an interesting trait of the forebears of princess alix was their belief in ghosts. presently we shall see that princess alix, even after she became tsaritsa, gave much of her time to the study of the mystics and has always had spiritualistic tendencies and beliefs in the supernatural. most of the dukes of hesse are credited with similar superstitions.

duke george ii, who lived in the seventeenth century, is said to have seen the ghost of his dead brother wilhelm on one occasion. before the death of wilhelm there had been a quarrel between the two brothers. the ghost chastened and severely reproached duke george for his bitterness and hatred. the incident made such an impression upon him that as long as he lived, he could not shake off the spell of the weird experience.

another duke of hesse, a william, had a life-long terror of ghosts and always slept in a brilliantly lighted room. a story is on record of this man that he once returned to one of his hunting lodges at night, when suddenly all of the lights went out, a great wind magically arose, doors slammed, windows shook—and presto!—the lights{150} as suddenly reappeared, but all of the soldiers of the guard had mysteriously vanished and the entire lodge was dismantled. long before this the lodge was reputed “haunted,” so that when the duke was there the soldiers of the guard were changed every thirty minutes and the whole establishment kept well lighted.

just prior to the birth of the fifth child to the empress, a phase of temperament developed, which attracted the attention and comment of the world. from early girlhood, the princess alix had manifested an interest in things philosophical and theological. back in her old home at darmstadt, the royal betrothal had once nearly been broken owing to the religious scruples of the bride-to-be. princess alix could not convince herself or be convinced that she was right in renouncing the protestant faith of her mother and adopting that of the greek catholic church. finally, her love for nicholas overcame her scruples of conscience and she forced herself to accept the doctrines of the state church of russia. priests who had been assigned to tutor her, to this day relate their experiences and difficulties in meeting the arguments and answering the questions brought up by the princess: the familiarity which she exhibited with german theological writings and philosophical theories confused them. in russia, as empress, she continued to encourage her interest in religious doctrines and theories. the friends of her own choosing were generally men and women with{151} whom she could discuss vital religious problems. surrounded as she was by an atmosphere perennially surcharged with the sense of impending tragedy, she not unnaturally, developed pronounced morbid tendencies. from time to time, she believed that she caught the glint of certain gleams of spiritual truths in the distance and these she pursued with that fatal persistence which so often leads people, especially women of temperamental or melancholy tendencies to ultimately accept various “isms.” the tsaritsa became more and more markedly spiritualistic. by nature and by training, she was retiring and preferred the splendid isolation of the court in her home circle to the more brilliant opportunities offered her by her supreme social position. these tendencies toward retirement, encouraged as they were by the court which did not take kindly to her nor exhibit at any time the cordiality and friendliness generally accorded queens, she came to live more and more in the realms of the spiritual. she carried her intellectual interests far beyond the things we know and over into the borderland of faith and belief. to those who knew her well, it was not a matter of special surprise when, after the birth of three children and no heir to the throne, the tsaritsa turned an open ear to various men who claimed supernatural control over things physical.

prior to the birth of anastasie, the aid of eminent medical and scientific men was sought to influence, if possible, the sex of the next child, but all{152} to no avail. (what pangs of bitterness must sometimes have come to her mother heart when she remembered the two boys whose father was also the father of her daughters,—two sons who could never be recognised by their own father and who were destined forever to be exiled to a foreign land because of the blot on their ’scutcheon! what piercing irony of fate for the father who must sometimes have remembered his outcast sons upon whom he had bestowed the bastard mark while the birth of a legitimate son and heir was so long deferred!)

