I had at last the pleasure of seeing that monarch, equally absolute by law and custom, and so moderate from his own disposition.  The empress Elizabeth, to whom I was at first presented, appeared to me the tutelary angel of Russia.  Her manners are extremely reserved, but what she says is full of life, and it is from the focus of all generous ideas that her sentiments and opinions have derived strength and warmth.  While I listened to her, I was affected by something inexpressible, which did not proceed from her grandeur, but from the harmony of her soul; so long was it since I had known an instance of concord between power and virtue.  As I was conversing with the empress, the door opened, and the emperor Alexander did me the honor to come and talk to me.  What first struck me in him was such an expression of goodness and dignity, that the two qualities appear inseparable, and in him to form only one.  I was also very much affected with the noble simplicity with which he entered upon the great interests of Europe, almost among the first words he addressed to me.  I have always regarded, as a proof of mediocrity, that apprehension of treating serious questions, with which the best part of the sovereigns of Europe have been inspired; they are afraid to pronounce a word to which any real meaning can be attached.  The emperor Alexander on the contrary, conversed with me as statesmen in England would have done, who place their strength in themselves, and not in the barriers with which they are surrounded.  The emperor Alexander, whom Napoleon has endeavoured to misrepresent, is a man of remarkable understanding and information, and I do not believe that in the whole extent of his empire he could find a minister better versed than himself in all that belongs to the judgment and direction of public affairs.  He did not disguise from me his regret for the admiration to which he had surrendered himself in his intercourse with Napoleon.  His grandfather had, in the same way, entertained a great enthusiasm for Frederic II.  In these sort of illusions, produced by an extraordinary character, there is always a generous motive, whatever may be the errors that result from it.  The emperor Alexander, however, described with great sagacity the effect produced upon him by these conversations with Bonaparte, in which he said the most opposite things, as if one must be astonished at each, without thinking of their being contradictory.  He related to me also the lessons a la Machiavel which Napoleon had thought proper to give him:  “You see,” said he, “I am careful to keep my ministers and generals at variance among themselves, in order that each may reveal to me the faults of the other; I keep up around me a continual jealousy by the manner I treat those who are about me:  one day one thinks himself the favorite, the next day another, so that no one is ever certain of my favor.”  What a vulgar and vicious theory!  And will there never arise a man superior to this man, who will demonstrate