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Constantine after him, and Catharine, who, in spite of her
notorious immorality, had much of the far-sighted states-
manship of the wide-eyed Elizabeth, was determined that he
should never succeed her as the ruler of Russia. She loved
Alexander with all that was best in her strong nature, and
intended him to be her heir. But the boy had in him a cer-
tain filial loyalty which would not let him supplant his father.
There is something pitiful in the way in which the old wo-
man, hard and self-sufficient as she was to all the rest of the
world, tried in vain to gain her grandson’s respect and affec-
tion. But he always resented his enforced separation from
his father and mother, and must have come early to under-
stand something of the air of intrigue and wickedness which
surrounded his imperial grandmother’s throne. He there-
fore gave his boyish loyalty and full devotion to his tutor,
the Swiss La Harpe. La Harpe was an idealist and a politi-
cal liberal, and he gained an influence over his young pupil’s
mind which Alexander was never able to shake off. Even
after La Harpe was deemed too radical and dismissed, the
man and the boy kept up an intimate correspondence; and
to this day the letters of Alexander to La Harpe are
among the most interesting of unconscious self-revelations.
From his tutor the boy learned simple tastes and a certain
genuine purity and nobility of character. He became a lib-
eral in feeling, and in later years his life was a constant con-
flict between what he thought were his convictions and the
necessities which were pressed upon him by his family and
position.
When Alexander was eighteen years of age, Catharine
died, full of dread for the years ahead and certain of her
own high place in the history of Russia. The five years of
Paul’s mad reign were a terrible experience to his son no less
than to Russia. Catharine had been sensual and ruthless,