[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. {_Facing page 264._] 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. CHAPTER XXI EKATERINBURG 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. A few minutes passed and then Nagorny, the sailor attached to Alexis Nicolaïevitch, passed my window, carrying the sick boy in his arms; behind him came the Grand-Duchesses, loaded with valises and small personal belongings. I tried to get out, but was roughly pushed back into the carriage by the sentry. I came back to the window. Tatiana Nicolaïevna came last, carrying her little dog and struggling to drag a heavy brown valise. It was raining, and I saw her feet sink into the mud at every step. Nagorny tried to come to her assistance; he was roughly pushed back by one of the commissaries.... A few minutes later the carriages drove off with the children in the direction of the town. How little I suspected that I was never to see them again, after so many years among them! I was convinced that they would come back and fetch us and that we should be united without delay.