The conclusion of this conflict was quickly followed by a patriotic outbreak of the people of Poland, who bitterly resented the loss of their ancient liberty and the tyranny to which they were subjected. A conspiracy was formed and an insurrection began on September 29, 1830. An attempt was made to seize the Grand Duke Constantine, whose brutal measures had provoked the revolt, and many Russians were slain in the streets of Warsaw. The Poles raised an army of 90,000 men. The Russians invaded their country with 120,000. Several bloody battles were fought, with varied success, but in August, 1831, a Russian army marched on Warsaw, which, after a heroic defense, was forced to surrender on the 7th of September. The result of this war was to take from Poland what few vestiges of its old freedom it retained. Its flag of the white eagle, which had flown over so many victories, was abolished. Its army was incorporated with that of Russia. Its higher schools were suppressed, its rich libraries carried off to St. Petersburg, and, finally, the constitution granted by Alexander I was taken from it and Poland declared a Russian province. Such was the way of Nicholas in dealing with Polish patriotism.

In 1846 the Poles were again in arms. The independence of Cracow and its small territory had been guaranteed by treaty, but Nicholas did not hesitate to march troops into the city to suppress an insurrection that had broken out against Austria. The insurgents were soon put down by their two great enemies, and the Russian troops were withdrawn, leaving Austria free to annex the dominion of Cracow and put an end to this last remnant of the once great kingdom of Poland.

A much more threatening outbreak of the peoples of Eastern Europe was that of the Hungarians against Austria in 1849, as one of the consequences of the French revolution. of 1848. Hotly pressed by the Magyars of Hungary, the

Austrian Emperor appealed to his brother of Russia for aid, and Nicholas responded by sending into Hungary an army nearly 200,000 strong. Brave and ably led as were the Hungarians, they could not long make head against Russia and Austria combined, and despotism triumphed over their unhappy land, the end of the war being followed by a display of brutality and cruelty on the part of Austria that excited the indignation of Europe.

These military movements in the West were matched by others of greater moment to Russia in the East. While the war of 1828 with Turkey was going on Russian troops were sent into the mountain land of the Caucasus, between the Black and Caspian Seas, and a vigorous invasion of Asiatic Turkey was made by this route. With a force of 12,000 men General Paskevitch captured in four days the strong fortress of Kars, which had long defied all its foes. Then, leading his men over mountains deemed impassable, the Russian general attacked the highland fortress of Akhalzikh, in the heart of Circassia.

The siege of this stronghold continued for three weeks, at the end of which time the supplies of the Russians were exhausted, and it became necessary to abandon the siege or attempt to take the place by storm, with the danger of utter destruction by the hostile army, five times their strength.

Paskevitch had the courage to attempt the latter course. On the 26th of August, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the storming column, led by Colonel Borodin, commenced the assault, and after incredible resistance forced its way into the town. Here a desperate struggle awaited them. It was necessary to carry by storm each house in succession, and every step in advance was dearly bought. The battle lasted all night in the midst of a conflagration, which extended over the whole city. Several times fortune seemed to favor the enemy, who were very numerous. The Russian commander,

however, skilfully kept back the weakest of his columns, sent regiment after regiment into the engagement, and was eventually victorious. On the morning of the 28th of August the flag of St. George waved over the fortress of Akhalzikh, and Russia had won a powerful centre of operations in the Asiatic district of Georgia.

The bold mountaineers of Circassia, however, who had maintained their independence from time immemorial, were not so easily subdued. During a great part of the reign of Nicholas a persistent effort on the part of Russia to conquer this brave people was made. Schamyl, the hero of the Caucasus, defended his native land with a courage and skill which won the admiration of the world, and for many years defied all the power of Russia. At length the policy was adopted of surrounding the district which he occupied with strong outposts, and gradually drawing the cordon tighter. This new system of tactics, beginning in 1844, was continued for fifteen years, during which Schamyl brilliantly kept up the defiance of Russia. Eventually he was forced to yield, and the liberty of his country came to an end, thousands of the Mohammedan Circassians emigrating to Turkey, rather than submit to their

hated invaders.

To the greatest struggle of the reign of Nicholas I., the Crimean war against the allied powers of Turkey, England, and France, we have devoted a separate chapter, and need merely mention it here as the last military event of his warlike career. He died on February 18, 1855, feeling the bitterness of defeat, and leaving the closing of the unsuccessful war to his son Alexander, on whom he is said to have laid two injunctions-to liberate the serfs, and never to grant a constitution to Poland.

Alexander II, the new Czar, was a very different character from his father. In him the stern, despotic temper of Nicholas was replaced by a milder disposition and more liberal