Then Iakovleff again bowed to the emperor and the empress and left. At the same time the emperor, who did not reply to Iakovleff’s last words, turned abruptly and accompanied by the empress, went out of the hall. Iakovleff went down. I followed him, but when we were going out the emperor made a sign to me to remain. I went down with Iakovleff and after he left, returned upstairs. In the hall I saw the emperor, empress, Tatischeff, and Dolgoruky. They stayed by the round table in the corner. The emperor asked me where they intended to take him. I replied that personally I did not know, but that it was possible to understand from some hints made by Iakovleff that it was intended to take the emperor to Moscow. The following reasons made me think of that: In the morning on the 12th of April, Iakovleff came to me and said that he would go at first with the emperor, then return to get the family. I asked him: “When do you intend to come back?” Iakovleff answered: “Well, in four or five days we will reach our destination. I will remain there a few days and start back. I will be here again in about ten days or two weeks.” This is the reason why I told the emperor that Iakovleff intended to take him to Moscow. Then the emperor said: “I suppose they want to force me to sign the Brest-Litovsk treaty, but I would rather give my right hand to be cut off than to sign that treaty.” “I shall also go,” said the empress giving evidence of deep emotion. “If I am not there they will force him to do something in the same way that it was done before,” and added something about Rodzianko. Obviously the empress referred to the emperor’s abdication. Thus ended the conversation and I went to Korniloff’s house to see Iakovleff. He asked me who were the persons going. And he repeated (for the second time), that anybody could go with the emperor on condition that he did not take much baggage.