was now clear to me.  They themselves did not know why they had come, or with whom they were fighting, or why they were fighting.  They knew nothing and cared less.  And yet it does not much matter.  It is not really they who are to blame, nor even their officers.  I know full well how instructions are issued and how little the pawns really count....  The despatches from the Chancelleries of Europe, how grotesque they can be!  Everybody is always so afraid of everybody else.

Yet while I was thinking these things, K——­ was not.  He was secretly worried, as he rode, whether L——­’s promise would materialise, or whether there would be another impasse.  Somehow I felt certain that there would be more difficulties, in spite of all assurances. Ce n’est pas pour rien qu’on connait les Russes, as C——­, our old doyen, always says....

We passed at length into the Imperial city by the northern entrances, far away from everybody else, and found ourselves in the midst of a big Russian encampment, with rows upon rows of guns ranged in regular formation and lots of tents and horses.  All the soldiery here were taking it very easy on this sunny day; had, indeed, stripped themselves, and were now engaged in sluicing themselves over with ice-cold water from a beautiful marble-enclosed canal.  These hundreds upon hundreds of clean white men, with their flaxen hair and their blue eyes, seemed so strange and out of place in this semi-barbaric Palace and so indifferent.  How curious it was to think that only a few days ago the Empress and all her cortege had passed here!

We sought out the post commander and told him our purpose.  The difficulties began quickly enough then, as I had anticipated.  The officer explained to us that our request was out of order and impossible; that no one was allowed inside the inner precincts or had ever been there; and hinted, incidentally, that we must be mad.  K——­ listened to all this in that insulting silence which is a sure sign of gentility, and then, ransacking his pockets, brought out a letter and handed it to our man.  That produced a change which might have been highly amusing at other times.  There was the complete volte-face which amuses.  The officer suddenly saluted, clicked his heels, and said in a silky way, like a cat which has tasted milk, that this order was explicit and made things different; that, indeed, we might go at once if we liked, only we must be discreet—­highly discreet.  He would accompany us himself.  Such trivial details were soon arranged.

We left our ponies and our outriders then and marched forward quickly on foot.  The soldiery around us stared and laughed among themselves as soon as they saw where we were going.  This made me understand that this excursion had been taken before, probably under the same orders and in exactly the same way.  It was only a well-rehearsed comedy.  K——­, who is really a bit of a coward, did not appear to relish the comments made, and now became suddenly reluctant.  He told me afterwards that he had overheard the men saying that we might be killed inside, as there were many people there.  So in silence we all marched on.