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AT LIVADIA
229
Besides the Emperor and the four young
Grand-Duchesses there were only about a dozen of the people
about the Court at luncheon, among others the celebrated
Vyrubova and the less celebrated Admiral NilofT. I
was placed to the left of His Majesty between the
Grand-Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia. The four
young princesses rivalled one another in charm and
beauty, and the youngest, Anastasia, a child of twelve
years of age, specially pleased me by her bright,
intelligent and open expression ; I began a short
conversation with my delightful neighbour and was charmed
by the childish and yet at the same time serious vein in
all she said.
As I write these lines1 nothing is known in the
civilised world—or calling itself such—of the fate of
these unfortunate young girls. One knows that their
father was cruelly and brutally assassinated by the pack
of brigands to whom Russia is obedient at the present
time. Sinister reports are circulating as to the fate of
these four delightful young girls, torn from the most
brilliant heights of an existence in which they still only
breathed an atmosphere of beauty and virtue and
suddenly plunged into an abyss of treachery, total
desertion, revolting physical and moral filth. Have they
perchance been saved and hidden in some obscure
retreat in the heart of the Siberian forests, or else—
horribile dictu—have they also undergone a terrible
martyrdom ? No one in Europe knows for certain;
and moreover no one seems much concerned with this
embarrassing question ; there are so many other things
to think about and guard against!
Alas! who could have evoked such lugubrious
pictures in the immediate future; who could have
predicted such a terrible fate for those who on this beautiful
December morning were gathered round the Imperial
table at Livadia? Through the large bay-windows of
the dining-room one saw a pretty white patio full of late
autumn roses ; every one’s face reflected the pleasure of
1 October, 1918.
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