can give

The great fatigue occasioned by the con- | voice of this indefatigable woman penetrated course to her of so many anxious souls in- into the cabinet of the Emperor at Vienna, duced her to go to Baden, because she perhaps even, indirectly, into the councils could have more quiet there. She was ac- of the Congress. That Alexander- to companied by her daughter, Empaytaz, whom, in 1812, the word of God had struck and Franz von Berckheim a young man, home- whom the wonderful successes of who, a short time before, had given up a 1813 had incited to give the praise to God public appointment in Mayence in order to - who, in 1814, had shown himself a magfollow a course, under the guidance of Ma- nanimous Christian ruler- should give dame de Krudener, in which he could work himself up to the dissipation and frivolity out his own salvation and advance the of Vienna during the Congress, was to kingdom of God. Every three hours they Madame de Krudener a bitter grief. She desisted from their employments in order could not get rid of the idea that she had to unite in prayer. In fine weather, they a mission to him. Soon after the opening mounted the hills, reading the psalms as of the Congress, in October, 1814, she they walked; and when the hour of prayer wrote to Mademoiselle de Sturza :arrived, they performed their devotions in "Judgment is approaching; it is at hand. the open air. We are standing upon a volcano! We The time spent at Baden was a refresh- shall now see guilty France chastised, ing and happy one. While there, she re- which, in accordance with the Divine deceived a command by revelation - -so says cree, on account of the cross given it to her biographer to go to a mill at Schluch-bear, has hitherto been spared. Christians tern, in Electoral Hesse, to await a meet- must not inflict punishment; and that man ing with the Emperor Alexander. A revi- alone whom the Eternal has chosen and val had taken place in the neighbourhood. consecrated- the man whom we are so The writings of Jung Stilling, and some happy as to call our sovereignothers, had caused such an excitement us peace. But the storm will soon burst. among the people, that whole communities These lilies, which the Eternal had prowere thinking of selling their possessions and tected-symbols of purity and fragility, going to the foot of the Caucasian moun- which were crushed by an iron sceptre betains to await the return of the Jews to the cause it was the will of the Eternal - these Promised Land. With the assistance of lilies, which should have been a call to Berckheim and other good men, Madame purity and to the love of God and to rede Krudener tried to turn them from such pentance have appeared only to vanish fanatical projects. away; and the people, more hardened than She was in full activity here in the spring ever, dream only of tumult. ... You of 1815, when she was suddenly called to would like to tell me of the many great and carry the message of peace to the Emperor beautiful traits in the character of the Emof the East. Ever since Madame de Kru-peror. I think I know a good deal about dener's intercourse with Mary Kummer, a him already. I have known for a long desire for the spirit of prophecy had been time that the Lord will give me the pleasawakened in her; and the great events ure of seeing him. . I have great happening around her, as well as her own things to say to him, for much has been spiritual development, conspired to in- communicated to me concerning him. crease it. She had formerly willingly suf- Lord alone can prepare him to listen to it. fered herself to be guided by the peasant-But I do not disturb myself about it. It is prophetess she now tried to produce an my part to be without fear and without reeffect upon national events by her own pre-proach: it is his to lie at the feet of Christ, dictions. Of three things she was confi- who is Truth. May the Eternal guide and dent -that after the first peace of Paris, bless him who is called to so high a misnew storms must burst over Europe; that sion! God had assigned a great part, during the period of them, to the Emperor Alexander; and that she would be called, when the right moment came, to appear before him with a message of mercy for the purification and building-up of his own soul.

At Carlsruhe she became acquainted with Roxandra von Sturza, one of the ladies of the court of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and had led her nearer to the Saviour. Through a correspondence with her, the

The

Mademoiselle de Sturza hastened to communicate the predictions contained in this letter to the Emperor, who, favourably inclined to the missionary zeal of Christian ladies from his acquaintance with the Quakers in England, always very suscep tible to feminine influence, and specially interested in a lady who felt herself called upon to lead him out of the world to a lofty mission, ardently desired to make her acquaintance.

ner,' and therefore you have no peace. Listen to the voice of a woman who was a great sinner, but who has found pardon at the foot of the cross."

