THE CZARINA’S TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1922, Page 11

THE CZARINA’S TRAGEDY.

A FRENCH TUTOR’S MOVING STORY. - FIGHT WITH ADVERSITY. “Thirteen years at the Russian Court (Hutchinson, 24s net, with many photographs by the author) is a book of extraordinary human interest. It is the only authentic and intimate account of the Russian Sovereigns from one who shared their family life in greatness and in captivity, and is the solitary survivor of the party imprisoned with them at Tobolsk,” says the Mail. FROM THE GRAVE. “The author, M. Pierre Gilliard, was French tutor to the Czarevitch, and was reported in the earlier accounts of the murder of the Imperial family to have perished with them at Ekaterinburg. It was no fault of his that he was not ■with them at the last; the Bolsheviks parted him from them a few weeks before the final tragedy, and thus he has come back as from*the grave to defend their memory and to vindicate the Empress from cruel wrong. “In September, 1920, after staying three years in Siberia. I was able to return to Europe. My mind was still full of the poignant drama with which I had been closely associated, but I was also still deeply impressed by the wonderful serenity and flaming faith of those who had been its victims. To rehabilitate the moral character of the Russian Sovereigns was a duty —a duty called for by honesty and justice.” ENGLISH IN HER WAYS. “The Empress was never in sympathy with the Germans, and the foul stories about her relations with Rasputin were rejected by Kerensky’s commission, which sought in every possible way to blacken her character. The French Ambassador in Petrograd thus described her:—

“ ‘Her education, upbringing, her intellectual and moral outlook were entirely English. She was English in appearance and bearing, in a certain element of reserve apd Puritanism, in the intractable hnd militant austerity of her conscience and lastly in many of her personal habits.’

“When the proposal for her marriage to the Czar arrived she showed signs of hesitation. Her first visit to Petrograd was behind the coffin of Alexander 111., and the Russians said, ‘she brings misfortune.’ Nor did she win the affections of her subjects. “ ‘She never succeeded in being merely amiable. The fact is that the Czarina was nothing if not sincere. Every word from her lips was the true expression of her real feelings. She adopted a habit of distant reserve, which was taken for haughtiness and contempt.’ “Her one consolation was in her child, the Czarevitch.

‘“lt was discovered that he had haemophilia (bleeding which could not be stopped from the slightest injury). From that moment the mother’s life was simply one dreadful agony. From her childhood she had heard it spoken of as a dreadful and mysterious thing against which men were powerless. And now her only son, the child she loved more than anything else on earth, was affected. When the mother realised that no human aid could Save, her last hope was in God.

“ ‘lt was then that Rasputin, a simple Siberian peasant, was brought to her, and he said: “Believe in the power of my prayers; believe in my help and your son wiH live.” ’ “That, and nothing else, was the secret of the influence of this being, who displayed a blend of mysticism and erotomania and traded on the Empress’ despaur. For she knew her son had inherited his complaint from her. TOLLING OF A BELL. “The outbreak of war fell upon the Imperial family like the tolling of a funeral bell: “ ‘The Czar appeared (at supper with his family) and told them that war was declared, in a voice which betrayed his agitation, notwithstanding all his efforts. On learning the news the Czarina began to weep, and the grand duchesses likewise dissolved into tears on seeing their mother’s distress.’ “The Czarina already divined that she would be the victim of the war. She told M. Gilliard: “‘I have never liked the Emperor William, if only because he is not sincere. He is vain and has always played the comedian. He was always reproaching me for doing nothing for Germany. He will never forgive me this war. Whatever has happened to the Germany of my childhood? Prussia has meant Germany’s ruin.’ “As for the Czar, seen at close quarters :

“ ‘He was shy and retiring by nature. He belonged to the category of human beings who are always hesitating because they are too diffident and are ever slow to impose their will on others because they are too gentle and sensitive. He had little faith in himself and imagined that he was one of the unlucky ones.’ HER DESPAIR. “Rasputin’s murder came on the Empress like a thunderbolt: “ ‘Her agonised features betrayed how terribly she was suffering. Her grief was inconsolable. Her idol had been shattered. He who alone could save her son had been slain. Now that he had goue any misfortune, any catastrophe, was possible. “She was absent from the Czar at the revolution and his abdication: “ ‘The Czarina’s despair almost defied imagination, but her great courage did not desert her. Her face was terrible to see, but with a strength of will which was almost superhuman, she forced herself to come to the children’s rooms as usual. She reached the extreme limit of human resistance in this last trial, in which originated that wonderful and radiant serenity which was to sustain her and her family to the day of their death.’

“It was a tragic omen that in her room hung a tapestry presented by the French Government, showing Marie Antoinette and her children, a parallel to her own case, which must have been constantly in her mind. “Always in this growing martyrdom, the Czar and his wife showed perfect calm; no word of complaint rose from them, though they must have remembered Charles I’s. said reflection, ‘the prisons of Princes are not far from their graves.’

“When the order of the Bolsheviks for their removal to Ekaterinburg was given, the author quotes from his diary this passage: “ ‘The Czar and Czarina are calm and collected. It is apparent that they are prepared for any sacrifice, even of their lives, if God in His inscrutable wisdom should reauire it for the country’s web

fare. They have never shown greater kindness or solicitude.’ THE TRAGIC END. 7 “At the last farewell those about them broke into tears. The author «aw them no more. Some weeks latey he visited the room where they had mat their death, of which he gives full and authentic particulars: “ ‘The appearance of the room was ■ sinister beyond expression. The only I light filtered through a barred window

at the Height of a man’s head. The walls showed numerous traces of bullets and bayonet scars.’ “To the last they were brave: ‘“They had kept that wonderful faith which at Tobolsk had been the admiration of their entourage, and which ba<l given them such strength, such serenity in suffering. They were already almost entirely detached from this world. The Czarina and grand duchesses could often be heard singing religious aira, which affected their guards in spite of thsmselveV ”