25. This entry follows:
"It was a long wait till midnight when the mob outside expected to be invited to a division of the spoils…. but my plans were taking shape gradually as the moments slipped away…. In this isolated, though nicely furnished and elegant two-story dwelling, I got closer to the heart of my celebrated prisoner and his family than any other man alive…. In the few hours left to us before the time set for their 'execution'—in these evening shadows of July, 1918,—we have been discussing the effect of THEIR SACRIFICE upon the history of the world…. I put this down from memory:
"'It is understood already in certain chancellories,' my prisoner significantly replied, 'how my execution will be publicly accounted for…. Each Ministry will appoint a Commission, suggested by the Crown, to investigate and publish its own report…. The report published will be given out under the name of a Naval or Military Commission to impart an official sanction to the supposed inquiry and support the authenticity of the document agreed upon…. Naturally these prearranged reports will vary so as to satisfy the state of mind in each particular country.'… 'If regicides are so easily arranged,' I observed cautiously, 'perhaps the duration of this "Revolution" is also definitely determined?'… There'll be a period of revolution and distress,' my prisoner remarked, 'before our country settles down to industry and contentment. But the desire of "self-determination" will mislead the unfortunate and cause them to embrace a tyranny of the most cruel and selfish type. This will last for a time until gluttony destroys itself, as all excesses do. When the country is dismembered by the activities of rival greeds, my poor and honest peasants will turn upon their masters and restore this nation's power. They need but education to accomplish glorious results. They will obtain this education while they suffer and evolve a science of self-government while learning to govern themselves. It may seem strange to others when I say so; but not one of my whole family is covetous of the Imperial Crown. We prefer peace and liberty to all the pomp and penalties of Royal isolation from the rest of men and women in the world. Royalty means SLAVERY of the most humiliating form. The boy or girl that is doomed to Royal birth steps into a prison with the first breath he breathes…. Take my own case; I longed to get out and play rough-and-tumble with the boys I saw staring at me in the streets. But I was taught by my English tutor, Heath, that it would be lowering my dignity to associate with those fine young boys. My "dignity" was placed in a strait-jacket and, in a namby-pamby way, I was taught to play ALONE. I had cousins scattered over Europe who took their lot more happily than I; but even they regretted the mocking barriers that laid down a barrage between us and the more fortunate chaps outside,—outside, they enjoyed FREEDOM,—within, we were ALL prisoners in our little cells of etiquette and traditionary bondage. At fifteen I was dragged away to the Military Academy at Petrograd[A] and made to listen to old Danilovich until I actually hated the very name of war. I resolved at that time to inaugurate some means to get rid of such senseless waste of life if intrusted with the power. The Hague was my interpretation of what should constitute a proper exercise of international obligation. You realize, of course, the precarious state of Russia in a military sense,—while force was indispensable to hold us all together from within, it always exposed our weakness when directed toward external issues. I could not map out my own general education, even; forced by the traditions of my family I was placed in charge of the Holy Synod and taught by Pobedonostzev to regard myself as the source of SPIRITUAL POWER and instructed to regard an unorthodox opinion as a transportation offense. Now, while I reverence profoundly the sacred tenets of my holy religion, I regard religious freedom as indispensable to the dignity of spiritual belief. For that reason I made that reformation in 1905. As I grew up I rebelled against my intolerable confinement,—I went out among the PEOPLE and TALKED WITH THEM. They were friendly in most instances and gave me very good advice. I did not need a bodyguard to go about. I was as safe among the people as I would be in the Winter Palace. Often have I walked to the hotels alone to call on some particular friend without any thought of fear. Nor was it necessary,—I liked the people as genuinely as I believe they respected me. I learned their hunger for land by going around; and it was on that account that I projected and completed our Siberian Railways so as to give our people the coveted opportunity and an outlet to the markets of the world. Given an opportunity to accumulate and prosper, men will hesitate about going to war unless THEY ARE MISLED. I saw such an opportunity in international trade. I visited the Orient, extensively investigating the commercial field in that direction. It was a mighty task, necessitating a reference to others who should have been as much interested in the accomplishment as I was myself. Their mistakes have made me quite unhappy and there has always been CONTENTION between my Ministers and myself. If Witte had kept his hands off when Count Solsky got after the plotting school teachers and rebellious students, the propaganda against my reign which has honeycombed the Empire with sedition might have been checked in time to prevent this dissolution,—for it is more than a "revolution." It is idealism run amuck. France, England, the people of America, have been duped by the intelligentia—the Kadets—who never seemed to realize that in order to hold this Empire together not only FORCE but SUPERSTITION was required,—'si mundus vult decipi decipiatur,' it is the only principle that will hold unorganized ignorance in disciplinary subjection to orderly and regulated progress; and without this discipline the ARMY, or the power that holds this incongruous Nation together, will dissolve, as you may now see, while the whole Empire will fly to pieces. My strong Ministers were too physical and myopic to look beyond their noses. They were afraid to seem afraid of truth,—and they even accused me of plotting with Kazantsev and Feodorov against the life of my Minister of Finance,—always excuses for fomenting discontent! They never seemed to realize that the HAPPINESS of the PEOPLE meant the SECURITY of the CROWN. As a matter of fact the only loyal supporters I ever had around me were my wife and family besides a few others in the service of the State. When I announced my war aims on the Pacific for the benefit of my people my leading Minister had the audacity to obtrude upon my privacy at Tsarskoye Selo and demand that I withdraw the manifesto. This piece of impudence cost me the decision in that war. That magniloquent Minister, with his versatile Irish amanuensis, not only turned my mother against me, but he had the temerity to demand that I dismiss my best agent, Azeff, who alone kept me advised of the machinations of the Social Revolutionists, who, in turn, accused me of murdering my uncle Sergius—the greatest theologian of the age. As I recall the time, now, I am, of course, convinced that the only real friend I had among those Social Revolutionists was BURTZEV,—but I understood him too late!'