For about a month I was guarding the steamer and railroad cars of the commissar Gorbounoff. On [Illustration: EMPRESS ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA IN TOBOLSK] [Illustration: X THE IPATIEV HOUSE IN EKATERINBURG (GENERAL VIEW) (X) The Basement room in which the murders took place.] [Illustration: YANKEL YUROVSKY, THE MURDERER He shot the Tsar and the Tsarevich with his own hand.] [Illustration: THE IPATIEV HOUSE: SHOWING THE STOCKADE AROUND THE HOUSE The above photograph was taken in May, 1918, directly after the arrival of Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria. Their jailers had had time to put up only the inner fence. The outer stockade, erected later, inclosed the gateway and approaches to the house. Machine-guns were mounted at different points within the inclosure and in the garret. Note the shrine on the left.] [Illustration: THE TSAR SAWING WOOD IN THE COURTYARD OF THE governor’s PALACE, TOBOLSK It is winter. He wears the papaha (military fur hat) and felt boots.] [Illustration: BED-ROOM OF THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPRESS IN THE IPATIEV HOUSE] November 1st, of my own will, I went to Motoviliha and remained there. After the place came under the rule of the supreme ruler I was mobilised, participated in battles with the Reds and finally was arrested. I remember another fact in the life of the emperor. On one occasion I entered the commandant’s room and met there Nikoulin and Kabanoff. I heard Nikoulin asking Kabanoff what he spoke about with the czar during the time of his walk. Kabanoff replied that the emperor asked him if he had not been previously in a certain cuirassier regiment. Kabanoff answered that he had been and added also that once, during the time he was in the regiment, the regiment was reviewed by the czar. We were all surprised at the czar’s memory. I can not say what became of the boy who stayed with the imperial family. On one of the days immediately following the murder I saw the boy from a distance; he was sitting in the room where the Sissert workmen were dining and was weeping bitterly so that his sobs were heard by me. I did not go towards him, nor did I ask him any questions. I was told that the boy learned about the murder of the imperial family and began to cry.