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 Publisher Description
For introductory computer courses on Microsoft Office 2010 or courses in computer
concepts with a lab component for Microsoft Office 2010 applications. The goal of
the Exploring series has been to move students beyond the point and click, helping
them understand the why and how behind each skill. The Exploring series for Office
2010 also enables students to extend the learning beyond the classroom. Students go
to college now with a different set of skills than they did five years ago. With this in
mind, the Exploring series seeks to move students beyond the basics of the software
at a faster pace, without sacrificing coverage of the fundamental skills that
everybody needs to know. A lot of learning takes place outside of the classroom, and
the Exploring series provides learning tools that students can access anytime,
anywhere.

From the Back Cover

The Exploring System: Moving You Beyond the Point and Click!

The goal of the Exploring Series is to teach more than just the steps to follow to
accomplish a task. Exploring also teaches you the theoretical foundation you need
to understand when and why to apply the skills you learnin this class. This way, you
achieve a deeper understanding of each application and can apply this
criticalthinking beyond Office and the classroom.

Student Textbook

Exploring is a book you can use as a tool to easily identify essential information, and
learn it efficiently.
• Objective Mapping enables you to easily find where each objective is in the
chapter.

• Key Terms are pulled out and defined in the margins, helping to ensure you learn
terminology.

• Hands-On Exercises throughout each chapter allow you to apply what you learned
for immediate reinforcement.

Student CD

A media tool bound in your book to help you complete exercises from each chapter

• Set-Up Videos provide an introduction to the Case Study and the skills you’ll learn
in the Hands-On Exercises in each chapter.

• Student Data Files needed to complete the projects in the book.

• Compass is a searchable database of skills, providing videos and at-a-glance

reminders of how to complete a skill.

Companion Website: www.pearsonhighered.com/exploring

An interactive website featuring self-study tools to help you succeed in this course

• Online Study Guide enables you to practice what you’ve learned by answering
auto-graded questions.
• Glossary of key terms reinforces terminology as you learn the language of
computing.

• Chapter Objectives Review for a quick overview.

• Web Resources include links to Microsoft® Office Online Help and How-To
documents.

• Student Data Files needed to complete the projects in the book.

About the Author

Dr. Robert T. Grauer, Creator of the Exploring Series

Bob Grauer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Information

Systems at the University of Miami, where he is a multiple winner of the Outstanding
Teaching Award in the School of Business, most recently in 2009. He has written
numerous COBOL texts and is the vision behind the Exploring Office series, with
more than three million books in print. His work has been translated into three
foreign languages and is used in all aspects of higher education at both national and
international levels. Bob Grauer has consulted for several major corporations
including IBM and American Express. He received his Ph.D. in operations research
in 1972 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

Dr. Keith Mulbery, Consulting Series Editor and Excel Author

Dr. Keith Mulbery is the Department Chair and an Associate Professor in the
Information Systems and
Technology Department at Utah Valley University (UVU), where he teaches
computer applications, C#

programming, systems analysis and design, and MIS classes. Keith also served as
Interim Associate Dean,

School of Computing, in the College of Technology and Computing at UVU.

Keith received the Utah Valley State College Board of Trustees Award of Excellence
in 2001, School of

Technology and Computing Scholar Award in 2007, and School of Technology and
Computing Teaching

Award in 2008. He has authored more than 15 textbooks, served as Series Editor for
the Exploring Office

2007 series, and served as developmental editor on two textbooks.

Keith received his B.S. and M.Ed. in Business Education from Southwestern
Oklahoma State University

and earned his Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Business Information

Systems at Utah State

University. His dissertation topic was computer-assisted instruction using Prentice

Hall’s Train and Assess IT program to supplement traditional instruction in basic
computer proficiency courses.
Mary Anne Poatsy, Series Editor

Mary Anne is a senior faculty member at Montgomery County Community College,

teaching various

computer application and concepts courses in face-to-face and online environments.

She holds a B.A.

in psychology and education from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A. in finance
from Northwestern

University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Mary Anne has more than 12 years of educational experience. She is currently
adjunct faculty at

Gwynedd-Mercy College and Montgomery County Community College. She has

also taught at Bucks

County Community College and Muhlenberg College, as well as conducted

professional training. Before

teaching, she was vice president at Shearson Lehman in the Municipal Bond
Investment Banking

Department.

Dr. Lynn Hogan, Office Fundamentals and File Management and

Windows 7 Author

Lynn Hogan has taught in the Computer Information Systems area at Calhoun
Community College for

29 years. She is the author of Practical Computing and has contributed chapters for
several computer

applications textbooks. Primarily teaching in the areas of computer literacy and

computer applications,

she was named Calhoun’s outstanding instructor in 2006. She received an M.B.A.
from the University of

North Alabama and a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. Lynn resides in
Alabama with her husband

and two daughters.

Product details

 Publisher : Pearson; 1st edition (November 22, 2010)

