Nicholas had repeated to the Czarina the threat of his cousin, and this had been sufficient to incense the latter, even more than she had been before, against a man whom she considered, perhaps not quite without reason, as her most formidable enemy.
Nevertheless, she tried to persuade him to change his mind, and made an appeal to his feelings of humanity, asking him whether it was right to go on with a war in which hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers had already fallen, which would probably entail more sacrifices in the future than the country could afford. She spoke eloquently, but the Grand Duke remained unmoved, and at last Alexandra Feodorowna, worn out by the supreme effort which she had made, gave way to her uncontrollable grief, exclaiming in her deep distress:
“My country, my poor country, must I forsake thee?”
Nicholas Nicholaievitch turned round and said, with a withering contempt:
“To what country do you allude, Madam—to Russia or to Germany?”
The Empress jumped up, her eyes blazing with rage. She rang the bell, and told the lady in waiting who came in response to her call:
“Show the Grand Duke out. He must never be allowed to enter this room any more.”
And Nicholas Nicholaievitch never did so again.
XX
IT IS YOUR HUSBAND WHO IS LOSING THE THRONE OF YOUR SON
THIS interview with the Grand Duke, Commander-in-chief of the armies in the field, could not fail to produce a deep impression on the troubled mind of the Empress. Her proud and unforgiving character had been goaded to the extreme by the irony with which her husband’s cousin had received the overtures which she had made to him, and she could not bring herself to forgive him for the calm disdain with which he had asked her whether she considered Russia or Germany as her Fatherland.