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exclaimed, go on; your words are music to my soul." Three hours passed in conversation of this nature, and the Emperor implored Madame de Krudener not to forsake him. He felt that no one had ever before so touched his conscience, and unveiled the truth to him. Alexander went on to Heidelberg, and took a small house there, to which he was attracted by a cross in the garden. He invited Madame de Krudener to come there, and she hired a little cottage on the banks of the Neckar, where the Emperor spent every other evening. He selected chapters in the Bible for reading, and the conversation was often kept up till two o'clock in the morning. Empaytaz took part in these meetings. It was certainly a singular spectacle to see the Autocrat of all the Russias humbly suffering himself to be guided in the way of peace by the young Genevan; to see how he confessed his weaknesses, and related his spiritual experience. Then Empaytaz would kneel down and pray, and the Emperor would grasp his hand and say, with tears in his eyes, "O how I feel the power of brotherly love which unites all the disciples of Christ! Yes, your prayers will be heard, and it will be given me from above to confess my Saviour openly before men."

There was one advantage for Alexander in the return of Napoleon, that it took him away from the enervating atmosphere of the Vienna Congress. The change did not at first suit him. He was depressed. The The Emperor shed tears and hid his remembrance of the life that he had led face in his hands. Madame de Krudener after experiencing the drawings of God's apologized for her earnestness. "No," he love, the responsibility which he felt to rest upon him with respect to the destinies of nations, and accusing and excusing thoughts, produced a melancholy state of mind. He received the honours that were paid him in Bavaria with repugnance, and arrived at his head-quarters at Heilbronn. After a day of wearisome festivities, he retired early to the solitude for which he was longing. He wrote afterwards to a friend: "At length I breathed freely, and the first thing I did was to take up a book which I always carry about with me; but in consequence of the dark cloud which rested upon my mind, the reading made no impression upon me. My thoughts were confused, and my heart oppressed. I let the book fall, and thought what a comfort conversation with some pious friend would be to me. This idea brought you to mind, and I remembered what you had told me of Madame de Krudener, and the desire that I had expressed to you to make her acquaintance. I wonder where she is now, and whether I shall ever meet with her. No sooner had this passed through my mind than I heard a knock at the door. It was Prince Wolkonsky, who said, with an air of the greatest impatience, that he was very sorry to disturb me at so unseasonable an hour, but that he could not get rid of a lady who was determined to see me. He said that her name was Madame de Krudener. You may imagine my amazement. I thought I must be dreaming, and exclaimed, Madame de Krudener! Madame de Krudener!' This sudden response to my thoughts could not be accidental. I saw her at once, and she addressed such powerful and comforting words to me, that it seemed as if she had read my very soul, and they calmed the storm which had been assailing me:"

The bearer of divine messages drew aside the veil from the Emperor's mind; she told him of his sins, of the frivolity and pride with which he had entered on his mission. "No, your Majesty, you have not yet approached the God-Man as a sinner praying for mercy. You have not yet received mercy from Him who alone can forgive sins upon earth. You are yet in your sins, and have not humbled yourself before Jesus. You have not yet cried out like the publican, God be merciful to me a sin

During the important days preceding the battle of Waterloo, Alexander and his friends were reading the Psalms, and conversing on the words of the king of Israel upon the events of his own life. When news of the victory arrived, they threw themselves upon their knees. After the prayer, the Emperor exclaimed, "O how happy I am! my Saviour is with me! I am a great sinner, but He will employ me to give peace to the nations. O how happy might they be, if they would only understand the ways of Providence, and obey the Gospel!""

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The Emperor went to Paris, and invited Madame de Krudener to follow him. She employed the last few days of her stay at Heidelberg in carrying the Gospel to some condemned prisoners, and she had the pleasure of giving her daughter her blessing on her marriage with Herr von Berckheim. In July she went to Paris, where the Emperor assigned her a dwelling where he could readily visit her, and the meetings

of Heidelberg were continued, though perhaps not quite with the same simplicity as in the cottage there. Empaytaz, Berckheim and his lady, and the Countess de Lezay, took part in them.

