r cocked hats became
interlocked; so there we were, almost nose to nose, afraid to move
lest one or both of us should part with our headgear. But he never
lost his presence of mind. "Hold your infernal hat on with your hand,
man," he hissed, and did the same. We backed away from each other
gingerly, came asunder, and there was no irretrievable disaster; but
the troops (who ought all to have been looking straight to their
front) had apparently been watching our performance with eager
interest, because there was a fatuous grin on the face of every one of
them, officers and all. The colonel of the Rifle Brigade said to me
afterwards that he trusted the staff did not mean to make a hobby of
these knock-about-turns on parade, because if they did it would
undermine the discipline of his battalion.

After dinner the Emperor summoned me into his room and we had a long
conversation. He spoke English perfectly, almost without trace of
foreign accent, and was most cordial, being evidently pleased at the
possibility of a closer understanding being arrived at between his
General Staff and ours. He expressed the hope that I would speak quite
openly to General Alexeieff at the conference which we were to have on
the following day. I sat next to him at dinner that next day after the
conference and he was most anxious to hear my report of it, having
previously seen General Alexeieff and heard what he had to say. The
Emperor had the gift of putting one completely at one's ease on such
occasions, and, being an admirable conversationalist, interested in
everything and ready to talk on any subject, it was a pleasure to be
with him. He spoke most affectionately of our Royal Family--His
Majesty the King had been pleased to entrust me with a private letter
to him--and, referring to the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert, he
remarked what a fine thing it was that they were old enough to take
their share in the Great War, whereas his boy was too young. The
little Tsarevitch had been staying at the Stavka shortly before, and
the foreign officers agreed that he was a bright, intelligent,
mischievous youngster; but the Emperor told me the boy was momentarily
in disgrace. It appeared that they had on a recent occasion been going
to some big parade at the front. At these ceremonials the Emperor, or
whoever is carrying out the inspection, salutes the troops on reaching
the ground by calling out "Good day, brothers"; but the Tsarevitch had
managed to g