The discovery of this mine was a mere accident, but the inquiries that followed showed a carefully-laid plot, in which numerous conspirators had planned to kill the Tsar, and, without exception, these conspirators were found to be Orthodox Russian officials. It was for these men that the Tsar had caused to be dismissed the mistrusted Poles and Germans. The discovery of this fact, which was established beyond a doubt, dispelled in a moment the fondest illusions which had controlled the policy of Alexander's administration from the first.
The discovery killed him. His health began to fail, and he sank day by day under a complication of ailments which had their origin in the moral afflictions caused by a sense of realization that all he had done had been for nothing. He had persecuted, exiled, banished, punished, and suppressed and oppressed his people for the sake of the Church, and then it was an empty disappointment. This failure of an honest man was pathetic. Finally he died, at Lividia, having as the most consoling thing in his latter days arranged for the happy marriage of his son Nicholas II, who succeeded him November 1, 1895.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