when science failed, religion and spiritualism were appealed to. rumours were rife of various charlatans imported from one place or another to practise their magic. of these, the one who came to be the most widely known was called philippe. philippe first joined the royal entourage at livadia. later, he was brought to moscow and st. petersburg, and for several years, he is said to have exercised great influence not only over the empress but over the tsar as well. the tsar has ever been an impressionable man and though he has displayed all the stubbornness of a weak nature, he has frequently been under the domination of others. just as he was willing to lend a ready ear to pobiedonostzeff and to his uncle, the grand duke sergius, so also was he willing to listen to charlatans who came to him well recommended. it was under the reactionary grand-ducal party that philippe was brought to russia. in course of time, this man came to be known as “the tsar’s magi{153}cian.” an atmosphere of profound mystery always surrounded philippe, although of the extent of his domination, there never was any question. from all that i can gather, this man’s name was philippe landard. landard is supposed to have been the son of a shepherd and that he was born in a small village situated high among the french alps. when quite a boy, his father would regularly take him to the local abattoir, and on one of these visits, he made the acquaintance of a butcher who took the boy into his employ. landard possessed imagination even as a child, as is evinced by the fact that his contract with the slaughter-house prompted him with the desire to become a surgeon. with this hope in view, he attended evening classes and night lectures in the medical school at lyons. handicapped, however, by lack of money and presumably not endowed with keenest intelligence, he never succeeded in passing the examinations necessary to admit him to practice. what he did succeed in doing, however, was to discover and develop certain magnetic powers which he undoubtedly had,—powers of personality which he cultivated remarkably. he turned this power especially in the direction of healing. he practised auto-suggestion and by the judicious use of massage, frequently succeeded in convincing people that his healing powers were literally real. ultimately, he was able to establish himself as a thaumaturgist or practising healer in the rue tape d’or at lyons where he acquired con{154}siderable local notoriety which presently spread all over france among people who believed in his art. at least twice, he is said to have been arrested and charged by the police as an illegal practitioner. this led him to be more discreet in his methods and he refrained from ever writing a prescription or committing himself in writing on any point. the leader of the french school of occultism became interested in him and through him, he met dr. george von langsdorff of freyburg. dr. von langsdorff had been brought to russia by the grand duke constantine nicholevitch and presented to the emperor alexander ii who had actually commissioned him to sense out and unravel nihilist conspiracies. dr. von langsdorff, whether through the connivance of the political police or not we do not know, succeeded in foretelling certain plots which actually materialised. he attained considerable notoriety in connection with the blowing up of the dining-room of the winter palace in st. petersburg in 1880. dr. von langsdorff evinced considerable interest in landard but unlike von langsdorff and other members of the french school of occultism, landard ascribed his supernatural powers, both in matters of healing and prophesy, to divine influence, that is to say, whereas the french practitioners were avowedly irreligious and proclaimed themselves freethinkers, landard cultivated the spiritual element and professed himself a religious man.{155}

through von langsdorff, landard was brought into contact with certain members of the russian colony of royalties who annually visit the riviera. it was upon their invitation that philippe visited nice and while there was fortunate enough to win the favour of the grand duke alexis. this was accomplished through curing the grand duke of a painful attack of rheumatism of the knee by his “laying on of the hands” method and magnetism. the grand duke alexis passed philippe on to the grand duchess vladimir, who in turn brought him to russia and was instrumental in having him put in touch with tsar nicholas ii. from all accounts, philippe was a man of courage, personality, of winning and sympathetic manner. the tsar frankly liked him and before long, philippe was established as a more or less permanent member of the royal household. the emperor consulted philippe on all kinds of personal questions and later sought his counsel in regard to the weightiest questions of state. it has even been said that during the winter of 1902-3, the influence of philippe had grown so supreme, that a determined protest was submitted to the tsar by the members of his council and ministers, including conte witte. philippe was retired for a time from practice, but was still retained as a member of the royal household and, privately, nicholas continued to listen to the spiritualistic haverings of this man. from time to time, landard also appeared to effect cures upon various members of the{156} royal household and of the court. these things naturally tended to strengthen his position and to enhance his prestige. the result of these manifestations of power upon emperor nicholas was to confirm his confidence in philippe’s supernatural connections. in him, nicholas thought he had found another, if not the actual reincarnation of joan of arc. nicholas seems to have had little difficulty in persuading the empress to trust in the potency of philippe’s power in regard to influencing the sex of their next child. at all events, the next child proved to be a son. philippe claimed much of the credit for this, but it is evident that the entire credit was not accorded him by the royal family inasmuch as a certain parish priest in the province of tambov was later given credit for exerting a like influence. the priest had been dead many years, but his tomb had been made a kind of shrine by the moujiks and it had been annually visited by barren women who claimed to have found in the shrine the secret of fruitfulness and also the spirit of influencing the sex of unborn children.

