I am firmly convinced that the boundless love you bear our great country is not dead within you. God bless you, and may St. George, the great martyr, lead you to victory! NICHOLAS. _The Chief of the General Staff_, ALEXEIEFF. In this sad and tragic hour the Czar had only one desire--to make the task of the Government which had dethroned him easier. His only fear was that the events which had happened might have an evil effect on the army which the enemy could turn to his own advantage. On the orders of the Minister of War this Order of the Day was never brought to the knowledge of the troops! * * * * * Why did Fate decree that the Czar Nicholas II. should reign at the beginning of the twentieth century and in one of the most troublous periods of history? Endowed with remarkable personal qualities, he was the incarnation of all that was noblest and most chivalrous in the Russian nature. But he was weak. The soul of loyalty, he was the slave of his pledged word. His fidelity to the Allies, which was probably the cause of his death, proves it beyond doubt. He despised the methods of diplomacy and he was not a fighter. He was crushed down by events. Nicholas II. was modest and timid; he had not enough self-confidence: hence all his misfortunes. His first impulse was usually right. The pity was that he seldom acted on it because he could not trust himself. He sought the counsel of those he thought more competent than himself; from that moment he could no longer master the problems that faced him. They escaped him. He hesitated between conflicting causes and often ended by following that to which he was personally least sympathetic. The Czarina knew the Czar’s irresolute character. As I have said, she considered she had a sacred duty to help him in his heavy task. Her influence on the Czar was very great and almost always unfortunate; she made politics a matter of sentiment and personalities, and too often allowed herself to be swayed by her sympathies or antipathies, or by those of her _entourage_. Impulsive by nature, the Czarina was liable to emotional outbursts which made her give her confidence unreservedly to those she believed sincerely devoted to the country and the dynasty. Protopopoff was a case in point.