Although our soldier-servant had never been on
parade in his life (I had taught him to salute when at Petrograd by
making him salute himself in front of the big glass in my room, a plan
worth any amount of raucous patter from the drill-sergeant), the very
fact of his being in khaki seemed to turn him into a Russian scholar
by that mysterious process adopted by British soldiers in foreign
lands. Wigram had a grammar, and I had known a little Russian in the
past; but in the absence of Meyendorff and the courier neither Wigram
nor I could get what we wanted, while the soldier-servant could.

Having seen nothing but everlasting dreary white expanses since
quitting the immediate environs of Petrograd, except where the railway
occasionally passed through some township, it was pleasant to find the
snow gradually disappearing as one approached the Sea of Azov near
Taganrog. Then, after crossing the Don at Rostoff, where extensive
railway works were in progress and a fine new bridge over the great
river was in course of construction, we found ourselves in a balmy
spring atmosphere, although it was only the end of March. From there
on to the Caspian the railway almost continuously traversed vast
tracts of corn-land, the young crop just beginning to show above
ground; at dawn the huge range of the Caucasus, its glistening summits
clear of clouds, made a glorious spectacle. In this part of the
country oil-fuel was entirely used on the locomotives, and at Baku,
where the petroleum oozes out of the sides of the railway cuttings,
and beyond that city, the whole place reeked of the stuff. If you fell
into the error of touching anything on the outside of the car, a
doorhandle or railing, you could not get your hand clean again any
more than Lady Macbeth. We arrived at Tiflis late one afternoon,
having taken within three or four hours of five complete days on the
run from Petrograd. There we were met by a crowd of officers, and were
conducted to a hotel.

Next morning we paid a number of formal visits. General
Yanushkhevitch, Chief of the Staff, had held that same position when
the Grand Duke Nicholas had been commander-in-chief at the Stavka.
Tall, handsome and debonair, he was a man whom it was a pleasure to
meet, although he may not perhaps intellectually have been quite equal
to the great responsibilities placed on his shoulders in the early
days of the war. This distinguished soldier of very attractive
personality was murdered by