The result was that we finally started on our journey at 7 A.M. instead of 7 P.M., just twelve hours late, and arrived at our destination one hour in front of time.  Guards of honour awaited us, and breakfast of a more or less scanty character.  A presentation of bread and salt, on a fine wooden dish on which the ladies had painted a picture of the old monastery under whose walls the great Czech national ceremony was to take place.  We marched past the building in which the Tsar Nicholas II and his family had been imprisoned and from which they were taken to die.  I am anxious not to believe the untold horrors alleged to have been inflicted on the female members of his family, but they are told categorically.  It is best to believe nothing one hears in Russia, and what one actually sees is not always what it seems.

We saluted the flag at the Consulate, where our great good comrade and fellow-countryman, Consul Preston, gave warmth and good cheer to man and beast.  Suddenly we turned to the right and entered a huge square, already surrounded by Czech troops, infantry, artillery and cavalry.  It was indeed a great sight.  On the highest corner of the square a platform was erected, on the right of which we were given the post of honour, and for some strange reason which I could not understand were asked to play the British National Anthem, when the whole Czech Army came to the “Present!” as General Gaida and his Staff, with the colours, entered the square.  I felt that we were celebrating the birth of a nation.  The scene had that peculiar solemnity about it that makes the moment feel pregnant with world events.  One of the units was my old Ussurie battalion, and our old chum, Captain (now Colonel) Stephan, was the proudest man there, as he bore from the hands of the priest the newly-consecrated colours of his country.  What quantities of beer we shall drink together if I ever see him in his dear Prague, thinking of our thirsty days in Eastern Siberia!

It was my first introduction to the dashing young Czech officer, General Gaida, who by sheer pluck had played such an important part in cutting a way for his army from west to east.  We had the usual banquet, at which Admiral Koltchak delivered the first important speech since his appointment as Minister for War.  I gave expression to the delight of my own country at the birth of new nations and the resurrection of freedom amongst the subject people of the world.  I also gave expression to my pleasure that the first act of the new Russian Minister for War was to visit his army at the front and make himself personally acquainted with the conditions of the Russian soldiers who were so gallantly fighting to protect the people and the State from violence and anarchy.