that he was far from knowing the plans of the conspirators to the bottom-that these plans appeared to him impracticable, had scarcely attracted his attention, and that he felt himself guilty of nothing beyond inconsiderate purposes and audacious desires; but the proofs accumulated against him, or, rather, perhaps, the remorse of his conscience, at length prevailed, and he confirmed the depositions against him by a sincere and complete confession. All the other individuals who had more or less taken part in the rebellion, or dipped in the plots of the Directory of the North, denouncing each other reciprocally, soon became known to the Commission, arrested, and interrogated. Some surrendered themselves prisoners spontaneously, and among others Colonel Boulatoff. Remarkable by his singularities, and pitiable by his misfortunes, long suffering under an incurable malady, Boulatoff, who from the first had acknowledged the imprudence of the conspirators, and the illegal character of their enterprise, who had even positively refused them his assistance, and who had admired the dispositions ordered by your Majesty during the day of the 14th of December-Boulatoff, on the following day, when the most furious of the conspirators began to feel the enormity of their crime, suddenly gave himself up to a sort of rage. The thought that advantage had been taken of his name to deceive, and mislead to their ruin a regiment which loved him (that of grenadiers), and the absurd fable, spread either by levity or malevolence, that all the soldiers of this regiment who were before the Senate House would be punished with death, entirely confused his mind. "I was in this state," he says, in a letter addressed to the Grand Duke Michael," when I presented myself to the State MajorGeneral, to take the oath. My imagination was wandering, my brain on fire. I seemed to see the blood of the brothers

in arms whom I loved, running round me on every side; and while at my side they were swearing fidelity to the Emperor, I lifted my hand and kissed the cross, pronouncing the frightful vow to deprive him of life. Every man who shall see my name at the bottom of the formula of the oath, will distinguish the signature of a villain !”

Still Boulatoff was not a villain—at least he was not hardened in crime. The stormy passions which agitated him soon became calmed; he discovered the falsehood of the rumours which had deceived him; in fine he came to the palace, was admitted to the presence of your Majesty, and disarmed by the first look which your Majesty deigned to cast on him. From that day till the 29th of January in the present year, when he was carried off by a fresh attack of his old malady, Boulatoff was incessantly tormented by the recollection of his horrible design, and by the thought of the noble clemency of which he had been the object. He strove to appease his remorse by avowals entirely free-for he was subject to no examination, and in dying he confidently bequeathed the fate of his children to the monarch whom his hand was to have assassinated.

The perfect tranquillity which the firmness of your Majesty had given to the capital, was undisturbed in any other part of the empire, excepting at Vassilkoff and its environs. In the city of Moscow, the entire population of which had, with enthusiasm, taken the oath of fidelity to your Majesty, as also to the heir to your Majesty's throne, a few of the members of the Secret Society, and of those who had ceased to belong to it, assembled to discuss the proceedings of the 14th of December. One named Moukhanoff, known among all the rest by the indiscretion of his projects, exclaimed in a fit of fury, "Our comrades are lost-the death of the Emperor alone can save

them, and I know a man who is prepared at least to avenge them." Even his accomplices heard him with contempt. In the south the arrest of the principal conspirators was effected in conformity with orders brought from Taganrog by Aide-de-camp-General Tchernycheff, and consequent on the denunciation of Captain Ouazboroda. When aware that their plots were discovered, the rage of the other conspirators also exhaled in vain proposals. "We must go to St. Petersburg, and assassinate the Emperor Constantine," said Poggio to Basil Davydoff, for they knew not that your Majesty had ascended the throne. "I offer both hands."-" Six will be necessary," answered Davydoff. Poggio reckoned on the assistance of Mitkeff, Prince Valerian Galitzin, Prince Obolensky, and Matthew Mouravieff.

Hearing of the arrest of Pestel and several others, Major-General Prince Serge Volkousky found means to have an interview with him. Pestel said, "Fear nothing -only save my Code Russe-for my part I shall reveal nothing." Nevertheless he has confessed every thing, and named all his accomplices, who were seized and sent to St. Petersburg by the local authorities, at the request of the Commission.

