essing a large crowd, the one in
one courtyard the other in another courtyard, exhorting their
audiences to stand shoulder to shoulder for a common purpose. Nothing
but the knowledge that on the morrow the Prussians might be thundering
at the gates of the city could have produced such harmony of action
between two such differing types.

Another picturesque incident of the actual revolution occurred when
the Imperial Guards at the palace revolted and, having disposed of
their commanders, sent a committee in to arrest the czarina, who was
attending her children, all of whom were ill with the measles.

"Do not hurt me or my children," she appealed, "I am only a poor
Sister of Charity." A guard was left over her while the main body of
the regiment went over to Taurida Palace to place itself at the
disposal of the Provisional Government.

Meanwhile other notorious members of the dark forces were apprehended.
Ex-Premier Boris von Sturmer, the traitor whom Milukov had denounced
as a thief, and who had since his downfall been a member of the court
camarilla, was arrested and put in a cell lately occupied by a
political prisoner. Next came the metropolitan of the church, Pitirim,
an appointee of Rasputin, a feeble old man in a white cap and a black
cassock, tottering in the midst of a crowd of laughing and jesting
soldiers and workingmen, showing him, however, no other violence than
with their tongues. One by one all the members of the old regime were
brought in, or they came of themselves. Finally the archconspirator,
Protopopoff himself, was the only one of note still at large. For two
days his whereabouts remained unknown. As developed later, he was
hiding in the house of a relative.

On the evening of the 13th an old man in civilian dress appeared
before the main doorway of the Duma headquarters. A civilian guard, a
student, stood there.

"I am Protopopoff," said the man to the astonished guard; "I have come
to surrender myself to the Duma and to recognize its authority. Take
me to the right person."

The guard shouted the ex-minister's name in his excitement and a crowd
quickly gathered. Even the perennial good humor of a Russian crowd
forsook this gathering and it began to assume the aspect of a Western
vigilance committee. There were angry shouts; the archtraitor,
Protopopoff, was before them in person. But before actual violence
could be offered the old man, Kerensky, the Socialist leader, leaped
into the crowd a