When on the morning of June 19 the Tsarevitch was brought into the torture chamber he was still ignorant of the sentence of the court.
The headsman Kondrashka Tioutioune came up to him and said:
“Undress.”
The Tsarevitch still did not understand.
Kondrashka laid his hand on his shoulder. Alexis looked at him and understood, but no fear took possession of him. His soul was devoid of all feeling. He felt as if he were asleep and in his ears rang the song of an old foreboding dream:—
Fierce fires are burning,
Cauldrons are steaming,
Blades of knives sharpened
All to butcher thee!