I was thunderstruck. All the officers in the room strained their ears. There was a tense moment. I felt my blood rush to my head like a flame. I was furious. With two violent jerks I tore off my epaulets and threw them into the face of the War Minister. “I refuse to serve under you!” I exclaimed. “To-day you are one way, to-morrow, the opposite. You allowed me once to run the Battalion without a committee. I shall not form any committees! I am going home.” I flung these words at Kerensky, who had turned very red, before any one in the room had recovered from the shock, ran out of the house, threw myself into the Corps Commander’s motor and ordered his chauffeur to drive to Redki instantly. A friend of the Chief of Staff, Kostiayev, told me later that there was a great commotion as soon as I left the room. Kerensky was furious at first. “Shoot her!” he ordered in a fury. “Minister,” said General Valuyev, the Commander of the Tenth Army, in my defence, “I have known Botchkareva for three years. She first tasted war as a member of my Corps. She suffered more than any other soldier at the front, because she suffered both as a woman and as a soldier. She was always the first to volunteer for any enterprise, thus serving as an example. She is a plain soldier and a word is a pledge to her. If she had been promised the command of the Battalion without the aid of a committee, she would never understand a violation of the pledge.” The Commander of my Corps and other officers also spoke up for me. Finally some remembered that Kerensky had abolished capital punishment. “Capital punishment has been abolished, Minister,” they said. “If Botchkareva is to be shot, then why not let us shoot some of those fifteen hundred deserters who are raising the devil here?” Kerensky then abandoned the thought of shooting me, but insisted before departing from Molodechno that I should be tried and punished. The trial never took place. The Corps Commander was very agitated when he discovered that I had disappeared with his car. He had to borrow one to get to Redki, and although pleased in his heart with my outburst he decided to give me a scolding and remind me of discipline. I was too excited and nervous to do anything when I returned from Molodechno, and so lay down in my barrack, trying to picture what would now become of the Battalion. I knew I had committed a serious breach of discipline and reproached myself for it. I was called before the Commander late in the afternoon, and he reprimanded me for my unmilitary conduct. The General’s rebuff was severe. I acknowledged every point of it without argument, recognizing that my behaviour was unpardonable.