidovna..."
Empress Alexandra almost mentioned the names of all the female officials in the Winter Palace, and most of them were actually the confidante of Nicholas I.
"They all want to say goodbye to you..."
Nicholas I took a deep breath, then opened his lips with difficulty and replied: "No, dear, I will not see them again, tell them that I ask for their forgiveness, I pray for them... tell them
, please pray for me.”
After saying this, Nicholas I seemed to have exhausted all his energy. He lay on the camp bed with a grin on his face, breathing heavily. After a while, he said to Queen Alexandra: "Dear, please
Leave me alone for a while to prepare myself for the final moments!"
After learning that Nicholas I would not see any outsiders, his confidantes began to feel anxious. Years later, the maid Anna Tyucheva recalled that many mistresses were walking uneasily in the palace corridors,
They were either mourning or panicking. Vlinka Nelidovna clenched her fists and kept waving her hands, muttering in a low voice: "What a beautiful night! What a beautiful night!"
This poor woman was so confused that she probably didn't even know what she was talking about.
In the imperial study, Nicholas I gasped loudly and impatiently asked Dr. Mantle: "Will this annoying music continue for a long time?"
Mante lowered his head and told him it wouldn't take long.
The priests began to use crosses to bless the tsar who had been hammered to death. After the fellowship, Nicholas I raised his hand with difficulty, made a sign of the cross and said to the roof: "Lord! Accept me calmly!" After that, he spoke loudly.
Breathing heavily, he said to Queen Alexandra for the last time: "From the moment I saw you until the last moment, you have been my guardian angel!"
After saying that, his hands dropped down from the bed, and his heavy breathing came to an end. This conservative and reactionary tsar who had ruled Russia for nearly thirty years finally died.
Although he has gained eternal peace, the mess he left behind is troublesome. For Alexander II, who was not mentally prepared at all, he felt that everything was so sudden and strange, and he was at a loss...