Rumours have been afloat all the week that the Czar
is very ill,—sinleing, in fact, into such a condition of melan- choly that he can do no work, and allows the Grand Duke Michael, his uncle, to sign " supreme " orders for him. As melancholy is the hereditary curse of the Romanoffs, some credence was given to this story, but there does not appear to be any solid foundation for it. The Czar is delicate, and jest now most anxious about his chance of a male heir, but he is not ill. Indeed, it is even said that the rumours are deliberately spread abroad by enemies in his own house- hold, who fear that the birth of a son may terminate some far-reaching plans of their own. There are always palace intrigues in an autocratic Court, and also false stories of such intrigues, but there is no evidence just now of any- thing unusual going on in St. Petersburg. The military party is sullen, and the civil party radiant because of recent events; but the Czar while he lives is above them both. Nothing is powerful in Russia except her Sovereign.