… My prisoner spoke regretfully. His voice was soft and courteous, breaking at times into the altisonance of the tragic muse. He does not think that any act of his can be wrong; the mere fact that HE ran counter to accepted standards divests, in his mind, the act itself of turpitude. That seems to be the way he looked upon his former Eastern encrouchments. That's the way he justified his subterranean deals with the KAISER; and he even goes so far as to assert that 'if the Vyborg-Björkesund treaty had not been denounced the present war would not have happened.' He speaks of this a little passionately, scorning the very memory of Count Witte for 'questioning the morality of that arrangement.' That great Minister my prisoner refers to as 'an uncouth bully who bellowed like a mad bull.' In this respect it is my impression that the ex-Empress indorses his state of mind. What he likes she will place in the superlative; what he merely hates, she elevates to positive abhorrence. In this way she seems to flatter his decisions, which makes him smile quite indulgently at her, and hold her ascendency over his apparently veering mind. I can notice this in so many little things: She oozes delicate flattery and he likes it; she plays upon his prejudices, and he seems to have a lot of them submerged beneath his inalienable urbanity and instinctive grace of manner that even this misery and abysmal gloom have not relieved of polish. Beneath it all I get the impression that he is very much in love with every member of his family…. that he would like to be alone with 'Alice,' whom he addresses as 'my darling' and experiences a shell-shock if she stubs her toe. His final words are: 'Now it is ALL OVER and I WILL WELCOME THE OBLIVION that will release us all from the memory of our devoted bondage!'… While my prisoner conversed Alexis assisted his stately mother and his four beautiful sisters while putting on their superannuated wraps…. One by one they filed out the door leading into the open yard…. My prisoner stood up and stretched himself…. He was about to resume his seat when the report of a revolver resounded in our ears…. The brute on the floor, wallowing in his blood, was raised upon his elbows and firing recklessly…. After he had fired six rounds without apparent injury I drew my own revolver and fired deliberately INTO THE WALL…. The fellow slunk back to silence…. My prisoner and I followed the ladies out into the night, forgetting a jewel or two in our leisurely departure…. Out in the open WE DESCENDED into the old abandoned tunnel that formerly led from Ipatievs to the medical office of a foreign consulate a thousand feet away…."
[Footnote A: Nicholas used "Petrograd," not the German nomenclature.]
IX
WHAT IS LEARNED IN A SECRET TUNNEL
26. The next entry is mystifying:
"We are between the devil and the deep sea!… which gives me time to write…. The beastly tunnel has caved in midway in our passage…. It seems, from the roar overhead, that we are somewhere beneath the railroad tracks. Yet there must be a vent somewhere, as there seems to be a draft of air through this passage…. The family are congregated off to the right, in a kind of stoping where the dirt has been removed, leaving a small room like one meets with in the Gogebic iron mines in Wisconsin and Michigan, back in the United States…. Our little electric bull's-eyes come in handy just now…. With my bull's-eye propped up on a sand-encrusted box I am noting down some things that must not be forgotten…. While trying to find a passageway out of this hole in the ground we gyrated back and forth for the last two or three hours until the women became exhausted…. Then my 'prisoner' and I returned to the mouth of the entrance. There we heard a horrible row between the unruly brute we left on the floor and his wild-eyed fellow conspirators…. They accused him of DOUBLE-CROSSING THEM and making away with the treasure that they insisted should be theirs!
"… He insisted that there was NO treasure EXCEPT the JEWEL he apparently was exhibiting…. We could hear, quite distinctly, a sullen voice saying: 'I do not believe you; you are trying to steal the whole of it!… We'll give you ten minutes to produce ALL you have hid away, and if you don't do it, we'll fill your body so full of lead that your rotten carcass won't float in the Kolunda.'… The culprit replied: 'Let me explain. You remember that I was suspecting that interloper when I insisted on watching him; well, my suspicions were correct,—he was a TRAITOR to our cause. He was planning to steal away with his precious gang when I covered them with my pistol. Then when I had the drop on them I made them open all of their trunks and boxes. Nothing was found. I felt sure they were holding out on me, so I took a shot at the kid. The interloper made a dive at me. I knocked him down with that chair there…. then in my rage I emptied my pistol into the hearts of the whole gang…. that's all there's to it.'… 'He's lying!' 'Traitor!' 'Betrayer!' 'Down with the thief!' flew back and forth from one to another above our heads…. Then in a more subdued voice we heard 'Hist! Silence! Some one is coming!' A moment later I heard distinctly the unmistakable growl of my hero of Gallipoli overhead demanding, 'WHAT HAVE YOU CUTTHROATS DONE WITH OUR PRISONERS?' … There was a silence that could be felt…. None offered an explanation that I could hear…. 'Why don't you answer?' thundered Gallipoli…. There was an unmistakable murmur…. 'Don't YOU try to slide out of this, you COWARD! I'll hold every one of you responsible for this! Where's my lieutenant?'… He means ME….
"'Out in the yard,' I heard one of them reply…. 'Go and tell him to report here AT ONCE!'… Poor devil! the humor of this whole situation is displayed in the tragic possibilities of criminal greed when crooks fall out!… 'Where are the others?' my Gallipoli hero demanded…. I heard no answer…. 'DO YOU HEAR ME?'… still no audible answer…. 'Crack!'…. the report of a revolver, then a scuffling and 'stand back! Another move and I'll blow you ALL to HELL,—line up there!…. Now I order you to explain the whereabouts of the PRISONERS.'