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lodgings, where I was told that a gentleman had been
inquiring for me. From the description and other attendant
circumstances it was more than probable that this
“gentleman” belonged to the police. I at once concealed some
important documents and photographs, taken in the famine
districts, and went to bed, sleeping soundly.
Among other visits next day I called on General Ustimovitch,
who received me very kindly and invited me to a drive through
the city. Sitting at his side in his elegant equipage,
respectfully saluted by the soldiers and police and gazed at admiringly
by the great multitude, I could not help contrasting the
experience with that of the previous night, when I was hiding
my papers, &c., from too great a curiosity on the part of the
police. I endeavoured to adopt a mien worthy of the occasion,
such as might have distinguished a Prince of the Blood or the
Procureur-General himself!
At the General’s proposal we made a picnic next morning
at 6 a.m. to a height on the shores of the Volga. It was a
curiously mixed party, including a peasant, a Tatar, and two
Bible colporteurs. I took a Kodak picture of this interesting
group, making a kind of silhouette against the sky. The
General is in the middle with a Russian lady who has done and
suffered much for her people; to the right and left a Bible
colporteur is handing the New Testament, the one to a mushik,
the other to a Tatar. When we had had some tea, &c., a
small choir went to the top of the hill and sang some songs in
Russian, among them a translation of the beautiful hymn,
“The Morning Light is Breaking, and Darkness Disappears.”
The General and myself stood at a distance listening. There
was moisture in the General’s eyes as he turned to me saying,
as he pointed to the choir, “And such people are persecuted in
Russia!” “That is sad,” I said. “Yes,” he replied, “but
the morning light is breaking.”
When we returned to the town a number of small processions
were going through the streets, and the church bells were
pealing. I inquired the reason of this, and was told that it
was a prominent saint’s day, and that at noon there was to be
a solemn “vodoosvjaststchenje,” or “consecration of the water”
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