 Language : English

 Spiral-bound : 646 pages

 ISBN-10 : 0135098599

 ISBN-13 : 978-0135098592
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 My mistress has been reproached at different times for having
shown herself indifferent to the cause of national education, and for
not having considered that problem with the attention it deserved.
But this was also an unreasonable reproach. The Empress could not,
even if she had so wished, have interfered with the conduct of the
different educational establishments for women in the Empire. These
were all of them placed under the patronage of the Empress
Dowager, who was far too jealous of her privileges in that respect to
have consented to share them with her daughter-in-law. The same
thing might have been said in regard to the work of the Red Cross,
which was entirely controlled by Marie Feodorovna, who brought to
it great knowledge and considerable ability. But at the same time she
would not allow the young Czarina to interfere with it, and when the
latter tried in her various visits to the Front to suggest this or that
improvement in the management of the different hospitals she
inspected, her mother-in-law instantly protested and declared herself
affronted by what she considered to be a criticism on her
management. The young Empress had to devote herself to the care
of the wounded in the different hospitals which she had organised at
Czarskoi Selo, and her work remained confined to the great
committee for relief of the refugees from the invaded countries and
other victims of the war, which the Emperor had founded at the
beginning of the campaign, and the care and patronage of which he
had placed under the management of his wife. It was an interesting
but at the same time a most disheartening work, because it was
impossible to follow its execution, and one had perforce to depend
on people more or less reliable. My mistress often regretted that she
was debarred from putting her experience and her great love for her
neighbour at the service of the army. This, however, was denied her,
perhaps not without reason, because by that time she had already
become most unpopular among the troops, who had taken to calling
her “the German.” One day when she was inspecting a field
ambulance, she heard the expression in reference to herself and was
so overcome by it that she could not restrain her tears. The poor
woman, though she knew that she was regarded with anything but
affection by her husband’s subjects, yet had believed that the army
at least appreciated her care and her desire for its welfare. The
discovery that such was far from being the case was a great blow to
her. As time went on, carrying away with it all her hopes of winning
the love of the Russian nation, she became hardened and ceased to
conceal the contempt which she felt for a world that had failed to
realise and to believe in her good intentions. But through it all she
applied herself to hide from her children the intensity of her
disillusions, and she went on instilling into them those high principles
to which she had tried to remain faithful herself. Her great
misfortune was that she lived in great times, and that she had no
greatness in her to meet them. This was a calamity, but by no
means caused by her own fault.
Sometimes she was touching in the attention she gave to the
smallest detail connected with the training and the welfare of her
children. One may say that even before the great catastrophe which
fell upon her, her attention had been entirely concentrated on her
babes. She liked to be present at all the daily routine of their
existences, and whenever her daughters were to be produced before
some of their relatives, she made it a point to superintend their
toilet, and to brush their long hair. The girls were generally dressed
in white, winter and summer, and it was only when they had reached
their twelfth year that she consented to dress them in dark colours
during their school hours. But even then they had to change for
dinner and to appear before their parents in the light gowns their
mother was so fond of. Their clothes were always made in the best
houses, and their linen just as dainty and magnificent as their
mother’s. In summer and on board the Imperial yacht, they were
generally attired in sailor hats and blouses, and were allowed to run
about as much as they liked, and to talk to the officers and sailors.
They shared their mother’s love for the sea, and the six weeks or so
that these annual excursions in the Finnish waters lasted were the
real holidays of the children as well as of the Empress.
The latter has also been accused of not showing any amiability in
regard to the foreign guests who from time to time visited the Court
of Czarskoi Selo. In this there may have been a certain amount of
truth, but the apparent coldness of the young Czarina proceeded
from the everlasting fear which haunted her that she might be
compromised by showing herself too effusive towards strangers. She
knew that any attention she showed to her visitors would be widely
commented upon, and as these with few exceptions were German
princes, this circumstance added to her embarrassment, because
she was very well aware that she was supposed to harbour strong
Teuton sympathies. In regard to her English relatives she was
handicapped, because the Queen of Great Britain was the sister of
the Empress Dowager, and when she came to Rewal with King
Edward, she was naturally more with Marie Feodorovna than with
the niece with whom she had so very little in common, and who had
done nothing whatever to win her sympathies.
From time to time the sister of the Czarina, Princess Henry of
Prussia, put in an appearance at Czarskoi Selo, and her brother, the
Grand Duke of Hesse, was also a frequent visitor there. But these
visits were never official ones, and mostly passed unnoticed by the
general public that had left off troubling about what went on in the
home of the Sovereign. The members of the Imperial family were
also rare visitors at Czarskoi Selo, and avoided putting in an
appearance there unless absolutely compelled to do so. Alexandra
Feodorovna knew so perfectly well how to convey to her guests the
knowledge that they bored her that it was no wonder they did not
care to court this knowledge and that they preferred not to annoy
her with their presence. The Empress Dowager used to appear on
the family anniversaries, such as birthdays, name days, and others
of the kind to offer her congratulations to her son and daughter-in-
law, and every winter the young Czarina used to come to St.
Petersburg from Czarskoi Selo to pay her mother-in-law one solemn
visit of ceremony; after which the two ladies did not see each other
for a long time. All this was abnormal, but once these relations had
been established it was next to impossible to change them, and so
the breach which separated my mistress from the world as well as
from her husband’s family widened and widened, until at last she
found herself alone in presence of danger, of sorrow, and of one of
the greatest catastrophes which history will ever record. Whether
the fault was wholly hers or was shared by others, is a point upon
which I shall not attempt to give an opinion.
 CHAPTER XV
THE FIRST REVOLUTION
I often wondered whether the Empress had quite appreciated the
magnitude of the first revolutionary movement which took place in
Russia during and after the Japanese war. She had been repeatedly
told that it was a mutiny of no importance, bound to be crushed by
the government. The Czar as well as his ministers had purposely left
her in the dark, the former because he did not wish to alarm her,
and the latter because they feared that she might try, in presence of
the danger which threatened the dynasty, to persuade her husband
to adopt a more liberal form of administration, and to grant to
Russia this Constitution for which everybody was clamouring,
especially after the war had plainly proved that the autocratic régime
was at an end. She could, however, sometimes hear echoes of the
general dissatisfaction, and indeed the first person who pointed out
to her its extent was the Empress Dowager, who knew very well all
that was going on, and who had made it a point to become as well-
informed as possible of all that was taking place in the Empire. For
once Marie Feodorovna appealed to her daughter-in-law to open the
eyes of Nicholas II as to the perils of the political situation, but she
refused to do so, thinking that the request covered an intrigue of
which she was to become the victim. And so time went on until
Count Witte, who still enjoyed some popularity, spoke to the
Emperor, and persuaded him to promulgate the famous Manifesto of
the 17th October, and to call together a Representative Assembly. In
a certain sense this was a victory for the Empress, for she had at
that period more than once expressed her conviction that it would
be to the advantage of the Russian nation to establish a
constitutional form of government, as near as possible to the one
which had proved so successful in England. But strange as it may
appear to say so, she was at that very moment changing her
opinions and rallying to those of the people who thought that every
concession to the demands of the populace would bring about the
ruin of the monarchy, just as the calling together of the States
General in France in 1789 had brought about the fall of the
Bourbons and sent Louis XVI. finally to the scaffold. She had always
compared her fate to that of Marie Antoinette, and had more than
once expressed to her friends her conviction that she also was
destined for some horrible fate. On the day when the first Duma was
opened by the Emperor in the big ballroom of the Winter Palace, she
cried the whole time that she was dressing, and it was almost with a
feeling of horror that she allowed her maids to place on her head
the big diadem of diamonds which formed part of the Crown jewels,
and to hang about her neck the many rows of pearls and precious
stones which lay in readiness for her. She was dreading the future
and wondering what it would bring with it.
 International Film Service
The Grand Staircase, Winter Palace, Petrograd