As early as the 29th of December, Serge and Matthew Mouravieff were arrested by the superior of the former, Lieut.-Colonel Delea, although Serge Mouravieff was not with his regiment, and on the intelligence transmitted to him by Bestoujeff Reunine, that orders had been given for his apprehension, he had endeavoured to conceal himself with his brother. Unfortunately, Colonel Gebel did not take the precaution of placing over them a sufficient guard. On the same night several officers belonging to the society of United Slavonians, Lieutenants Kouznince, Soukhinoff and Chipilea, and the second Captain Baron

Solovieff, penetrated to the room where the Mouravieff's were confined, delivered them, wounded Colonel Gebel, and took him and another officer by whom he was accompanied prisoners. It was not till then that Serge Mouravieff, according to his own assertion, conceived the project of causing the Tchernigoff regiment to mutiny. From the town of Trellesie, where he was, he proceeded towards Kovalevka, to join the second company of grenadiers, after having given orders to Lieutenant Kouzenine to bring the 5th company thither, and to Solavieff and Chepella, to excite those under their command, and to march to Vassilkoff. From Kovalevka, where he had passed the night, Serge Mouravieff Apostol, on the 30th of December, took the road to Vassilkoff with the 2nd and 5th companies, and was joined on the route by Bestoujeff Reunine, whom he had sent to Broussiloff. At a distance of eight verstes from Vassilkoff, Mouravieff learned that it was occupied by a company under the command of Major Troukhine, and gave orders to his soldiers to load their arms,—an order which Major Troukhine, on his part, had also given, but he was not obeyed, and the rebel companies entored Vassilkoff without resistance. On his arrival, Mouravieff ordered the the arrest of Major Troukhine, set at liberty Solovieff, Chipilla, and several soldiers, whom Lieut.-Colonel Gebel had caused to be apprehended, took bread and other provisions from the shops of the town without paying for them, and then set about concerting a plan of operations. He was joined by many officers, particularly by Alexander Vadkeffsky, sublieutenant in the 19th regiment of chasseurs, a tolerably inactive member of the Society of the South, who arrived from Belaia Tserkoff, whence he had been summoned. Serge Mouravieff strongly urged him to cause a mutiny in this regiment. "I will do my best to this end, if it

succour.

should assemble; but it seems to me impracticable," answered Vadkeffsky, and left Mouravieff. The latter at the same moment sent off an express to Kieff, hoping to find there some member of the Society, and to demand He intended to proceed either to Kieff or to Belaia Tserkoff, or to Jitomir, in order to effect a junction with the officers belonging to the society of United Slavonians. At length he determined to make a movement on Broussiloff, whence he might, in one day's march, have reached Kieff, or Jitomir, according to circumstances. On the following day, the 31st of December, at noon (for he had waited the arrival of the 2nd company of musketeers), he gave orders to prepare for marching.

Before they set out, the chaplain of the regiment consented for a sum of two hundred roubles, to celebrate the divine service, and also to read to the troops a catechism composed by Serge Mouravieff and Bestoujeff Reuine, in which, by giving an arbitrary interpretation to some passages of the sacred Scriptures, they strove to shew, that a democracy was the only form of government pleasing to God. But, according to the declaration of Mouravieff, this lying catechism produced among the soldiers an impression unfavourable to his views, and he was constrained to invoke, once more, the name of his Highness the Czarovitch, and to assure the rebels that his Imperial Highness had not renounced the throne. On the road to Broussiloff he found the first company of grenadiers and the first company of musketeers in the village of Motovilovka, without their commanders. He proposed that they should join him, and urged them strongly. One part of the musketeer company consented; but all the grenadiers decidedly refused, and fell back on Belaia Tserkoff. The rebels passed the whole of the following day, the 1st of January, in Motovilovka, their