THE EMPEKOK NICHOLAS. 59 CHAPTER III. THE EMPEROK NICHOLAS. Although the little discomfiture thus sustained chap. by the Paissians was only one of the kind that IIL soldiers call a 'repulse/ the Czar Nicholas still J h f . Czar ' 8 x reelings felt it acutely as another of the humbling blows after i»s dis- •' ° comfiture dealt him by those very Turks whom he had {^ r f ° a r ? Eupa " loved to imagine less warlike than his own high- ly disciplined troops. By relieving Prince Ment- hismness. schikoff of the command he perhaps found some vent for his feelings, yet could not allay his anguish, and — continuing to grieve — he fell ill. Weeks after, the voices of Eumour grew busy subsequent with more tragic versions of what at this time had been happening; but the Palace account after all seemed for once better worthy of cred- ence than the whispered assurances ; and at least one may say that it harmonised with what we know of the facts. Grief perhaps may have rarely killed men by Power of , . 11-1 grief over direct and summary means, but at least it can do the body, piteous harm to a human body, whilst also it can weaken the springs by which Nature, if not thus
