“ So deliberate an insult offered to the heir apparent by his own brother must have had terrible consequences if the grand duchess had espoused her husband’s cause with intemperate ardor but the future empress treated the matter with seeming indifference, and said to somebody who came to condole with her that the vindication of her husband’s dignity might safely be left to the czar. ”

“ On arriving in Russia after her marriage with the czarewitch in 1841 she found little that was congenial to her tastes in the surroundings of the emperor Nicholas, and shut herself up within a circle of her own intimate friends, which she never much enlarged even after her husband had ascended the throne. ”

“ Petersburg were trying to persuade the czar that it would be good for his interests to make war upon Turkey, the empress was induced to see that this enterprise would be a holy thing, and she gave her voice for the war with all the enthusiasm which ladies often display in such cases. ”