[4] Ibid., September 1, 1896.

[5] La Nouvelle Revue, March 1, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[6] La Nouvelle Revue, May 1, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[7] La Nouvelle Revue, June 1, 1897, “Letters on Foreign Policy.”

[8] William II had just sent 8000 marks to the fund for the victims of the fire at the Charity Bazaar.

[9] Since Parisian journalists have dared to sing their cynical praises in honour of the German Emperor, no considerations need restrain our pen in defending the Tzars from the charges that have been brought against them.  These people ask:  How is it that your Emperor of Russia has delayed so long in expressing to us his condolence?  Why?  Let me explain.  The fire at the Charity Bazaar broke out at 4 p.m. on May 4, but the Russian Ambassador in Paris only telegraphed the news to Count Mouravieff on the evening of May 5.  The Emperor can only have heard of the disaster on the 6th; it was then too late for him to telegraph a direct message, and it was therefore thought best to send instructions to the Russian Embassy.  The blame in this matter falls therefore upon M. de Mohrenheim.  It was due to his methods of proceeding that the Emperor learnt the news forty-eight hours late. Le Gaulois, in a somewhat officious explanation, informs us that the Russian Ambassador kept back his telegram because May 5 is the birthday of the Empress, and because there is a superstition in Russia that it is bad luck to get bad news on one’s birthday.  This explanation is untrue; there is no such superstition.  Did they conceal from Nicholas II, on the day of his coronation, the terrible catastrophe at Khadyskaje, which cost the lives of thousands of Russians; and did this disaster prevent the Tzar from attending M. de Montebello’s ball that same evening?  Moreover, M. de Mohrenheim should have telegraphed on May 4 to Count Mouravieff, leaving to him the choice as to the hour for communicating the information to the Tzar.  M. de Mohrenheim is in the habit of doing this sort of thing; when he chooses, his instincts are dilatory.  He behaved in exactly the same way, and with the same object, on the day when M. Carnot was assassinated.

As soon as the news of that dreadful event reached the Quai d’Orsay, the Chef du Protocole, (then Count Bourqueney) went in all haste to the Russian Embassy, woke up the Ambassador, and informed him officially of the disaster which had just overtaken France.  It was then two o’clock in the morning.  Instead of telegraphing the news at once to Alexander III, M. de Mohrenheim only did so at eleven o’clock on the following day.  Now, he knew perfectly well that, as the result of this delay, the Tzar could only learn the news two days later because, on the following day in the early morning, Alexander III was starting with the whole Imperial family for Borki, where he was about to open a memorial chapel on the spot where several years before