There is one incident concerning these momentous days which I

must relate. When the population of St. Petersburg, headed by the
notorious Gapone, repaired to the Winter Palace and asked to see
the Sovereign, in order to lay their grievances before him, the
Czarina was of the opinion that he ought to have received them and
spoken with them. Her mother-in-law thought the same thing. But
the ministers, and especially Count, then still Baron, Fredericks
opposed it, and it was their advice which prevailed, instead of that of
the two Empresses. To tell the truth, Nicholas was not of a
courageous nature, and but too ready to listen to those who told
him that he ought not to expose his person to any danger.
But in presence of this new load of calamity that threatened her
and her children my mistress more than ever put her trust in God,
and prayed, prayed with more fervour than she had ever done
before. Several times she interceded in favour of revolutionaries who
had been sentenced to death for some political crime or other. This
happened particularly in the case of a woman, Sophy
Konoplianinova, who had murdered General Minn, the commander of
the Semenovsky regiment, who had repressed with ruthless cruelty
the Moscow Rebellion. The Empress wished to have her pardoned,
but the Czar would not listen to her, and all her pleadings for mercy
were in vain.
Is it to be wondered that racked as she was with cruel anxieties,
and bred in an atmosphere of superstition, she set her belief more
than ever in spiritism and consulted fortunetellers, and monks and
priests who predicted to her a future devoid of cares, and one where
worries would be unknown to her? She listened to them, and with a
blind faith in their many and varied predictions she proceeded to
absorb herself more and more in practices of a religious devotion
which finally mastered all her thoughts and left no room in them for
anything else. She had fitted up in her bedroom an oratory full of
sacred images, to which every day was added another icon. No
Russian was ever a firmer believer in the different dogmas of the
Orthodox Church than was this daughter of a German house, whose
mother had been an intimate friend of the famous Strauss, and had
allowed the latter to dedicate to her his life of Jesus which had
caused such a profound sensation in literary, religious and
philosophical circles all over the world.
The Revolution was finally mastered, and though the Duma always
continued to show itself criticising and even rebellious, things began
to settle down. Russia prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the
Three Hundredth Year of the accession of the Romanoff dynasty to
the throne, and great rejoicings were planned for the occasion. The
Imperial family came to St. Petersburg for the first time since the
Japanese war, and remained in the capital for four days. A solemn
service of thanksgiving was celebrated in the Kazan Cathedral, to
which representatives of all the classes of the Empire were invited,
and the nobility of St. Petersburg gave a big ball at which the whole
Imperial family was present. I remember it so well, because it was
the last occasion on which the Empress appeared in full state and
wore the Crown Jewels. She had chosen a white satin dress all
embroidered in silver, and had consented to put on what she did but
rarely—the famous necklace of diamonds together with the tiara that
had belonged to the Empress Catherine. She was still beautiful, but
the slight figure that had been so conspicuous in her young days,
and the beautiful complexion which had been unrivalled, had
disappeared. She looked a middle aged, haggard woman, racked
with cares and anxieties, and though the splendid, sharp profile
could never change, the mouth had altered, and its expression was
almost tragic. She only remained for an hour at the ball, and retired
before supper, leaving her daughters to the care of the Dowager
Empress, who declared herself delighted at the thought of
chaperoning them.
It was the girls’ first appearance in society, and those who saw
them then will never forget how they looked. They were both
dressed in pink, soft clouds of tulle, which suited them to perfection.
Not regularly pretty, they had sweet faces, and such charming
manners that one could not help being attracted by them. Rumours
of their approaching marriages with the Crown Prince of Servia and
the future heir to the Roumanian throne were afloat at the time, and
added to the interest which they excited. Alas, alas, all these hopes
were to prove fallacious, and St. Petersburg society, which had been
so much attracted by these two Princesses, was never to see them
again, at least as the daughters of a reigning Sovereign.
Dark rumours were already coursing at the time concerning the
Empress and her affection for the terrible Rasputin who was to do
her so much harm. In general she was unfortunate in her
friendships, because the one which she formed for Madame
Wyroubieva caused also much scandal. The Czarina with all her
cleverness (and she was clever) had no judgment and did not
possess the slightest knowledge of the world or of humanity. She
believed all that she was told, and, if the truth be said, she was so
anxious to please and to be liked that she accepted with joy and an
amazing credulity the protestations of affection she met with. If she
had only had a really good friend, so many of the mistakes which
she made might have been avoided.
One of the people who did her the most harm was her own sister,
the Grand Duchess Elizabeth. The latter was an ambitious person
who conceived the plan to rule Russia through the Empress. She had
entered a convent not at all out of any vocation for the religious life,
but because she thought that it would give her prestige in the
country, and that she might acquire there a position which it would
have been impossible for her to obtain as the widow of a Grand
Duke who had been murdered on account of his unpopularity and
the hatred with which he was looked upon in the whole of Russia.
She posed as a victim and she absolutely abused the privileges
which this attitude conferred upon her. She used to worry the
Czarina greatly, and whenever the latter objected to anything that
she told her, or refused to comply with any of the continual requests
she put forth, she threatened her with the punishment of Heaven,
and told her that God would chastise her and take away from her
her idolised son. She spent her time going about from one convent
to another, and in that way contrived to travel all over Russia and to
win for herself a considerable number of adherents everywhere. Her
plan was to force the Czar to rescind the Constitution which he had
granted to his subjects and to return to the old forms of autocracy. It
was she who had recommended Mr. Protopopoff and Mr. Sturmer to
the Emperor, and she had managed to secure for herself, as well as
for all the people who had sworn their allegiance to her, a prominent
place in the administration of the State.
The Empress feared her and knew beforehand that she would in
the long run be compelled to do whatever her sister required of her.
Sometimes, however, she showed some impatience at the manner in
which the latter “bossed” her, to use a vulgar expression, and then
she would sulk and lock herself up in her room, refusing to see any
one, upon which Elizabeth would sigh and make discreet allusions to
the sad mental condition of the unfortunate Czarina. She certainly
was the one who contributed the most to the popular belief that the
Consort of Nicholas II. was not quite right in her mind.
The only person who would fight the Grand Duchess, and not give
in to her caprices, was Madame Wyroubieva, and perhaps this was
one of the reasons why Alexandra Feodorovna grew so fond of her.
The poor Empress wanted some one to fight her battles for her and
felt grateful to any person capable of doing so. She had encountered
so few willing to do it.
The Emperor Nicholas was very fond of his sister-in-law. She
represented to him what he called the only real Russian element in
the Imperial family, in the sense that he thought her so infeodated
to the old Muscovite traditions which his uncles and cousins, and
even his own brother and sisters, had renounced, and he fancied
she would be better able than any one else to understand the wants
as well as the idiosyncrasies of the Russian nation. He always
listened to her with deference, and, bigoted as he was himself, felt
ready to believe her when she assured him that the Almighty would
always protect him, provided he kept faithful to the principles of that
Orthodox Church which required from him the destruction of
everything and every one that showed any antagonism to this
autocracy of which he was the chosen representative. The Czar
belonged to that class of people who only listen to those who agree
with them, and he had never learned anything, or profited by the
lessons that one had tried to teach to him, no matter in what
direction. He was a tyrant by character and by temper, whilst weak
and irresolute, and this is a combination which is more often to be
found than one would imagine.
At the time I am talking about my mistress was very unhappy. For
one thing, she had very little hope left of the recovery of her son,
and apart from the exaggerated love which she bore him, she felt
that the difficulty of her own position would increase should the boy
die. She had an almost morbid wish to hear people assure her that
such a misfortune was not going to overtake her, and she eagerly
caught at the assurances which Rasputin used to give her that so
long as he remained at her side no harm could happen to little
Alexis. She sincerely thought that this common peasant, by reason
of his ignorance, would be better able than a more cultured person
to come into touch with the Almighty, founding her belief on the
words of the Gospel, that He “revealed himself to simple and
ignorant people.” The fact was that she had grown tired of all the
false protestations with which her ears were saturated, and she
thought that perhaps a humble Russian mougik would at least show
himself faithful to her as well as to her dynasty. How terrible was her
mistake the future was to prove.
 CHAPTER XVI
THE CZARINA’S FRIENDS
Alexandra Feodorovna did not make any real friends during the first
years that followed upon her marriage. Indeed it was only after the
Japanese war that she started the intimacies for which she was so
much reproached by her subjects. The most notorious was that for
Rasputin, but there were two others just as nefarious—that with
Madame Wyroubieva and with the Princess Dondoukoff.
 International Film Service
Grand Duchess Elizabeth