Madame de Krudener, who, eleven years before, had played a very different part at Paris, had to go through evil report and good report, but she found abundant opportunity for promoting religious revivals after her own manner. There was divine service every evening at seven o'clock in her spacious, but plainly-furnished, salon. She took her place among the listeners, always dressed in black or brown. Empaytaz prayed and expounded a portion of Scrip

last three years by the wonderful dealings of God. History ascribes the first idea of the Holy Alliance both to the Emperor Alexander and to King Frederick William. Eylert dates its birth from the time of the first unfortunate battles in the spring of 1813. He says that Alexander related to him that at that period, when retreating towards Silesia, the king and he rode for some time side by side in silence. It was broken by the king with the words "This cannot go on; we are going towards the east when we ought to be going towards the west. We shall accomplish it by God's help, but when He does, as I hope He will, bless our united efforts, we will make known our conviction to all the world, that Fontaine and Mary Kummer also came the honour is due to Him alone." Alexto Paris. She prophesied, and announced ander agreed, and gave the king his hand a prediction for the following day. While in ratification of the compact. It has, howshe was waiting for the spirit in Madame ever, been shown, that the carrying out of de Krudener's house, the Emperor came. the idea belongs to the Emperor after the She addressed him, and the sum and sub-second entry into Paris, and it is certain stance of her communication was to ask him that his friendship with Madame de Kruto provide funds to establish a religious dener, and the religious zeal which she community at Weinsberg. He had then seen enough of the prophetess, and Madame de Krudener also became tired of her. Two days afterwards she and Fontaine returned to Rappenhoff.

ture.

The Emperor's confidential relations with Madame de Krudener attracted a number of people belonging to the best society to her simple salon. She was so occupied that she had scarcely time to cat. With every one she conversed of the one thing needful. Heaps of letters covered her table, and though formerly so fond of advocating her Saviour's cause by correspondence, she could find no time to answer them. She visited schools and prisons, and in the evenings Alexander came to her house with his Bible under his arm. It suited his peculiar character to yield himself entirely to her infuence. As he had required the presence of Stein, and allowed himself to be entirely guided by him when it was necessary to exert to the utmost his moral powers in opposing Napoleon, so now he could not be satisfied unless his monitor to repentance, Madame de Krudener, was near at hand.

Before Alexander left Paris, he was very desirous of making a public confession of faith. He wished to acknowledge the Gospel which he had adopted as the guide of his life, as the law also of his political course. It was the wish of his heart to bring his allies to join him in this acknowledgment, and to give permanence in a Holy Alliance" to the resolutions to which they had been impelled during the

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awakened in his mind, gave the decisive impulse to it. The practical results of the Holy Alliance were, perhaps, insignificant; indeed, this attempt to combine religion with politics wrought confusion; but it was a powerful testimony to the religious awakening which took place in the hearts of rulers.

After Alexander had accomplished this project, and given Madame de Krudener a warm invitation to St. Petersburg, he left Paris. She had no hope of being soon able to follow him thither, but she did not remain much longer at Paris. During the last few days of her stay there she had one of those joys which are shared by the angels in heaven. She received indisputable evidence that an old friend of her gay days and literary vanity, and whose admiration she had courted, had begun a life in God. On receiving some touching verses which he had sent her with the motto of St. Bernhard, "O beata solitudo, O sola beatitudo," she burst into tears and fell upon her knees, exclaiming, "O my God, his heart still lives, and lives for thee."

