Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [32]
From their mysterious homeland the Montenegrins brought an unshakable belief in the supernatural. Witches and sorcerers had always lived there, in the high mountains grown up in wild forest, and some people there could talk with the dead and predict the fates of the living. All this was new to the granddaughter of the skeptical Queen Victoria; this mysterious new world intrigued her. But the main thing was that the Montenegrins promised the fulfillment of a dream. Alix longed for an heir? Nothing could be easier. It was merely a matter of finding the right person, someone who possessed the power. Alix, the exalted romantic, was drawn into the new game with all her being. The dark blood of Mary Stuart had stirred. They began with a foreigner, someone less exotic to the Hessian princess: a certain Monsieur Philippe from Lyons, who was famed in France for his miracles (the Montenegrins had learned about him in Paris from the military attaché at the Russian embassy).
It was Alix’s nature: if she believed in something, then she believed with all her heart, without reservation. She believed that this was the way she would get her wished-for son.
The Russian church condemned such perilous escapades with wizards and sorcerers, but the Montenegrins explained: “Monsieur Philippe is not a sorcerer. A sorcerer is a renegade from God, he is dangerous, he does not make the sign of the cross, he does not go to church. Through him the devil reveals his power. But a znakhar is something altogether different. A znakhar is a Christian. So he creates from God, not himself.” No one in the court could speak out against this not-so-innocent lie. Philippe arrived in Petersburg. Despite his dubious education and the warnings from the French authorities, Philippe received the title of doctor of medicine and the rank of full state councilor. At court an amusing story went around: Monsieur Philippe had moved into the tsar’s bedroom, ostensibly to hasten the birth of an heir with his prayers. The empress-mother was forced to have a talk with Nicky and demand that the Frenchman be sent away. As always, Nicky agreed, but Philippe remained. He could not deprive his beloved Alix of hope. Philippe continued to play doctor.
And joy: Alix felt she was pregnant. She did not want to see the doctors for fear of breaking Monsieur Philippe’s spells. But the pregnancy was proceeding so oddly that she had to consult the doctors. It turned out to be a false pregnancy: she was pregnant with her dream. So much did she long for a son! But then, finally! And the doctors confirmed it: she was pregnant. Philippe predicted a boy.
On June 5, 1901, she gave birth to a fourth daughter, Anastasia. The Frenchman declared that this was a special sign: the birth of a daughter instead of a son, which the stars had promised, only proved the girl’s unusual destiny.
But the Frenchman was too civilized. The Montenegrins understood they needed something more mysterious and strange.
Mitka the Fool was brought to court. The Montenegrins explained to Alix: “fools for Christ’s love” existed only in this country. Feigning insanity, they engaged at times in indecent conduct and went around in rags and even naked to mock the pathetic visible world and extract alms from people. They revealed the contradiction between God’s profound truth and worldly, superficial common sense. One was to seek the word of God on their lips, in their indecipherable speech. They were blessed, given to prophecy and miracle working. But Alix had not yet been made over into a Muscovite tsarevna: she found Mitka’s incoherent speech irksome.
Daria Osipova appeared.
Vera Leonidovna:
“At that time everyone lived for miracles. This mystical feeling is probably common at the end of a century. Perhaps it was a premonition of Atlantis’s collapse.… We adored séances, we sniffed cocaine.… At that time we had taken up with Daria Osipova.… This Osipova writhed on the floor—and then exclaimed her prophecies. We wrote down her exclamations; I still have them somewhere.… Swimming in the river ‘during a storm