w unpaved streets
dotted here and there with mosques.

On arrival we drove up the hill to the great Preobrazhensky Monastery
where Rasputin, as became a holy man, sought hospitality and was
immediately very warmly welcomed, while I afterwards went on to the Hotel
Frantsiya, in the long busy Vozkrensenkaya, where I took a room in order
to watch the arrival of Alexandra Feodorovna, who would travel incognita,
and of whose coming I was to give warning to Grichka.

For two days I waited, ever on the alert, and, of course, interested in
the adventure. It is not always that one waits in an hotel in expectation
of the arrival of an empress. Meanwhile I had made friends with the hotel
clerk, without, of course, explaining my business, and he had promised to
tell me of all new arrivals.

The Frantsiya is a very comfortable hotel, conducted upon French lines,
and the two days I spent in Kazan were certainly quite enjoyable ones.

On the evening of the third day my friend the hotel clerk sent a message
to my room, and in response I at once descended to the bureau, when he
informed me that the ladies had just arrived, a Madame Strepoff, and her
maid Mademoiselle Kamensky. He described the first-named, and I at once
recognised her as the Tsaritza herself, though, of course, the tall, pale
young man had no idea of her identity. I had merely told him that I
expected the arrival of a lady whom I had met in Moscow some time ago.

"Madame has taken the best suite of rooms in the hotel," the clerk said.
"She is evidently an aristocrat though she is only Madame Strepoff. I
have just sent their passports to the police."

The hour was immediately before dinner, therefore I lounged about the
entrance hall awaiting the appearance of the two travellers who, the
clerk had told me, had not ordered dinner in their rooms, so evidently
they intended to dine in the public restaurant.

Just after half-past seven they descended the broad staircase. There was
but little difference in their ages. In an instant I recognised the
handsome Empress by the many photographs I had seen. The other, dark and
also good-looking, was evidently a lady-in-waiting, a lady whom I
afterwards met at Court.

The pair, dressed inconspicuously in black, seated themselves at a little
_table a deux_ in the window, while I followed, and having selected a
table opposite, ate my meal as I watched.

The Empress in incognita seemed in high spirits, perhaps because she had