For a time the young Tsar followed their arguments, but presently he ceased to be aware of what they said, listening only to the voice of him who had been his guide in the dream, and who was now speaking audibly in his heart.

“You are not only the Tsar,” said the voice, “but more.  You are a human being, who only yesterday came into this world, and will perchance to-morrow depart out of it.  Apart from your duties as a Tsar, of which that old man is now speaking, you have more immediate duties not by any means to be disregarded; human duties, not the duties of a Tsar towards his subjects, which are only accidental, but an eternal duty, the duty of a man in his relation to God, the duty toward your own soul, which is to save it, and also, to serve God in establishing his kingdom on earth.  You are not to be guarded in your actions either by what has been or what will be, but only by what it is your own duty to do.”

*****

He opened his eyes—­his wife was awakening him.  Which of the three courses the young Tsar chose, will be told in fifty years.