the effect of philippe’s ministrations upon the tsaritsa let her still deeper within the portals of the spirit world. to conclude the story of philippe, it is said that he became intoxicated with the power and confidence bestowed in him by the royal family and that he overshot himself at the time of the russo-japanese war. he is supposed to have been largely instrumental in persuading{157} nicholas to take the attitude that he did which brought about the war and throughout the long, disastrous campaign was continually prophesying a turn in the tide which never came. landard is said to have represented to the emperor that he had been selected by divine inspiration to assure the emperor that the war in manchuria would inaugurate a new and great era of russian glory that would forever overshadow the yellow peril which at that time was popularly feared to be menacing europe. when disaster followed disaster, members of the court and royal household lost faith in philippe and finally the tsar himself ordered him to leave russia within forty-eight hours. this banishment proved a great blow to landard, who, heart broken and covered with disgrace, returned to his own native villa of st. julian d’arbresle where he died the following year from a complication of internal disorders.

despite the downfall of philippe, the faith of the empress was not shaken in the least in things mystic and spiritual and there is ample evidence that this inherent characteristic has in reality become a veritable second nature.

miss margaret eager, an irish lady of good education, was called to russia in the year 1899 to serve in the capacity of nursery governess to the royal family. miss eager is very much of a celt. she has a profound belief in the philosophy of mysticism and indeed she herself seems to be possessed of certain supernatural powers, second sight,{158} visions and dreams that come true. miss eager related to me various occurrences in the royal family concerning strange and seemingly mystical manifestations. miss eager herself, believes firmly in the reality of the spiritualistic sense of the empress.

when the grand duchess olga was three years old, she was taken ill with a gastric attack from which she did not fully recover for two or three weeks, the attack itself, in its severe form, keeping the royal child in bed three or four days. the first time miss eager left the bedside of the sick child for a breath of fresh air, she went for a walk along the quays of the neva. upon her return, as she entered the room, little olga looked up and said, “an old lady was here!” “what old lady?” she asked. “an old lady who wears a blue dress,” the child replied. miss eager was frankly puzzled because the court was in mourning at that time and there was no one wearing a blue dress. “surely, you mean blue. what kind of blue?” questioned miss eager. “it was not like mamma’s,” and the child paused. miss eager thought perhaps one of the maids had had a visitor and so they were all questioned, but nobody knew of any visitor during miss eager’s absence, and so the matter for the moment was dropped and dismissed by miss eager as a possible vagary of the child’s imagination. a few days later, miss eager was sitting on the floor with the royal children in a certain room in the{159} royal palace playing at building castles of cards. suddenly, olga looked up and exclaimed, “there is the old lady in blue!” “where? where?” said miss eager and the other children. “there! she came through the bedroom door; she is standing at the door now!” miss eager quickly caught up the child and ran through the bedroom into the room beyond and into yet another room, but she could find no one nor could she hear any footsteps. “well,” said olga to miss eager, “you must be very stupid because the old lady was there.” two days later, the empress directed miss eager to take the child to the chapel in the winter palace and there, in the hall on the way to the chapel, are two life-sized portraits of the emperor alexander ii and his wife. looking at the picture of alexander ii’s wife, olga said, “why, that is the lady i saw in the blue dress and see, her dress is not the dress mamma wears.” the identification was made by the grand duchess with the utmost assurance.

now, this incident by itself would have no significance, but miss eager relates in connection with it other incidents which give it interesting if fantastic value. miss eager, during her long stay in the royal household, always slept with the nursery. one night, she maintains, she distinctly heard a voice coming from directly beneath her bed. the voice was far off and weird and was as of one weeping bitterly and making terrible complaints and the language used was french. the{160} story she was relating was one of extreme intimacy. miss eager says that she sat up in bed to try to locate from whence the sounds were coming, but no sooner had she raised herself upright than the voice ceased. upon laying her head on the pillow again, the voice resumed and the complaints were of her husband’s unfaithfulness. while miss eager was still meditating the extraordinary experience, the empress as was her wont, entered the room and miss eager asked her what room was directly beneath the room they were then in. the empress replied, “merely storerooms.” miss eager then said to the empress, “but there is some poor woman there and suffering from the most terrible affliction.” the empress replied, “what are you saying?” whereupon, miss eager related what she had just experienced. the empress then asked if the words were spoken in english. “no,” replied miss eager, “it is french; at first i thought it might be the cook, but that is impossible because the french spoken was very pure and elegant.” the empress then said that if miss eager thought there was any one below, she had better get out of bed and listen at the floor, which she did, but could hear nothing. the empress then told her to get back into bed and go to sleep. immediately her head touched the pillow, the voice was again audible to her. suddenly the empress said, “tell me, does it remind you of anything you have ever heard before? do you know anything of the story of this room before it was done up for my little ones?{161}” miss eager replied that she knew that the wife of alexander ii slept in this room and then she recalled having heard that this woman was very unhappy because of her husband’s numerous peccadilloes with other women. she recalled, also, that the princess dolgoruki was alexander ii’s mistress. his wife, who used this room over a long period of time, used nightly to bury her face in her pillow and cry aloud. after she recalled these things, the empress said, “yes, but before she died, she went to the dolgoruki and told her of her unhappiness, using the very selfsame words that you have just repeated to me as having heard while on your pillow.” the empress thereupon told miss eager that she was sleeping on the very bed which alexander ii’s wife had used and upon which she died. the next day, the empress herself, insisted that the entire furnishings of the room be changed and that a new bed be installed. it is said that alexander ii, after the death of his wife, wanted to marry the princess dolgoruki, which indeed, he may have done morganatically. miss eager was deeply impressed by this experience and in the mind of the empress there was no question or shadow of doubt whatever.

