It is said that this execrated personality had not enough imagination to be aware of the hate he inspired.  It is hardly credible; but it is a fact that he took very few precautions for his safety.  In the preamble of a certain famous State paper he had declared once that “the thought of liberty has never existed in the Act of the Creator.  From the multitude of men’s counsel nothing could come but revolt and disorder; and revolt and disorder in a world created for obedience and stability is sin.  It was not Reason but Authority which expressed the Divine Intention.  God was the Autocrat of the Universe....”  It may be that the man who made this declaration believed that heaven itself was bound to protect him in his remorseless defence of Autocracy on this earth.

No doubt the vigilance of the police saved him many times; but, as a matter of fact, when his appointed fate overtook him, the competent authorities could not have given him any warning.  They had no knowledge of any conspiracy against the Minister’s life, had no hint of any plot through their usual channels of information, had seen no signs, were aware of no suspicious movements or dangerous persons.

Mr. de P—–­ was being driven towards the railway station in a two-horse uncovered sleigh with footman and coachman on the box.  Snow had been falling all night, making the roadway, uncleared as yet at this early hour, very heavy for the horses.  It was still falling thickly.  But the sleigh must have been observed and marked down.  As it drew over to the left before taking a turn, the footman noticed a peasant walking slowly on the edge of the pavement with his hands in the pockets of his sheepskin coat and his shoulders hunched up to his ears under the falling snow.  On being overtaken this peasant suddenly faced about and swung his arm.  In an instant there was a terrible shock, a detonation muffled in the multitude of snowflakes; both horses lay dead and mangled on the ground and the coachman, with a shrill cry, had fallen off the box mortally wounded.  The footman (who survived) had no time to see the face of the man in the sheepskin coat.  After throwing the bomb this last got away, but it is supposed that, seeing a lot of people surging up on all sides of him in the falling snow, and all running towards the scene of the explosion, he thought it safer to turn back with them.

In an incredibly short time an excited crowd assembled round the sledge.  The Minister-President, getting out unhurt into the deep snow, stood near the groaning coachman and addressed the people repeatedly in his weak, colourless voice:  “I beg of you to keep off:  For the love of God, I beg of you good people to keep off.”