Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. War sufferers
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prisoners of war raised vehement protests and a general
discussion on all questions relative to the war. We
heard Macha Vassiltchikoff—as I expected—take up the
well-known German arguments on the origin of the war,
and inveigh against crafty Albion; this raised a storm
of protest, and the conversation had nearly turned into
that useless hubbub where every one talks at once and
no one listens, when old M. Volkoff began to speak: by
his concise and scientific reasoning he proved to his
opponent the absolute inanity of the German thesis, and
the intellectual, moral and even material superiority of
England over Germany; and he knew both races and
both countries thoroughly; he took great care not to
disparage the Germans and their enormous resources;
but the German cause appeared clearly to the listeners
as perverted from the outset and lost in advance. At
the end of this long magisterial peroration there was
nothing left of Macha Vassiltchikoff or of her arguments.
Before taking leave of her, I warned her that the
Legation in war-time refrained from issuing permits for
the Russian Custom House, and were still less inclined
to affix their seals to special bags; then looking straight
into her eyes, I said: “Mademoiselle Vassiltchikoff” (I
emphasised the name—one of the very good and ancient
ones of the Russian nobility which had been borne in
the person of Macha’s nearest relations by eminently
respectable people specially known for their patriotism
and their adherence to the Slavophile school), “listen
to a friend’s advice: you have not been in Russia for
some time; I fear that you do not realise the enormous
change the war has wrought in the dispositions of
everybody. On arriving in St. Petersburg try to look
and listen carefully before indulging in talk such as we
have just heard, and above all before attempting to take
any steps which would be completely at variance with
the name you bear.” The plump Macha burst forth into
protestations of her perfect patriotism, and swore that
she was not being sent on any mission. All the same
we heard that a few days after her arrival in St.
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