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An encoded telegram to the Russian embassies in 1911:

“The bearer of this, Major-General of Gendarmes A. V. Gerasimov, is commanded at His Highness’s behest to travel abroad with the assignment of taking all possible measures to avert the marriage abroad of Mrs. Wulfert and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.”

Michael had done all he could to prevent his reigning brother’s learning about what had happened. He had gone abroad, he was circling Europe, in search of a secluded spot for a secret wedding.

Another encoded telegram in 1911: “In conducting my investigation, I have the honor to report the circumstances of and specific time at which the ceremony in which His Imperial Highness entered into marriage took place.… On October 29 he told his companions that he was going out with Mrs. Wulfert in his automobile through Switzerland and Italy to Cannes, and the individuals and servants accompanying them would travel by train through Paris to Cannes.… That day, October 29, they rode in the automobile only as far as Wurtzburg, where they boarded a train continuing on to Vienna, where His Imperial Highness arrived on the morning of October 30.… That same day in four hours and by midday the grand duke and Mrs. Wulfert drove to the Serbian church of Saint Sawa, where they performed the marriage ceremony.… For those individuals surrounding the grand duke and Mrs. Wulfert, their trip remained utterly secret.… During the grand duke’s sojourn, foreign secret service agents accompanied him everywhere in a special car.”

Such was the picture—motor races at the beginning of the century. A car with agents of the secret police following a car whose driver was a grand duke and whose passenger was his mistress. The entire journey was recorded by the agents his brother had sent.

Nicholas received the news of the “shocking marriage” during a particularly acute attack of his son’s illness.

Alix demanded that Nicholas remain implacable, as his father had known how to be. Taking pity on his brother would have meant allowing the further collapse of the Romanov family.

September 3, 1911. The embassy in Paris. More telegrams: “According to information received, the sovereign emperor’s aide-de-camp appeared in Cannes to inform the grand duke in the name of His Highness that he was prohibited to enter Russia.… The grand duke is very depressed and does not go out anywhere.”

After the birth of the tsarevich Alexei, Michael had lost the title of heir and had received that of state regent. Now he was deprived of that as well.

Of those who witnessed the inception of Nicholas and Alexandra’s happy marriage, Ella was one of few who remained. Still a beauty, she walked through the park dressed in a gray nun’s habit. After mourning her husband, Sergei, Ella had disbanded her court, moved into rooms on Ordynka, and founded a religious community, the Cloister of Martha and Mary. The order was named for the Gospel’s Martha and Mary, sisters who lived in the house of Lazarus and were friends of Jesus. The nuns of the cloister cared for sick and abandoned children, the poor, and the dying.

Wise Ella understood that speaking about Rasputin with Alix meant sundering relations and leaving her sister completely isolated. All that remained for Ella was to pray for her. And be patient.

Also next to Nicky was his childhood friend Prince Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg—Petya in Nicholas’s diaries.

The Oldenburgs came from an ancient line famous for its savage cruelty. European chroniclers wrote with horror about them. In the eighteenth century this line merged with the Romanovs. So here was Petya, a descendant of those horrible Oldenburgs—a very good and very ungainly, tall man. In his spare time he wrote sweet, sentimental stories about nature. He was married to Grand Duchess Olga, the sister of his reigning comrade. But Petya was a homosexual, and unhappy Olga could not decide whether to leave him.

Petya would survive the terrible revolution and the companion of his childhood games. After the revolution, at an émigr