How the German Authorities behaved to the Grand Duke Constantin of Russia and his Family
The Grand Duke Constantin Constantinovitch, grandson of Nicholas I, known as a patron of arts and letters, who was at the baths of Wildungen, in Germany, with his family, when war broke out, was stopped two days after the Empress. At first the Germans thought of detaining him and making him prisoner, as they had done with Admiral Skridlof, formerly Admiral-in-Chief of the Russian Black Sea fleet, and several Russian generals who likewise happened to be in German territory. But they merely shut him up with his family in a carriage of a frontier train. In this carriage they made a point of putting some soldiers who were travelling pipe in mouth, and forbade any one to open the windows. At different stages in the journey the authorities were guilty of repeated acts of rudeness to the Prince, and even went so far as to jeer at his suite. When the Grand Duchess expressed a wish to send a telegram to the Empress of Germany, who had been her friend from childhood, she found that she was arrogantly refused.
From the station at Gumbinnen up to the Russian frontier, that is to say for a distance of three leagues, the Grand Duke and his family had to complete the journey on foot.