Rasputin would reply that war must be avoided at any cost if the worst calamities were not to overtake the dynasty and the Empire.
This advice was consonant with the dearest wish of the Czar, whose pacific intentions could not be doubted for a moment. We had only to see him during that terrible last week of July to realise what mental and moral torture he had passed through. But the moment had come when the ambition and perfidy of Germany were to steel him against his own last hesitation and sweep everything with them into the whirlpool.
In spite of all the offers of mediation and the fact that the Russian Government had suggested closing the incident by direct negotiations between St. Petersburg and Vienna, we learned on July 29th that general mobilisation had been ordered in Austria. The next day we heard of the bombardment of Belgrade, and on the following day Russia replied with the mobilisation of her whole army. In the evening of that day Count Pourtalès, the German Ambassador at St. Petersburg, called to inform M. Sazonoff that his Government would give Russia twelve hours in which to stop her mobilisation, failing which Germany would mobilise in turn.[29]
The twelve hours granted to Russia in the ultimatum expired at noon on Saturday, August 1st. Count Pourtalès, however, did not appear at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs until the evening. He was shown in to Sazonoff, and then formally handed him Germany’s declaration of war on Russia. It was ten minutes past seven. The irreparable step had been taken.
CHAPTER IX
THE IMPERIAL FAMILY IN THE FIRST DAYS OF THE WAR—OUR JOURNEY TO MOSCOW
(AUGUST, 1914)
AT the moment when this historic scene was taking place in the Foreign Minister’s room at St. Petersburg, the Czar, the Czarina, and their daughters were attending evensong in the little Alexandria church. I had met the Czar a few hours before, and been much struck by the air of weary exhaustion he wore. The pouches which always appeared under his eyes when he was tired seemed to be markedly larger. He was now praying with all the fervour of his nature that God would avert the war which he felt was imminent and all but inevitable.