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i9i7] A GREAT ILLUSION
465
post which enabled him to have his customary good
time; and, somewhat unnoticed in the legislative
assembly that sheltered him, was mainly occupied in
finding an audience amongst the young and pretty
society women of Petrograd, to whom he still preached,
in a deep and musical voice, generous ideas of political
liberty and of sympathy towards the humble.
We had got to the cheese, and the second bottle of
excellent claret (of which a few drops were still
glistening in the flowing beard of my amiable messmate) was
open beside him, when he, with heightened colour and
animated as usual towards the end of a good meal, leant
towards me and said, continuing the conversation on
current events: " Ah, well, no, my dear Nekludoff,
latterly we all have arrived at the conclusion that there
is no possible remedy for the situation as long as the
Emperor Nicolas II. is at the head of Russia. At the
present time every one is decidedly turning against him.
It is absolutely necessary that he should go. The rest
would then be quite easy."
This confidence impressed me at first, but on
mature reflection I only attached slight importance to
it. What does one not say after a good luncheon and
two bottles of good wine ? And besides who were
these "we" who had decided on the downfall of the
Sovereign? If they were recruited from amongst the
same good fellows—friends of the musical world, and of
charming dancers, of good cheer and unconstrained
gossip—the Emperor could sleep peacefully.
Infinitely more alarming echoes reached me. In the
Caucasus big parties of armed " brigands " were
beginning to overrun the country and terrorise whole districts.
On the Russian north-western front, one had signalled a
clandestine revolutionary propaganda, which was gaining
more and more adherents among the soldiers. The
Government of Petrograd was beginning to take police
measures, now in one town, now in another, against
clandestine organisations of workmen. It was always
the same measures, despotic but inadequate: nocturnal
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