The latter was a lady of considerable intelligence and a physician

of no mean skill whom the Empress had put at the head of the
private hospital she had organised at Czarskoi Selo long before the
war broke out. Later on when other lazarets and ambulances, the
number of which increased every day as the terrific struggle went
on, were organised in the Imperial residence, the Princess
Dondoukoff was appointed general superintendent of all these
establishments, and it was she who coached the Czarina as well as
her daughters in the duties of a Red Cross nurse. She was of a
pushing temperament, had the reputation of being loose in her
morals, though personally I saw nothing that could have justified it,
and was also gifted with a remarkable propensity for intrigue. No
one liked her, but everybody feared her. She insinuated herself
thoroughly into the confidence of the Empress, who referred to her
in everything, and willingly listened to her. She was of course among
the followers of Rasputin, and with him and Madame Wyroubieva
formed a trio which it would have been difficult not only for the
general public but also for the immediate attendants of the Russian
Sovereign to fight against.
The Princess Dondoukoff used to give drugs to Alexandra
Feodorovna which the latter used to take unknown to her medical
attendants and which were declared by them, when they discovered
the fact, to have had a good deal to do with her shattered nerves.
This may or may not have been true,—I shall not venture an opinion
upon the subject,—but certainly my mistress was far too fond of the
Princess, and would have done better to have seen less of her, if
only from the point of view that the weight which she laid on her
opinions considerably incensed the doctors who were in regular
attendance upon her, who objected to the manner in which their
own prescriptions were neglected.
The Princess introduced at Court a quack medical man from
Thibet called Bachmanoff, who, she pretended, had brought with
him from his country all kinds of secret remedies which she advised
the Czarina to try on the little Grand Duke Alexis. The fond mother
believed her, and Bachmanoff became one of her favourites. It is
impossible to say whether he would have cured the child, because
the latter’s nurse, a sailor called Derewenko, of whom he was
inordinately fond, and whom I have already had occasion to
mention, threw out of the windows all the powders and potions
which Alexandra Feodorovna asked him to give to her son, and took
great care the boy should not get anything but what his own doctor
had ordered him to take. Ultimately the Grand Duke got better and
stronger, and last year he might have been pronounced cured, at
least in so far as the chronic ailment from which he was suffering
could be cured. But the Empress in her joy at this unexpected
recovery was persuaded that it had taken place, thanks to the
Thibetan, in whom she believed more than ever.
The friendship for Madame Wyroubieva was perhaps even worse
than the attachment of the foolish Sovereign to the Princess
Dondoukoff. Madame Wyroubieva was the daughter not of the
Emperor’s private secretary, as she represented herself to be, but of
a State Secretary (which is quite a different thing, being a purely
honorific position) called Tanieieff. She had been married to a navy
officer with whom she could not agree, and they were divorced, not
because he had grown mad, as she declared (divorce for insanity is
not allowed in Russia), but because he had found reason to object to
her conduct. The Empress, for reasons no one ever understood, took
her part and invited her once or twice to the Palace of Czarskoi Selo.
Madame Wyroubieva made the most of her opportunities and soon
became quite indispensable to Alexandra Feodorovna. She it was
who, with the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, introduced Rasputin into the
Imperial household, and with him she established such control of the
Czarina’s actions that soon the latter became simply a tool in their
hands.
Madame Wyroubieva was, above everything else, a grabbing
woman. She fully meant to make a fortune out of the position of
trust she was supposed to occupy. Both she and Rasputin were in
their turn in the hands of a gang of adventurers who used them for
their own ends, and they set up a shameful exploitation of the public
exchequer for which unfortunately the Empress was made
responsible. The latter only looked upon Rasputin as a saintly
personage, a kind of orthodox yogi whose prayers were sure to be
taken into account by the Almighty. Terrible things have been hinted
at in regard to her relations with him, but all that I can say is that to
my knowledge, at least, she was never alone with him for one single
moment, and that except in regard to the health of the heir to the
throne, my mistress never spoke with him of anything else but
religious subjects. The public said that he was all powerful at Court,
but I feel convinced that these rumours arose from certain
unscrupulous persons who had an interest in spreading them
because they managed (thanks to the intimacy of which they
boasted with a personage who, as they related, could turn and twist
the sovereigns at his will and pleasure) to obtain army contracts and
other things they desired. Among them were Protopopoff and
Sturmer, and the notorious Manassevitsch Maniuloff, whose
blackmailing propensities caused him to be arrested and sentenced
to several years’ hard labour from which he was released by order of
the present Russian government. Rasputin in reality was treated in
the Palace as a kind of jester who was allowed to do as he wished—
a sort of fool, after the pattern of Chicot in Dumas’ novels, and
neither Nicholas II., who liked him even better than did the Empress,
nor the latter ever thought of him as of anything else than a holy
pilgrim (for that was what he proclaimed himself to be) whose
vocation was to go about preaching the gospel to the world. One
must not forget that there have been many such in Russia, and that
the natural tendency to mysticism, which is one of the characteristics
of the Russian character, has always welcomed them with effusion.
The Empress, who, though a German, was more superstitious than
any Russian, fully believed that the presence of Rasputin at her side
was a shield against all possible dangers. She therefore refused to
be parted from him, and whenever anything happened of a nature
to cause her worry she used to send for him, when he would
prostrate himself on the ground and invoke the powers of Heaven to
deliver him and his friends from evil. He was a thorough fanatic, or
at least professed to affect the ways of a fanatic, and he used to
force the Empress to prostrate herself before holy images beside
him, and to remain with her face pressed to the floor for hours in
earnest supplication to a God whom, he averred, he was the only
one to honour as he ought to be honoured. It is difficult to realise
that an Empress of Russia, and one of the haughty temperament of
Alexandra Feodorovna, could lend herself to such ridiculous
practices, but so it was, and I can only say what I have seen without
attempting to explain it. But it was not surprising that when the
Imperial family came to hear of all this, it should have been
indignant and tried to oust from the Palace a man whose presence in
it tended to discredit royalty at a time when, on the contrary, every
possible means should have been resorted to in order to raise its
prestige.
The Empress Dowager, when she heard all that was going on,
