"Yes. And you are Monsieur - ?"

"Joseph Rouletabille, madame. I do not add, 'At your service
- because I do not know about that yet. That is what I said just
now to His Majesty."

"Then?" asked Madame Matrena, rather amused by the tone the
conversation had taken and the slightly flurried air of Rouletabille.

"Why, then, I am a reporter, you see. That is what I said at once
to my editor in Paris, 'I am not going to take part in revolutionary
affairs that do not concern my country,' to which my editor replied,
'You do not have to take part. You must go to Russia to make an
inquiry into the present status of the different parties. You will
commence by interviewing the Emperor.' I said, 'Well, then, here
goes,' and took the train."

"And you have interviewed the Emperor?"

"Oh, yes, that has not been difficult. I expected to arrive direct
at St. Petersburg, but at Krasnoie-Coelo the train stopped and the
grand-marshal of the court came to me and asked me to follow him.
It was very flattering. Twenty minutes later I was before His
Majesty. He awaited me! I understood at once that this was
obviously for something out of the ordinary."

"And what did he say to you?"

"He is a man of genuine majesty. He reassured me at once when I