_Saturday, May 11th._--Colonel Kobylinsky has been removed and we are left to the Tobolsk Soviet.
_Friday, May 17th._--The soldiers of our guard have been replaced by Red Guards brought from Ekaterinburg by Commissary Rodionof, who has come to fetch us. General Tatichtchef and I both feel we ought to
[Illustration: THE PRIEST CELEBRATING MASS IN THE DRAWING-ROOM OF THE GOVERNOR’S HOUSE A FEW DAYS AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THEIR MAJESTIES. MAY, 1918.]
[Illustration: THE RIVER STEAMER “ROUSS,” ON WHICH THE CZAR AND HIS FAMILY WERE CONVEYED FROM TIOUMEN TO TOBOLSK IN AUGUST, 1917, AND THE CHILDREN FROM TOBOLSK TO TIOUMEN IN MAY, 1918.
delay our departure as long as possible; but the Grand-Duchesses are so eager to see their parents again that we don’t feel morally justified in opposing their wishes.
_Saturday, May 18th._--Vespers. The priest and nuns have been stripped and searched by order of the commissary.
_Sunday, May 19th_ (May 6th, O.S.).--The Czar’s birthday.... Our departure is fixed for to-morrow. The commissary refuses to allow the priest to come; he has forbidden the Grand-Duchesses to lock their doors at night.
_Monday, May 20th._--At half-past eleven we left the house and went on board the _Rouss_. She is the boat which brought us here with the Czar and Czarina eight months ago. Baroness Buxhœveden has been granted permission to rejoin us. We left Tobolsk at five o’clock. Commissary Rodionof has shut Alexis Nicolaïevitch in his cabin with Nagorny. We protested: the child is ill and the doctor ought to have access to him at any time.
_Wednesday, May 22nd._--We reached Tioumen this morning.
THE MURDER OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY DURING THE NIGHT OF JULY 16-17TH, 1918
On our arrival at Tioumen on May 22nd we were at once taken, under a strong escort, to the special train that was to take us to Ekaterinburg. Just as I was getting into the train with my pupil I was separated from him and put in a fourth-class carriage, guarded by sentries like the others. We reached Ekaterinburg in the night, the train being stopped at some distance from the station.
About nine o’clock the next morning several carriages were drawn up alongside our train, and I saw four men go towards the children’s carriage.