raised her voice, and, disliking though she did to meddle in what she
considered did not concern her, she made representations to the
Czar when the latter paid her a visit in Kieff, whither she had
transferred her residence. Nicholas listened to her, but did nothing.
Others followed the example of Marie Feodorovna, and the Grand
Dukes individually and collectively tried to open the eyes of the head
of their dynasty to the evils caused by the presence of Rasputin.
Everything proved useless, because the Emperor just as much as his
wife was under the spell of the clever comedian whose strong will
had completely mastered his own weak intellect. I have often
witnessed the prayer meetings which were organised in the Czarina’s
private oratory, at which Rasputin presided. Few people were
admitted to them, and the congregation generally consisted of
Madame Wyroubieva, the Princess Dondoukoff, the Czar and his
Consort. The Imperial children were sometimes told to attend them
but not often. Rasputin used to pray aloud, and then preach,
touching in his sermons on subjects of every kind that had not the
remotest claim to be considered religious. And then he assured his
audience that the Lord had revealed himself to him and ordered him
to acquaint the Czar with such and such a thing, choosing the one
he had at heart at that particular moment. The Empress generally
went into hysterics whilst listening to him, and it was on that
account I was asked to remain in the vicinity of the room, so as to
be able to come to her help. I had often to unlace her or else she
would have choked, and for this purpose I took her into another
apartment. The fact that one or other of her maids saw me carrying
away some part of her clothes gave rise to the most malicious
rumours. The most curious thing about it all was that the Emperor
looked on unmoved whilst his wife was almost writhing in strong
convulsions and extended no help whatever to her, because Rasputin
assured him that these convulsions were a manifestation of the good
spirits, and a proof that the prayers of the Czarina had been
accepted by the Almighty.
I know that all this sounds incredible and yet it is but the truth.
The unfortunate woman whom the world has slandered in the most
cruel manner possible was after all nothing but a miserable being
whose mental balance was unstrung, to say the least. It would have
been more sensible to have put her in an asylum than to have
accused her of immoral practices of which she was incapable. Of
course others who were witnesses of the daily actions of Alexandra
Feodorovna in Czarskoi Selo could not be expected to look at things
with the same eyes as I did and I do not feel any surprise at the
disgust which filled all the good and devoted servants of the dynasty
when they heard about these mysterious meetings during which the
Holy Ghost was supposed to descend in person on the heads of
Nicholas II. and his wife. There were some still in existence, among
others the Princess Wassiltschikoff, one of the most prominent
women in St. Petersburg society, who took it upon herself to write to
my mistress to warn her of the manner in which she was discrediting
herself and the dynasty. The Czarina was terribly offended on
receiving this letter, and fell into one of her rare fits of passion. She
complained to the Emperor, and the author of this epistle that had
aroused her anger was forthwith ordered to leave St. Petersburg and
to retire in disgrace to one of her estates in the country. Alexandra
Feodorovna clenched her teeth and could hardly restrain her tears
when speaking about what she called “this infamous letter.” At that
moment of rage I believe she could have killed the lady who had
thus ventured to tell her things which she considered the most
insolent she had ever heard in her whole life. She was destined to
feel still more offended a few days later when the Grand Duke
Nicholas Michaylovitsch, a cousin of the Czar, presented to the latter
a memorandum in which he adjured him not to listen any longer to
the advice he received from his wife, and to dismiss the gang of
adventurers whose presence at his side was discrediting him. He
also was repaid by being sent into exile for the audacity with which
he had dared to criticise the conduct of Alexandra Feodorovna.
 There is, therefore, nothing surprising if those who had come to
look upon Rasputin as upon a national danger should at last have
made up their minds to remove him by fair means or foul. Of course
what lay behind his assassination was the desire to put an end to
the influence of the Empress over her Consort, and to pave the way
towards her internment in a private asylum or in a convent where it
was felt that she would be happier than anywhere else. So long as
Rasputin existed such a thing was not to be thought of, but it was
secretly hoped that if he were finally put out of the way the mind of
the Czarina would snap altogether and it would then become a
relatively easy matter to persuade Nicholas II. to separate himself
from her, when it was hoped that the dynasty would recover some of
the prestige which it had lost. This, so far as I know, is the real key
to the murder of the adventurer whose career constitutes a unique
episode even in the annals of Russian history that has recorded so
many queer things. In describing it I have anticipated events, and
must now return a few years back and speak of the outbreak of the
great war, even if superficially, because its declaration sounded the
knell of the Romanoff dynasty and, in a certain way, sealed the fate
of the illustrious lady at whose side I spent so many years before
misfortune overwhelmed her.
 CHAPTER XVII
THE GREAT WAR
It is useless to repeat that when the great war broke out no one
in Russia expected it, the Czar least of all. I shall not touch upon the
serious part of this awful drama; I only mention it in so far as it has
to do with the unhappy Empress. She was quite overpowered by it,
and thought it the culminating point of her misfortunes. Apart from
her apprehensions for that Russia whose Sovereign she was, she felt
deeply the fact that she was going to be at war with her own kith
and kin, and with her beloved brother of whom she was so fond. No
one doubted among her surroundings that France and Russia united
together would surely and quickly beat the Germans, but the Czarina
knew very well that whatever the outcome of the struggle she would
become one of its principal victims. She was perfectly aware that the
nation which disliked her so intensely called her the “German” quite
openly, and that she would probably be suspected of favouring the
land of her birth in preference to that of her adoption; she chafed
beforehand at the injustice of the accusation. Everybody noticed her
intense emotion on the day which followed the declaration of
hostilities, when, during the religious ceremony which took place in
the Winter Palace, she stood beside the Czar, and listened to the
reading of the manifesto announcing to the nation that Germany had
challenged it to mortal combat. Before she left Peterhof (where the
Court was spending the summer) for St. Petersburg, I ventured to
express to her my hope that she would have sufficient strength to
bear the fatigue and emotions of the trying day. “I can bear anything
now,” she replied. “Since I did not die yesterday, it seems to me that
nothing will ever kill me.” Momentous words which I was to
remember more than once as time went on and one disaster
followed upon another.
 When the war broke out the Empress Dowager was in England.
