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The Emperor Alexander wished to withdraw his force from Finland for the purpose of more effectively opposing the immense army which threatened his States. Unwilling to expose Finland to an attack on the part of Sweden, he had an interview on the 28th of August 1812, at Abo, with the Prince-Royal, to come to an arrangement with him for uniting their interests.
Here we obtained a hasty meal, and afterwards took the train down to Abo, where we arrived next morning, after a very uncomfortable and sleepless journey. At nine o'clock I stood in the big bare office of Michael Boranski, where only a few days before we had had such a heated argument.
But by the time she was nine years old she had learned to make such neat stitches that Barbara sent specimens of her needlework back to Kentucky, and folded others away in a little trunk of keepsakes, to save for her until she should be grown. Abo by the time she was nine she could play quite creditably a number of simple Etudes on the tinkly old piano which had lost some of its ivories.
This would easily have been corrected by local knowledge: but by the use of writing, the flying rumor was at once fixed; and the existence of such a people is positively affirmed in some of the earliest European histories. Thus too Åbo, the ancient capital of Finland, was called Turku, which in the Swedish language means a market-place.
What men who have not yet ridden beyond the sound of any horn recall the midnight run which ended Beagleboy leading among tombs; the hasty whip-off, and the oath, taken Abo e bones, to forget the worry?
After the Russians obtained possession they enlarged and improved the city upon its present site, and in 1819 it became the capital of Finland. In 1827 Abo suffered from a general conflagration, after which the grand University of that city was removed to Helsingfors, which now comprises the most important public buildings and institutions in Finland.
There I engaged a front room looking down into the broad Nevski, had a wash, and then watched at the window for the appearance of the spy. I had already a good four hours before the steamer from Abo was due, and I intended to satisfy myself whether or not I was being followed. Within twenty minutes the fellow lounged along on the opposite side of the road, just as I had expected.
For nearly an hour I sat with him, surprised to find how, although his exterior was so harsh and uncouth, yet his heart really bled for the poor starving people he was so constantly forced to oppress. "I have ruined this town of Abo," he declared, quite frankly. "To my own knowledge five hundred innocent persons have gone to prison, and another two hundred have been exiled to Siberia.
Friedrich's Sister Ulrique, the marriage of Princess Ulrique, that also, as it chanced, had something to do with this Peace of Abo. But we anticipate too far.
The remainder of Finland consists of Finland proper and Nyland on the south and south-western coasts, and as these comprise not only the capital, but also the large towns of Abo and Viborg, they may be regarded as the most important, politically, commercially, and socially, in the country. Here lakes are still numerous, but insignificant in size compared with those of the interior.
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