which, he claimed, would be suppressed by the forces from the front. His
address sounded unconvincing and out of place within the walls of a hall
where the overwhelming majority of the delegates were enthusiastically
observing the victorious advance of the Petrograd revolution.

By this time the Winter Palace was surrounded, but it was not yet taken.
From time to time there were shots from the windows upon the besiegers,
who were closing in slowly and cautiously. From the Petropavlovsk
Fortress, two or three shells from cannons were directed at the Palace.
Their thunder was heard at the Smolny. Martof spoke with helpless
indignation from the platform of the convention, about civil war and
especially about the siege of the Winter Palace, where among the
ministers there were--oh, horror!--members of the Mensheviki party. The
sailors who came to bring information from the battle-place around the
Palace took the floor against him. They reminded the accusers of the
offensive of the 18th of June, of the treacherous policy of the old
government, of the re-establishment of the death penalty for soldiers,
of the annihilation of the revolutionary organization, and wound up by
vowing to win or die. They also brought word of the first victims from
our ranks in the battle before the Palace.

All arose as if at an unseen signal and, with a unanimity which could be
created only by a high moral inspiration, sang the Funeral March. He who
lived through that moment will never forget it.

The session was interrupted. It was impossible to deliberate
theoretically the question of the means of reconstructing the government
among the echoes of the fighting and shooting under the walls of the
Winter Palace, where the fate of that very government was being decided
in a practical way. The taking of the Palace, however, was rather slow,