“How glad I am that it was only a dream,” was his first thought.  But when he began to recollect what he had seen in his dream, and to compare it with actuality, he realised that the problem propounded to him in dream remained just as important and as insoluble now that he was awake.  For the first time the young Tsar became aware of the heavy responsibility weighing on him, and was aghast.  His thoughts no longer turned to the young Queen and to the happiness he had anticipated for that evening, but became centred on the unanswerable question which hung over him:  “What was to be done?”

In a state of great agitation he arose and went into the next room.  An old courtier, a co-worker and friend of his father’s, was standing there in the middle of the room in conversation with the young Queen, who was on her way to join her husband.  The young Tsar approached them, and addressing his conversation principally to the old courtier, told him what he had seen in his dream and what doubts the dream had left in his mind.

“That is a noble idea.  It proves the rare nobility of your spirit,” said the old man.  “But forgive me for speaking frankly—­you are too kind to be an emperor, and you exaggerate your responsibility.  In the first place, the state of things is not as you imagine it to be.  The people are not poor.  They are well-to-do.  Those who are poor are poor through their own fault.  Only the guilty are punished, and if an unavoidable mistake does sometimes occur, it is like a thunderbolt—­an accident, or the will of God.  You have but one responsibility:  to fulfil your task courageously and to retain the power that is given to you.  You wish the best for your people and God sees that.  As for the errors which you have committed unwittingly, you can pray for forgiveness, and God will guide you and pardon you.  All the more because you have done nothing that demands forgiveness, and there never have been and never will be men possessed of such extraordinary qualities as you and your father.  Therefore all we implore you to do is to live, and to reward our endless devotion and love with your favour, and every one, save scoundrels who deserve no happiness, will be happy.”

“What do you think about that?” the young Tsar asked his wife.

“I have a different opinion,” said the clever young woman, who had been brought up in a free country.  “I am glad you had that dream, and I agree with you that there are grave responsibilities resting upon you.  I have often thought about it with great anxiety, and I think there is a simple means of casting off a part of the responsibility you are unable to bear, if not all of it.  A large proportion of the power which is too heavy for you, you should delegate to the people, to its representatives, reserving for yourself only the supreme control, that is, the general direction of the affairs of State.”

The Queen had hardly ceased to expound her views, when the old courtier began eagerly to refute her arguments, and they started a polite but very heated discussion.