[Illustration: THE CHILDREN OF THE TSAR Grand Duchess Olga Grand Duchess Tatiana Grand Duchess Marie Grand Duchess Anastasia The Tsarevitch Alexis _Photos: Boissonnas & Eggler, St. Petersburg_] Behind the Veil at the Russian Court By Count Paul Vassili With Twenty-Three Illustrations in Photogravure Cassell and Company, Limited London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1913 PUBLISHER’S NOTE Some thirty years ago considerable interest was aroused by the publication, in the _Nouvelle Revue_, of Letters dealing with the Society of the different European capitals. These letters were by Count Paul Vassili. They were clever, amusing, and, it must be owned, rather ill-natured letters. People wondered at the extraordinary amount of truth which they contained, at the secrets they revealed. The real name of their author to this day has never been disclosed; yet Count Vassili existed. He held an important post at the Russian Court, he had travelled widely, and everywhere had been welcomed as befitted his rank in the world. Cynical, intelligent, and wonderfully observant of everything that went on around him, his greatest interest in life was to commit to the leaves of a diary all that he saw or heard. That diary, which stretches from the time of the Crimean War to the present year, it was his intention to publish before he died. Alas, death came too soon. The Count passed away a few months ago. Nevertheless, the volumes which contained this diary became accessible, and their contents are now given to the public with the conviction that they will be read with the same interest that always attended the writings of Count Vassili. At the same time, we would warn the reader that the present volume is not historical, but merely anecdotal. Yet sometimes anecdotes are also history. They very often explain events wide in their influence over the affairs of the world in general and Royal Houses in particular, which at first sight seem extraordinary, whilst, in reality, they are but the development of some small circumstance. So far as we know there exists no chronicle of the Russian Court, and true anecdotes concerning it are extremely rare. Much has been written on the subject by outsiders upon hearsay; but here we have a book penned by a man who spent his life in the _milieu_ which he describes, who knew intimately the people he writes about, who was present at most of the scenes which he describes. That alone would ensure an interest to this volume. We therefore hope that it will amuse its readers, and perhaps contribute in a small degree to reveal the truth concerning Russian Society and the Imperial Family.