After Madame de Krudener left Paris in October, 1815, a life began for her which must possess great interest for every friend of the kingdom of God; but as it is not so immediately connected with our subject, we shall pass rapidly over it. She went to Switzerland. Wherever she went multitudes of people who felt their need of salvation crowded round her, everywhere she testified of her Saviour to the sinner with the wonderful power derived from a per

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sonal experience of divine mercy. Wher- | principally the country people who flocked ever she went she excited awakening and to hear the preaching of Christ. On the stir among the people; but the singularity journey she made the acquaintance of Pesand fanaticism of her proceedings, her pre- talozzi. It is well known that this man was sumption in denouncing woes upon the inspired by the sincerest love for the peocountries where her divine mission was not ple, although he had not clear spiritual immediately acknowledged, induced the views of the great source of love in the secular powers to put police regulations in mercy of God. The singing, praying, and force against her. Like a princess in the preaching during the journey on which Pesrealms of piety, addressed as gracious talozzi accompanied the party appeared to lady" by thousands of people who came to him so delightful that he found it difficult her for help, surrounded by a sort of spirit- to separate from his new friends. At Aarau ual court, attended by Empaytaz and her the concourse of people began again. The son-in-law, and sometimes by Professor well-known Roman Catholic missionary, Lachenal of Basle, but more often by Kell- Joseph Wolf, was among her hearers, and ner, formerly a post-master, a man who was confirmed in his Protestant tendencies. was entirely devoted to her, and inclined By degrees the whole canton, so to speak, to every sort of fanaticism, she travelled flocked to hear her. Just as the authorities from place to place now persecuted, now were thinking of putting a stop to the meethailed with acclamation. ings, she accepted an invitation to Schloss Liebegg, and her stay there was like a festival for the people in the neighbourhood. On her return to her son and daughter at Hörnlein she proclaimed free mercy to the pilgrims to Einsiedeln. A woman of ninetyfour, who was making the pilgrimage for the fiftieth time, to whom Madame de Krudener announced the message of mercy, threw away her rosary, exclaiming, "It is done, it is done! My sins are forgiven. Jesus has saved me ! "

In conjunction with Kellner, Spittler, and Empaytaz, she founded a tract society at Basle. She then went to Berne, whither she had been invited by her son, who was Russian ambassador to the Swiss confederation. But the effect produced by her preaching was so great that the police were frightened, and even respect for the embassy could not secure her a peaceful residence there; she was therefore requested in the politest terms to leave the city. She had more success at Basle. There was daily service at the hotel where she was staying; there was singing and prayer, and Empaytaz preached, and the concourse was so great that the largest room in the hotel would not hold the people. Large crowds were constantly assembled in the streets, which excited the alarm of the police. There were frequent conversions; not only girls and women, but strong men also succumbed to the power of divine grace. Lachenal, professor of philosophy, went to one of the meetings out of mere curiosity to hear what it was that these people were preaching, and his philosophy melted away like a morning cloud before the simple preaching of the gospel by Empaytaz. He gave his life, his time, his property at once to God. A Roman Catholic priest who had followed Madame de Krudener from Berne, returned with the remark, "I came here with a pope, but I am going away without At length she was driven away from Basle. A pious farmer on the border of the territory of Baden offered her his country house at Hörnlein. Madame de Krudener and her party took up their abode there, living in the simplest possible manner till April, 1816. The concourse of people was tremendous. Some few men of education were among them, but it was

one."

About this time famine began to be felt. Madame de Krudener sold all her possessions. Her jewels alone fetched 30,000 francs, which, together with the income she received from Russia, she devoted to feeding the poor. Her friends also denied themselves for the same purpose. At Unterholz a gendarme was stationed at her door to see that she only gave away food, and did not preach, but she quietly continued her work.

The authorities at Baden also endeavoured to silence her by means of gendarmes, but finding it useless, they sent to her a corporal distinguished for his severity. In the midst of his maltreatment of the poor, Madame de Krudener pierced him with the arrow of the grace of Christ: he fell upon his knees and prayed with her, and the lion became a lamb. The attacks of the police of Baden and Switzerland continued, and sometimes provoked the people to acts of violence. A number of poor people who were living in Professor Lachenal's house at Unterholz were turned out as if they had been criminals, with Empaytaz at their head, and when Madame de Krudener was seeking a little peace at Hörnlein there arose a vehement controversy about her in the newspapers. Wherever she went the people flocked to her; those hungering

