Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/200

184 who will give Russia peace, glory, and an Emperor!" &hellip;

This time the doors were flung wide open, and Kolchak entered the room. The lights were put on, while he stood with his always austere face and glowIng eyes, as if somewhat amazed.

"What bluff!" whispered one of the foreign agents seated beside me.

Several other mystifications were enacted by the Cossack monarchists.

In June 1919 the rumour spread wildly that the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich had arrived in Siberia—the one who was expected to become the future Tsar of Russia. It was alleged that the Cossacks were sheltering him in a secluded village. The news quickly spread all over Siberia. One of Kolchak's Ministers went on a mission of inquiry. He really found in the indicated village a man who bore a marked resemblance to Grand Duke Michael, but the mystification was so obvious that even the Cossacks gave up the hopeless propaganda.

A much more serious affair was the appearance, somewhere in the Altay Mountains in Siberia, of the youthful heir apparent, Alexy, alleged to have been saved by some devoted men.

It was a youth amazingly like the Grand Duke, even in the minutest details, having command of several foreign languages, and extremely amiable. He described with convincing veracity and tenderness the