another incident related by miss eager in connection with the empress occurred in the palace at peterhof. one night, according to her custom, the empress entered miss eager’s room. miss eager relates that she awoke to find herself being shaken by her majesty who was crying, “awake!{162} awake! come back!” and when miss eager came to her senses, she realised that she was crying bitterly. “what is it? what is it?” exclaimed the empress. “i have been here five minutes shaking you and you would not wake up; what is the matter?” miss eager replied that she must have had a nightmare. the empress insisted upon knowing what miss eager had seen in her unhappy dream, whereupon, the nursery governess related that in her dream, she appeared to be in a town of some far distant country—a southern land. the streets were badly lighted; many of them were narrow and the people round about her who filled the streets, were dark and swarthy. traversing these streets, she presently came to a great building before which a crowd had collected. as she stood and wondered what interest held the people, an open carriage drove up. the thought flashed through her mind, “royalty must be expected; who can it be?” just then, out of the building came an elderly gentleman whom miss eager did not recognise, but he was followed closely by a man in uniform. after the man got into the carriage, there was the glint of flashing steel and immediately the oldish man dropped back apparently lifeless. at once, all was turned into a mad dream and miss eager found herself trying to crush the empress and the royal princesses under the seat of the carriage. whereupon, the empress laughed and said, “you can see for yourself, that it was only a dream, for you could not shove me under the seat of the carriage even if{163} you could succeed in putting the children there.” when the empress had gone miss eager once more drifted off into sleep. in the morning when she awoke, she was tired and nervous as if after some long journey. when mary, the nurse, came in, she said, “why, miss eager, what is the matter with you this morning?” and miss eager told her that in the night she had had a terrible dream in which she had seen a man in a carriage murdered. at breakfast time, when she saw the empress, she said, “have you had any more nightmares?” and then turning to the emperor, who had just entered the room, her majesty directed miss eager to relate to him the hideous dream of the night before. whereupon, miss eager related the unhappy scenes of her nightmare. the tsar listened with the utmost attention and when miss eager had finished speaking, he said, “miss eager, i hope that you won’t be very much frightened because what you saw in your dream last night was an incident which occurred in a town of northern italy where his majesty, king humbert, was assassinated at precisely the hour that the empress entered your room and in that manner that you describe in your dream.” miss eager, like a flash, remembered the picture she had seen of the late king of italy and it was the man whom she had seen enter the carriage followed by the officer in uniform! as the tsar told her this, he held in his hand a telegram which had just been received detailing the news of this assassination.{164}

on one occasion, the empress told miss eager that all her life she had been much interested in the spiritual world, but that she had come to the conclusion that it was wrong to meddle with such things because if there was anything in it, it must come from the devil.

early one evening, the empress entered the nursery and told the children that she was going to dinner and would probably be very late, consequently would not come in to see them on her return, as was her wont. there was going to be a séance after the dinner. the next day, miss eager took occasion to ask her majesty if she had enjoyed the séance. the tsaritsa proceeded to tell her all about a clairvoyant called philippe but with a note of bitterness in her recital, for she said that philippe had mesmerised her husband and made him do exactly what he told him. the empress steadfastly refused to see philippe after that. just what occurred at this séance, the empress never did say, at least to miss eager, but it was quite clear to her that her majesty had been unfavourably impressed and that she would have nothing more to do with the mysterious frenchman. considerable pressure was brought to bear upon the empress by various ladies of the court to persuade her to go once more to philippe, but she never would do it.

