As I said before, Kerensky promised the soldiers some pay additional to their previous daily allowance. The month of November came and no additional money was forwarded to us. Again the soldiers came to me and said: “They promise us everything and give us nothing. We are going to procure for ourselves the daily pay. We intend to demolish the shops and to obtain daily pay in this manner.” Once more I had to visit Pignatti and borrow from him fifteen thousand roubles. In this way I distributed to the soldiers daily pay to the amount of fifty kopeks, and shut their mouths for a time. At the same time the soldiers made up their mind to [Illustration: GRAND DUCHESS OLGA ] [Illustration: GRAND DUCHESS TATIANA ] [Illustration: GRAND DUCHESS MARIA ] [Illustration: GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA ] send delegates to Moscow and Petrograd to settle this question of pay. They chose for their mission Matveieff and Lupin. After some time they both returned (Matveieff returned as an officer); they said that they were promised that the money would be forwarded. Again I had to go to Pignatti and beg him once more for fifteen thousand roubles, as the soldiers did not believe any more in promises, and being out of my control, could create an unbelievable amount of trouble. When the soldiers learned from the newspapers that the men called to the colours in 1906-1907 were demobilised, they demanded their demobilisation also. After I got on my side the soldiers who were not to be demobilised the others were persuaded to stay. Then came the Bolshevist revolution. The wild movement that spread throughout Russia caused us many sufferings. It was about this time that the following incident took place: Father Vasilieff, the clergyman who performed divine service, was not a man of great tact. Although he was very well disposed towards the imperial family, he rendered them very poor service by his behaviour. On October 24th (before the Bolshevist revolution), the day of the anniversary of the accession of the emperor to the throne, the imperial family was having its communion. (The day before, during the night service held in the house the imperial family had made their confessions.) Nobody took any particular notice of divine service on this day, but Father Vasilieff permitted a very foolish thing to happen: when the imperial family left the church, the church bells rang continuously until the family entered the house.