When the Duma reconvened without disorders it never occurred to me that the Government would be foolish enough to let the flour situation get worse. I was so used by this time to see the Duma keep a calm front in the face of imperial rebuffs that I thought Russia was going to continue to muddle on to the end of the war and, though I thought I was rather well-posted, I confess I was on the point of leaving Russia to return to the western front, where the spring campaign was about to begin with vigor. As late as the Wednesday before the revolution I was preparing to leave. That day I learned that several small strikes which had occurred in scattered factories could not be settled and that several other factories were forced to close because workmen, having no bread, refused to report. Still I remember I was not too preoccupied by these reports to discuss the possibility of a German offensive against Italy with our military attache, Lieutenant Francis B. Riggs, as we strolled down the Nevsky in the middle of the afternoon. We had reached the Fontanka Canal when we passed three Cossacks riding abreast at a walk up the street. They were the first Cossacks to make a public appearance, and they brought to the mind of every Petrograd citizen the recollection of the barbarities of the revolution of 1905. Their appearance was a challenge to the people of Petrograd. They seemed to say, "Yes, we are here." If any one had said to me that afternoon, "These Cossacks are going to start a revolution which will set Russia free within a week," I should have regarded him as a lunatic with an original twist. [Sidenote: Petrograd life normal.] The life of Petrograd was still normal as late as Thursday morning February 23d, Russian style (March 8th). The bread lines were very long, but Russians are patient and would have submitted to standing four or five hours in the cold if in the end they had always been rewarded, but shops were being closed with long lines still before them, and the disappointed were turning away with bitter remarks. [Sidenote: The historic spot for protests.] [Sidenote: Cossacks merely keep the crowd on sidewalks.]