In the beginning of May, 1817, she went to Warmbach, and, driven thence, to Rheinfelden, where she was mobbed by the people, not seeking help, but incensed that she had helped others, and she would have been murdered if the police had not come to her aid. After staying a few days at Möhlin, she went to Mungtz, everywhere followed by crowds of people, among whom she distributed the provisions which Lachenal sent after her. In a few weeks she spent 100,000 francs on the poor. From Mungtz she wished to go to Canton Argau, but was forbidden by the government; then she went through Laufenburg to Aarau; but the following day she was conducted to the frontier by gendarmes.

after righteousness as well as those suffer- thousands were wandering about in the ing from physical hunger, cold, and naked- fields and woods, seeking for weeds to apness, and all were relieved, notwithstanding pease their hunger. As long as Madame the persecution of the authorities. After de Krudener had anything to give she gave she had drunk the cup of insult and scorn it, but at the same time she offered the to the dregs without a murmur, only im- people the bread of life; and under the bibing fresh strength from it to persevere influence of the fearful times she admonin her life of love, she was banished from ished them to be converted, and proclaimed Hörnlein and Unterholz. the approach of judgment with prophetic zeal, and this it was which caused her to be conducted by gendarmes from one country to another. After being driven out of Switzerland, she hastened through Würtemberg to Baden, where she found rest for a few days at Freiburg, in the Breisgau. While there she was ordered to return to Russia, with permission to take with her Kellner and her daughter, whose husband had preceded them in order to make arrangements for the colonists for the Caucasus from south Germany and Switzerland. Empaytaz and his mother, and Madame Armand, went to Geneva; Lachenal and his wife had already been ordered to return home by the police at Basle. Weary with her labours, Madame de KruAt length she met with a friendly recep- dener travelled through Würtemberg and tion at Lucerne. The same scenes were Bavaria to Saxony, always under the surrepeated, but, besides the common people, veillance of the police, as if she had been the priests and pupils at the seminary a prisoner of state. At Weimar she met flocked to hear her. In an address to her friend Mademoiselle de Sturza, and them, which has been preserved, with wonderful eloquence and knowledge of the subject she sketches a picture of a faithful pastor, points out how a man may become one, and relates some particulars of the life of John Tauler. But an encomium on Madame de Krudener, in comparison with the clergy, which appeared in the public prints, incited the authorities to take steps to put a stop to the assemblies, which for several successive days had been attended by three thousand people, and, warned to leave the place, she went to Zurich. Her arrival there had been announced some At Mitau the police tormented her by weeks before by a somnambulist, and the preventing Kellner from accompanying her crowds that flocked to her were so great any further, and sending away other perthat, in spite of the remonstrances of An- sons in her suite. She spent some time tistes Hess, she was only allowed to remain with her brother at Jungfernhof, and at twenty-four hours, and was conducted by length arrived at her estate at Kosse, where gendarmes to Lofstätten. Here she was she assumed the office of spiritual mother visited by Maurer from Schaffhausen, who to the people. While there, during her has left a very interesting description of his solitary walks on the shores of the lake, she meeting with her. George Müller also composed numerous hymns of a somewhat visited her, and candidly expressed his mystical character. She was joined by her doubts to her about her mission, but was daughter and her husband, and Herr von convinced that, though not free from error, Berckheim has given a lively description of her sole desire was to advance the kingdom the labours of his mother-in-law among the of God. It is painful to see how she was Esthonians. During her residence there, driven from place to place during the next news of the revolution in Greece, in 1820, few weeks. The famine was fearful; all reached her, and she hailed it with inspiritfeelings of humanity were quenched by it;ing songs. Not long afterwards she received

she enjoyed rest for a few days among the Moravian Brethren at Neudietendorf. She then went to Leipzig, where after a few days the authorities forbade any one to visit her. She would have been glad to spend the winter at Dessau in order to recruit her health, but she was conducted to Eilenberg, and thence to Lübben. Here, in the presence of a commissary of the police, she was permitted to hold a meeting, and took the opportunity of refuting some of the erroneous opinions which had been circulated about her.