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and wearing the huge fur caps which make them look so fierce. As we started to return, the whole mass of cavalry suddenly moved forward, took station on both sides of the road, broke into a gallop, tearing up the hills, sweeping down the banks of ravines, clearing all obstacles, and thus escorted us to the station in a terrific charge in which men and animals crashed together on the ground while above the mêlée rose the raucous yells of the Caucasian mountaineers. It was a spectacle at once magnificent and terrible which revealed all the savage instincts of this primitive race.
We did not return to G.H.Q. until November 26th, after having visited practically the whole of the immense front from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
On December 10th we heard that the Czar was intending to visit the regiments of the Guard which were then on the frontier of Galicia. On the morning of our departure, Thursday, December 16th, Alexis Nicolaïevitch, who had caught cold the previous day and was suffering from a heavy catarrh in the head, began to bleed at the nose as a result of sneezing violently. I summoned Professor Fiodrof,[40] but he could not entirely stop the bleeding. In spite of this accident we started off, as all preparations had been made for the arrival of the Czar. During the night the boy got worse. His temperature had gone up and he was getting weaker. At three o’clock in the morning Professor Fiodrof, alarmed at his responsibilities, decided to have the Czar roused and ask him to return to Mohileff, where he could attend to the Czarevitch under more favourable conditions.
The next morning we were on our way back to G.H.Q., but the boy’s state was so alarming that it was decided to take him back to Tsarskoïe-Selo. The Czar called on the General Staff and spent two hours with General Alexeieff. Then he joined us and we started off at once. Our journey was particularly harrowing, as the patient’s strength was failing rapidly. We had to have the train stopped several times to be able to change the plugs. Alexis Nicolaïevitch was supported in bed by his sailor Nagorny (he could not be allowed to lie full length), and twice in the night he swooned away and I thought the end had come.
Towards morning there was a slight improvement, however, and the hæmorrhage lessened. At last we reached Tsarskoïe-Selo. It was eleven o’clock. The Czarina, who had been torn with anguish and anxiety, was on the platform with the Grand-Duchesses. With infinite care the invalid was taken to the palace. The doctors ultimately succeeded in cauterizing the scar which had formed at the spot where a little blood-vessel had burst. Once more the Czarina attributed the improvement in her son’s condition that morning to the prayers of Rasputin, and she remained convinced that the boy had been saved thanks to his intervention.
The Czar stayed several days with us, but he was anxious to get away as he was wishful to take advantage of the comparative stagnation at the front to visit the troops and get into the closest possible touch with them.
His journeys to the front had been a great success. His presence had everywhere aroused immense enthusiasm, not only among the men but also among the peasants, who swarmed in from the country round whenever his train stopped, in the hope of catching a glimpse of their sovereign. The Czar was certain that his efforts would tend to revive feelings of patriotism and personal loyalty in the nation and the army. His recent experiences persuaded him that he had succeeded, and those who went with him thought the same. Was it an illusion? He who denies its truth can know little of the Russian people, and cannot have the slightest idea how deep-rooted was monarchical sentiment in the moujik.