She telegraphed to her daughter-in-law to take her place at the head
of the Red Cross until her return to Russia, and to take the first
measures necessary to ensure its activity. The Czarina was but too
willing to do so, but she encountered unusual opposition and even
hostility on the part of the officials interested in the society, who
criticised all the improvements which she suggested, and even
refused to follow the instructions which she gave them. This, of
course, was a source of bitter mortification to her, and she was but
too glad to retire altogether from the management of the whole
affair as soon as her mother-in-law returned. But this was wrongly
interpreted by the public that said the Sovereign was not interested
in the cause of the wounded, because she disapproved altogether of
the war, and would have liked to see Russia come to an agreement
with Germany.
The position of my unfortunate mistress grew more and more
difficult as time went on. At first the triumphant (for so it was called)
march of the Russian troops into Galicia and the capture of Lemberg
seemed to point to a successful campaign, but then came the first
reverses, followed by the great retreat which meant abandoning to
the enemy some of the most fertile provinces of the Russian Empire
and the whole of Poland. The loss of the whole line of fortresses
which defended the Vistula was also an awful blow dealt both to
Russia’s might and to Russia’s welfare as well as prestige. Of course
the whole country waxed indignant at this unexpected series of
disasters, and of course the government was made responsible for
them.
The want of foresight on the part of the War Office was attributed
to the general corruption which existed in all Russian administrative
spheres, and also to the partiality of the Czar for certain favourites,
against whom he would never listen to any criticisms and whom he
continued to employ though the whole country had recognised their
utter incapacity.
 The Empress knew all these things: she had even been asked
more than once to interfere and to bring them to the notice of the
Czar, but she had always refused to meddle in questions which she
felt were so important that any false step might be accompanied by
terrible consequences. Once during one of the flying visits which the
Commander in Chief, the Grand Duke Nicholas, paid to St.
Petersburg from the front, he had tried to enlist her sympathies in
favour of a vast plan of reform he wanted to bring through, but she
was so mistrustful of him that she had thought it better to do
nothing but to declare to him that she did not think herself
competent to offer advice in view of the general difficulties
presented by the situation. She felt frightened at the persistence
with which certain people who were not over well disposed in her
favour wanted to get her mixed up in matters where the smallest
blunder might bring upon her head the wrath of the whole nation.
But at the same time she attempted to do what she had never tried
before, that is, to discuss with her husband the events of the day
and give him the benefit of her opinions, which, though always
moderate, were distinctly in favour of the continuance of the
autocratic system. She once told me that she thought it would be far
more advantageous to the nation if the Duma were permanently
prorogued, at least for as long as hostilities lasted, because she
feared for one thing that its criticisms would destroy the faith of the
nation in its government, and for another, that it would prevent by
the discussions it would be sure to raise the conclusion of a peace
favorable to Russian interests. This peace the Czarina called for with
all her heart, and she would have sacrificed much to see it
concluded. This got to be known, the more so that she never even
tried to hide it, and the rumour arose that she was negotiating the
conditions of such a peace with her German relations. This I do not
believe for one moment she had ever done or wanted to do, but
those intent on her destruction naturally accused her of intriguing in
a sense favourable to German interests. She had unfortunately
antagonised every single party in the country, the aristocracy to
begin with, and also the extreme radicals and socialists who made
her responsible for all the measures of repression which the
government had begun to take against them. The poor woman had
become the scapegoat of all the sins of Israel.
Nevertheless she fought bravely against these terrible odds, and
she applied herself to give to the Czar some of the energy which he
lacked, and of which perhaps she possessed too much. It was then
that she paid different visits to the Front, a thing which she had
never been allowed to do whilst the Grand Duke Nicholas was
commander in chief, and she tried to cheer up her husband, and to
encourage him in the new responsibilities which he had assumed
when he had dismissed his uncle and taken upon himself the
functions of Commander in Chief of the Army. He had been forced
into his decision by the general wish of the public, who were
dissatisfied with the Grand Duke Nicholas, and hoped that the
presence of the Sovereign at the head of his troops would infuse
courage into the hearts of the latter and induce them to make every
effort against the foe. But the troops were not to blame for the
reverses which had overtaken them; the lack of ammunitions was
the cause of the evil, and this could not be remedied by any
commander in chief, but would have required a thorough and radical
reform in the whole administration of the War Office.
There existed no one in Russia powerful enough to enforce this
reform. In the circumstances in which the country found itself
placed, it would have required the energy and the iron will of a Peter
the Great to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of any
reforms of a sweeping nature, and Russia had for sovereign Nicholas
II., the weakest that had ever carried the sceptre of the Romanoffs.
During these anxious days the Empress took to confiding in me
and sometimes called me to her side, generally during the night
when she could not sleep and was haunted by all kinds of fears in
regard to the future. She told me then that she felt persuaded a
revolution would follow upon the war, and that this time it would be
a serious one which would require considerable energy before it
would be suppressed. The idea that it might eventually prove
successful never entered her mind, and I have often wondered at
her utter blindness in this matter. But she felt so convinced that the
greater part of Russia was still attached to the principles embodied
in an all-powerful autocracy that no one was taken more unawares
than herself by the promptitude with which the Russian nation
accepted the overthrow of the dynasty. And yet she had been told
often enough that this dynasty was in danger if it did not decide to
make concession to public opinion that clamoured for a change. She
still nursed illusions, and she honestly believed that her personal
efforts in favour of wounded and disabled soldiers had made her
popular with the army, that it felt grateful to her and to the Czar, and
that it would not allow them to be harmed. She liked to relate
anecdotes tending to prove this, and whenever she returned to
Czarskoi Selo from one of the frequent visits she made to the Front,
after the Emperor had assumed the supreme command, she liked to
call me to her side and relate to me all that she had seen whilst
there, and how the wounded whom she had visited had thanked her
