"To Forgive Their Tormentors"

"'To be happy at home,' said Samuel Johnson, 'is the end of all human endeavor,' but even [Tsar] Nicholas's domestic happiness was mocked in the sophisticated social circles of the capital. And yet the strength of the family's love and faith shines in every account of their steady good humor during the months when they were confined in close quarters, facing day after monotonous day, each one with twenty-four hours to be got through.

"Even the Tsar's piety and that of his family were derided, though it was deep and genuine and the source of all their other virtues. Nicholas may have placed too much confidence in the power of good to triumph in the world and been too slow to see evil even in his enemies, but as he often explained, he was so little troubled because he placed himself and his people in God's hands and trusted that his efforts would be blessed and his nation would prosper. What a test, then, when in spite of all his prayers and his trust in God's mercy, the forces of evil were winning, spoiling the costly victories of the war and ravaging his country, and he and his dearest ones were prisoners. Even in the face of such contradiction the family's faith never wavered, and as we have seen, they were able to forgive their tormentors."

 --Christine Benagh, An Englishman in the Court of the Tsar, pg. 286