Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace

FIRST EPILOGUE: 1813 - 20 7. CHAPTER VII (continued)

And all Nicholas did was fruitful- probably just because he refused to allow himself to think that he was doing good to others for virtue's sake. His means increased rapidly; serfs from neighboring estates came to beg him to buy them, and long after his death the memory of his administration was devoutly preserved among the serfs. "He was a master... the peasants' affairs first and then his own. Of course he was not to be trifled with either- in a word, he was a real master!"