for her kindness towards them, not knowing that their thanks had
been uttered in obedience of a command and had never proceeded
from the heart of those who had uttered them. There had come,
however, one fatal day when, instead of the cheers to which she had
been used, the Empress was received with a dead silence by the
troops when she accompanied her husband to a review of regiments
about to be sent to the fighting Front. This was the first time that
such a thing had happened to her, and the poor Czarina was so
upset by this proof that she had lost the affection of her soldiers that
she declared she would no longer show herself among them. Of
course her friends tried to cheer her up, and to explain to her that
this had been a pure accident, but the impression had been
produced, and its effects were to be lasting ones. The first two years
of the war dragged on, and sometimes I wondered whether my
beloved mistress would ever live to see the end of this awful conflict.
She was getting weaker and weaker and her nerves were so entirely
destroyed that all those who still cared for her were getting quite
alarmed on her account. The Emperor alone seemed quite
unconcerned and failed to notice the great change that had come
over his wife. He imagined that she was anxious about the war, but
did not dream that her health was getting worse every day and that
she had lost the energy she had been endowed with before, in the
hopeless struggle she was fighting against forces which were bound
to overcome her in the long run. All her former vivacity had left her.
She had become sweeter than she had ever been, even during her
first years of married life, and she accepted with gratitude every
small service one rendered her. The haughty pride with which she
had in former times met any unpleasantness that occurred to her
had disappeared. She had become resigned to everything that might
befall her, but her great anxiety was for her husband and children,
especially the former, against whom she dreaded an attempt at
assassination whenever he was at the Front. During the sleepless
nights which had become her portion she fancied all kinds of evils,
and then she would proceed to the telephone which put her in direct
communication with head-quarters and speak with the aide-de-camp
on duty, asking for news of the Emperor. I do not think that she ever
obtained more than an hour or two of repose in the twenty-four, and
sometimes, when considering this, I did not, as I had previously,
blame the Princess Dondoukoff for administering to her opiates
destined to give her some rest. All this constituted a terrible state of
things, but still it was nothing in comparison with what was to
follow, and the unfortunate Czarina was soon to drink to the very
dregs the cup of sorrow that had been destined for her.
 CHAPTER XVIII
DISASTERS AND THE SECOND REVOLUTION
The last days of the year 1916 were sad ones for my poor
Empress. First came the assassination of Rasputin, which was a
terrible source of grief for her, because she firmly believed that so
long as he was at her side no harm could befall her, and certainly as
events turned out she had not been so far wrong in her superstitious
fears. During the first days which followed upon the murder of her
favourite she would sit motionless for hours in her boudoir, doing
nothing, absorbed in thoughts which must have been most painful.
Christmas—the last to be passed by the Imperial family in their
beloved Czarskoi Selo—was a sad one, and the Czarina did not even
attempt to shake off the melancholy forebodings with which she was
troubled. She was preoccupied with the idea of avenging the
destruction of the man whose existence she had considered in the
light of a fetich. It is a well-known fact that she caused the young
Grand Duke Dmitry to be exiled in Persia, as a punishment for his
share in the conspiracy that had deprived her of her favourite. She
who had always been so kind turned cruel and merciless, and I once
heard her exclaim that henceforward she would no longer listen to
her heart, but follow only the dictates of her reason.
There was one man who had obtained her favour on account of
the ardour with which he had espoused all her views; this was the
Minister of the Interior, Mr. Protopopoff. He had been one of the
most intimate friends of Rasputin, and he was continually urging
upon the Czarina the necessity of being firm, and of refusing mercy
to those who had shown themselves so entirely merciless in regard
to a man who had been a holy creature. Alexandra Feodorovna
found some consolation in her grief by talking it over with
Protopopoff, who finally won her adhesion to the plans which he had
formed to establish once more in Russia an absolute government.
Christmas had come and gone and a New Year had begun. The
difficulties of the military and economical condition of the country
had increased to an alarming degree. We did not perceive it at
Czarskoi Selo, but in Petrograd, as St. Petersburg now was called,
everybody was complaining of the high cost of living and the
impossibility of procuring for oneself the indispensable necessities of
existence. The population was getting impatient, and dissatisfaction
was spreading. Those who could see the signs of the approaching
storm tried to persuade the Czar that he had better remain in the
vicinity of the capital, and not go to the Front where, after all, his
presence was not absolutely needed. But Nicholas II. would not
listen, perhaps because both his wife and Mr. Protopopoff persuaded
him that there existed no reason for alarm. The Empress had implicit
confidence in the Minister and was convinced that a small display of
energy on the part of the government would very quickly do away
with the impatience of the population. She wished to get her
husband out of the way, not at all, as has been said, because she
wanted to make a coup d’état, but because she did not wish the
Czar to be worried by his family, who were making frantic efforts to
get the Grand Duke Dmitry recalled from exile. At first her intention
had been to accompany Nicholas II. to head-quarters, but then her
children had fallen ill with what had been considered at first an
attack of influenza, but subsequently turned out to be measles, and
she would not leave them. The Emperor departed, promising to
return immediately if any serious trouble occurred, and keeping
meanwhile in close touch with his wife and the commander of the
garrison of Czarskoi Selo. During his absence the Revolution took
place, brought about by a revolt of the troops entrusted with the
defence of Petrograd. They went over to the Duma as soon as they
heard that it had taken upon itself to institute a new government.
The Czar had been surrounded by traitors, therefore he had not
even been apprised of all that was taking place in Petrograd. Two
urgent telegrams which were despatched to him by the President of
the Duma, Mr. Rodzianko, never reached him, as we heard later on.
Had he received them it is likely he would have hastened back, and
perhaps his presence in the capital might have averted the
catastrophe. But his attendants were mostly won over to the cause
of the Revolution and purposely left him in ignorance of the gravity
of the events which were taking place, until it was too late. The
Empress also was not informed of the extent of the revolt, and it
was through an indiscretion of one of her servants that she got at
last an inkling of the truth. She sent for Count Benckendorff, the
head of the household, and asked him to get her all the information