these incidents indicating this phase of the tsaritsa’s character are, of course, sympathetically interpreted by miss eager because she, herself, be{165}lieves so absolutely in the spirit world, in dreams and intuitions.

for example, before port arthur was beseiged, miss eager in a dream saw its fall and told the empress about it. the empress afterwards reminded her of this dream and deeply regretted that the tsar had not taken counsel from miss eager’s vision rather than from philippe.

on another occasion, miss eager told mary, the nurse, to go and tell a certain lift-man in the palace that he was not to work that day as, in a dream, she had seen him terribly crushed and mangled, but mary laughed and refused to convey the message. miss eager thought it seemed rather foolish and so did not insist upon sending the message to the man. that afternoon, when she returned from the daily drive with the grand duchesses, the empress sent for her and said, “miss eager, this morning, you told mary to warn the lift-man not to work to-day and mary refused to carry your message.” miss eager said, “yes, that is true.” “well,” said the empress, “i sent for you because i wanted to tell you myself that while you were out with the children, the lift-man was killed.”

another curious incident which is hard to explain occurred at the time of the death of princess ella, a daughter of the grand duke of hesse, a charming child of seven years, who succumbed to an illness of only 36 hours’ duration,—apparently ptomaine poisoning. the child was staying at the time with her royal uncle and aunt, the tsar{166} and tsaritsa at the palace in poland. while the child was ill, and just before her life spark was extinguished, two of the russian grand duchesses, olga and tatiana, who were sleeping together in a neighbouring room, suddenly began to scream frantically. the empress, the physicians in attendance upon princess ella and miss eager rushed into the room where the children were and saw them standing in their beds and shrieking in terror. it was long before they could be pacified and then they told how they had seen a strange man with flowing robes and great wings, walk through their room. while they were still telling of the fearful apparition, the eyes of both the children suddenly became dilated with terror and both of them simultaneously pointing in the same direction, cried, “look! look! there he is again. don’t you see him? he is going into ella’s room. poor ella! poor ella!” of course, none of the adults could see anything and the physicians assured the empress that it was but an attack of childish hysteria which had suddenly and strangely come upon both children. only a few moments later, the empress and the physicians were hurriedly summoned to the bedside of the dying child who, lapsing into a state of coma, died in the tsaritsa’s arms. to this day, the empress, as well as the emperor and miss eager, are convinced that the children actually saw this angel of death passing into the room of the dying princess. at least, it is true that there are many similar inex{167}plicable cases on record of children and sometimes of animals, as well as of dying persons, having supernatural vision at moments of death. horses, for example, have been known to become terror-stricken when passing the scene of a murder, while the well-known death-rap is of such common occurrence that there can be no doubt of its existence.

these incidents are related in order to explain much that is otherwise inexplicable in the character of the tsaritsa. the mental development which she has experienced through her entire life has been logical and in natural sequence. her early philosophical and theological interests have simply been developed abnormally in the abnormal environment in which she has lived. while the empress has been ever sceptical when conversing with her friends and reluctant to accept as reality, manifestations of the spirit world, there can be no doubt that both she and the emperor have nevertheless been secretly convinced that they are both instruments of god as well as possessing the power of holding converse with the spirit world.

this is proved by the canonisation of seraphim, the parish priest of tambov, whose tomb they visited prior to the birth of the heir, alexis. seraphim had been dead seventy years, but the tsar, anxious to leave no stone unturned to procure a son and heir, encouraged by the tsaritsa, insisted upon the canonisation of seraphim. when the remains of the old priest were unearthed, it was found that the body was badly decomposed,{168} and to canonise a man whose body yields to the influence of decomposition is contrary to the traditions and customs of the church. orthodox bishop dmitry of tambov made bold to call attention to this fact and protest the canonisation of seraphim. for his temerity, the tsar, deeply angered, ordered that dmitry be deprived of his see and exiled to viatka. according to emperor nicholas, the preservation of bones, hair and teeth were sufficient qualification for saintship. furthermore his majesty was upheld in this by various sycophant but prophetic monks, who, with sublime assurance, allowed that god will one day work a miracle and restore seraphim’s body. so seraphim was canonised with great pomp and ritualistic solemnity. if anything were needed to fasten the belief of the tsar and tsaritsa in these extreme forms of religion it was the patent answer to their faith and trust in philippe and seraphim.

the boy was called alexis and he was born on july 30, 1904, according to the russian calendar, and since that time, tsar and tsaritsa have been given more and more to spiritualistic religion.