These two good fellows were shot shortly afterwards; their sole crime had been their inability to hide their indignation on seeing the Bolshevik commissaries seize the little gold chain from which the holy images hung over the sick bed of Alexis Nicolaïevitch.
A few more days passed, and then I learned through Dr. Derevenko that the request made on my behalf had been refused.
On June 3rd our carriage was coupled to one of the many trains loaded with starving people from Russia coming to look for food in Siberia. We made for Tioumen, where, after various wanderings, we finally arrived on the fifteenth. A few hours later I was placed under arrest by Bolshevik headquarters, where I had been forced to apply for a visa that was indispensable to my companions and myself. It was only by a lucky combination of circumstances that I came to be released in the evening and was able to get back to the railway carriage, in
YOUROVSKY, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH PRODUCED AT THE ENQUIRY.
THE GRAND-DUCHESSES’ ROOM AS I SAW IT ON ENTERING IPATIEF’S HOUSE. ON THE FLOOR ARE THE ASHES FROM THE STOVES.