possible concerning the extent of the rebellion. The Count, who
throughout this sad story behaved with the greatest loyalty to the
cause of the sovereigns whose confidence he had won by his long
and faithful services, tried to go to Petrograd, where he hoped to
learn some details as to what had taken place during the two
preceding days, but found it impossible because the railway line was
already in the hands of the revolutionaries, and no train from
Czarskoi Selo was allowed to proceed. He had perforce to content
himself with the news which he could obtain by telephone, and soon
this means of communicating with the people likely to keep him
informed as to what was going on was stopped.
The Empress, almost mad with anxiety, walked to and fro in her
apartments, wringing her hands, and saying the whole time that she
knew the Czar had been killed and the news was being kept from
her. It was with the greatest difficulty that she could be prevailed
upon to send a telegram to General Roussky, who was then
supposed to be loyal, enquiring after the Emperor. In about two
hours she received a reply saying that Nicholas II. was on his way to
Pskoff and expected to arrive there that same night.
This somewhat allayed the anxieties of the Empress, and just
about then the condition of the Grand Duchess Olga, who had taken
the measles in a more serious form than her sisters, became
suddenly worse, and she was thought to be in danger, as pneumonia
had declared itself and complicated her condition. And then Alexis,
who had been removed to another wing of the palace in the hopes
that he might escape the contagion, sickened in his turn, so that the
unfortunate Czarina had another anxiety to fight, which after all was
perhaps the best thing that could have happened to her, because the
necessity of attending to her children prevented her from brooding
on what was happening to her husband, which otherwise she would
have done the whole of the time.
The next thing we heard was that the Duma had sent two
delegates to confer with the Czar; we hoped that from this
conference something good might result, and that Nicholas II. would
be induced to call together a responsible ministry. The Empress
herself was persuaded he would do so, and remarked that if Prince
Lvoff accepted the position of Premier, things would not be so bad,
because at heart he was a loyal monarchist and would not lend
himself to any aggression against the person of his Sovereign. She
seemed more cheerful than she had been for the last two or three
days, and showed herself pleased that it was Mr. Gutchkoff, whom
she knew personally and had always liked, who had been
despatched to Pskoff. “Perhaps, after all, we shall weather this
storm,” she remarked, and she further observed that in the grave
circumstances which resulted from the unfavourable course the war
had taken, it was perhaps just as well if the sole responsibility for
what was to follow did not rest upon the Sovereign alone. Neither
she nor any of us had the faintest idea of what was actually taking
place at Pskoff. About midnight I left the Empress. She had been
persuaded to retire to bed, the Princess Dondoukoff having promised
to watch by the children and to call her at once should any change
take place in their condition. She was thoroughly exhausted and we
were all glad to see her at last take some rest, I had lain down also
in a room adjoining the bedchamber of my mistress when at about
three o’clock in the morning I was awakened by a soft knock at my
door. Thinking that one of the children was worse, I got up instantly
and went to hear what had happened before disturbing the
Empress. Standing on the threshold I found the Czarina’s old groom
of the chamber with a pale and frightened countenance. He pulled
me aside and in a terrified voice exclaimed: “Something dreadful has
happened: the Emperor has abdicated!”
“What?” I exclaimed, not believing my ears, and inclined to think
that the man had gone mad.
“The Emperor has abdicated,” he repeated, and forthwith began to
sob.
I dropped down in a chair, and thought that the end of the world
had come, and so indeed it had—of a certain world at least.
“Who told you?” I enquired. “How did you come to hear it?”
The man replied that the new ministry had advised the
commander of the town of Czarskoi Selo by telephone that the Czar
had abdicated in favour of his brother, and that the troops had to be
advised of the fact immediately.
“How shall we tell the Empress?” was my first thought.
Of course neither my informer nor myself could undertake the
painful task of apprising her of the new misfortune which had
overtaken her. We decided that the only thing to do was to inform
Count Benckendorff and to ask him to perform the sad mission. But
as we were proceeding to his apartments we met him coming to
those of the Empress. He had also been informed of what had taken
place at Pskoff a few hours before, and he was about to
communicate them to my unfortunate mistress. I went back and
aroused her. She was not sleeping, and got up immediately. She had
been bracing herself all the time for some new calamity, and when
told that Count Benckendorff wished to speak with her had felt
convinced that he wanted to apprise her that her husband had been
murdered. In comparison with such a catastrophe, the loss of her
throne seemed a small thing, and perhaps her first feeling was one
of relief at finding that her apprehensions had been groundless. But
what she could not bring herself to understand was the fact that it
had not been in favour of his son that the Czar had abdicated.
“There must be a mistake. It is impossible that Niky has sacrificed
our boy’s claims!” she kept repeating. But when at last compelled to
believe that such had been the case, she gave vent to an expression
of rage which showed how thoroughly she despised the weak-
minded man to whom she was bound, and exclaimed: “He might at
least in his fright have remembered his son!”
I think that these words are the most cruel condemnation that the
cowardice of Nicholas II. ever obtained, and deserved.

International Film Service

Grand Duchess Anastasia
 As may be imagined, there was no sleep for any of us after this.
When dawn appeared at last it found the Empress entirely dressed,
already calm and resigned, kneeling before the sacred icons in her
oratory, and invoking the protection of God for her children. Then
she went up to her daughters’ room and acquainted the two
younger ones, who had not yet been attacked by measles, of the
change which had taken place in their destinies. The girls were
stunned, as may easily be imagined, and Anastasia, the youngest,
began to cry. The Empress watched her tears and then in a hard
voice remarked, “It is too early to cry yet; keep your sorrow for
another occasion,” and she went out of the room without adding
another word.
But though she was told that her son’s condition was serious, she
did not approach his sick-bed that whole day. It seemed as if she
could not bring herself to look upon the child whose advent into the
world had been such a source of joy to her, and who had been
despoiled of the great heritage to which he had been born. It was
evident to all those who knew her well that some time would have to
elapse before she could bring herself to forgive her husband for the
injury he had done their only son, and perhaps she would never
have forgiven it had it not been for all the other misfortunes which
were to follow upon this hasty abdication.
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