LONDON, September, 1904.




THE COMING CONQUEST OF ENGLAND




I

THE COUNCIL OF STATE

It was a brilliant assemblage of high dignitaries and military officers
that had gathered in the Imperial Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. Of
the influential personages, who, by reason of their official position
or their personal relations to the ruling house, were summoned to advise
and determine the destiny of the Tsar's Empire, scarcely one was absent.
But it was no festal occasion that had called them here; for all faces
wore an expression of deep seriousness, amounting in certain cases to
one of grave anxiety. The conversation, carried on in undertones, was of
matters of the gravest import.

The broad folding-doors facing the lifesize portrait of the reigning
Tsar were thrown wide open, and amid the breathless silence of all
assembled, the grey-headed President of the Imperial Council, Grand Duke
Michael, entered the hall. Two other members of the Imperial house, the
Grand Dukes Vladimir Alexandrovitch and Alexis Alexandrovitch, brothers