On my way home at midnight I picked up from wayfarers rumors of soldiers attacking the police, soldiers fighting among themselves and rioting in barracks. But outwardly there was calm until three in the morning, when I heard in my room on the Moika Canal side of the Hotel de France some very lively rifle fire from the direction of the Catherine Canal. This sounded more like the real thing than anything so far, so I dressed and tried to get near enough to learn what was going on. But for the first time the streets were really closed. The firing kept up steadily until four. Farther on in the great barracks along the Neva beyond the Litenie it kept up until the revolting soldiers had command.
Revolt spreads like a prairie fire.
I regret not having seen the revolt getting under way in that quarter. I regret missing the small incidents, the moments when the revolt hung in the balance, when it was the question of whether a certain company would join, for when I reached there it was still in its inception and the most interesting thing about it was to watch it spread like a prairie fire.
The Duma dissolved.
Still not realizing, like most people in Petrograd, that we were within a few hours of a sweeping revolt, I wasted some precious hours that morning trying to learn what could be done with the censor. But toward noon I heard the Duma had been dissolved, and, as there had not been since Sunday any street cars, 'ishvoshiks, or other means of conveyance, I started out afoot with Roger Lewis of the Associated Press to walk the three miles to the Duma.
A silence like that of Louvain.
The hush of impending events hung over the entire city. I remember nothing like that silence since the day the Germans entered Louvain. On every street were the bread lines longer than ever. All along the Catherine Canal, the snow was pounded by many feet and spotted with blood. But there were no soldiers and few police. We hurried along the Nevsky, gathering rumors of the fight that was actually going on down by the arsenal on the Litenie. But many shops were open and there was a semblance of business. All was so quiet we could not make out the meaning of a company of infantry drawn up in a hollow square commanding the four points at the junction of the Litenie and Nevsky, ordinarily one of the busiest corners in the world.
Cavalry commands arrive.
The barricade on the Litenie.
Haphazard rifle-fire.