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422 EVIL OMENS IN PETROGRAD [chap. xxii.
liked to have the child working beside him whilst he
himself pored over maps and the reports of his Ministers
and Generals. The young Swiss tutor, according to M.
Odier, was full of admiration for the goodness, the
kindness, the simplicity, the calm serenity of the Emperor.
And now when one conjures up that touching picture of
the father and son—the Sovereign and the heir of a
mighty Empire—working side by side in the peace of a
small room, and when one is then seized by the
nightmare of the tales of the appalling butchery of
Ekaterinburg, of the father clasping in his arms that same child
who had fainted at sight of the guns levelled at them by
bloodthirsty brutes,1 one is filled with grievous and
deep pity, such as no other drama in history has ever
evoked !
But on the other hand what a curious character, that
of this Sovereign who, at a time of the supreme straining
of all the forces of the country, of imminent perils,
faced by death which was hovering over millions of his
subjects and above all over him and his, yet possessed
the faculty of preserving the same quiet habits, of
cultivating the same touching and eminently domestic
virtues, just as if all personal effort was forbidden him,
all direction of events impossible, and as if there was
nothing left to him from henceforth but to bow to destiny
("to the decrees of Providence"—he would have
corrected me !), simply accomplishing his daily duties,
and having his share of innocent pleasures !
" II y a des lacs limpides dansnos forets profondes ;
Couverts d’une fraiche verdure et fleuris sont leurs bords,
Mais cette herbe et ces fleurs recouvrent des marais sans fond,
Qui engloutissent le patre et le troupeau imprudents.
Le peuple dit que ces lacs recouvrent des dglises
(Que la misdricorde divine fit disparaitre devant des hordes sans rnerci),
Et par de claires et calmes soirdes un son de cloches retentit de leur
profondeur
Et des cantiques sacrds.
1 Pray God these tales be not true !
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