Was this a prophecy, or merely a remark uttered with the object of blinding his contemporaries to his real purpose? It is certainly very interesting to note that the Kaiser would not allow the students of the military schools to see the "Retreat from Moscow." People must draw from that their own conclusions.
Verestchagin came to London on the occasion of his Exhibition, when I saw a good deal of him. Suddenly he was called back to Russia, and he came to me and announced his intention of returning immediately.
"But," I said, "you cannot leave your pictures."
"There are my two servants," he replied. "They will look after them."
"But," expostulated I, "they can speak only Russian, and that will not be of much assistance to them in London. How can they look after your affairs when they cannot speak either English or French?"
"Oh, that will be all right," he replied. "They will manage."
That was Verestchagin all over. The upshot of it was that I volunteered to look after his interests, and every morning I would go down to the gallery to see if there was anything demanding attention, and the people at the gallery, apparently marvelling at such devotion in a friend, insisted upon addressing me as Madame Verestchagin.
Verestchagin was one of the first victims of the Russo-Japanese war.