THE TSARINA. SAID TO-BE ALMOST A MENTAL WRECK.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 12, 15 January 1910, Page 10

THE TSARINA. SAID TO-BE ALMOST A MENTAL WRECK.

Rumours concerning the Tsarina'shealth, whispered through St. Petersburg and Moscow during last* winter, have now (states the St. Petersburg correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle under date 27th November) taken definite form. The unhappy lady, after years of anxiety and months almost without sleep, has fallen into such anervous state- that the doctors fear she' will not reqover her reason for many months to come. In the summer it was announced that the court would spend the winter in St. "Petersburg for the first time for many years. The visit to France and. England was to be followed by one to Italy, by way of the Black Sea and the ;Dardanelles. The autumn manoeuvres in Ihe Crimea were/ to represent the invasion of that peninsula, and all kinds of festivities were to follow. Even then people who frequent the court shook their heads and said they feared it would tax the Tsarina's health too much to take part in so many functions. Now all these engagements have been cancelled, for the Tsarina is incapable of seeing anybody or taking interest in anything. The doctors who have been summoned from all parts of the world to attend her are divided in their opinion as to the gravity of her malady. Some say that, as she is only 37, she will be cured ; others affirm that, as her husband's life is always more or less in danger, she will never be quite well, for, as soon as she recovers a little, anxiety for her son's and husband's safety will cause a relapse. This is the secret of her malady. Day and night the thought that they will be killed haunts her. TSARINA'S NERVES WRECKED. This nervous condition began with the revolt, three years ago. A natural inclination toward melancholy was much aggravated by the anxieties of that' terrible time. When the fleet at Cronstadt mutinied, the court was at Peterhof, a palace on the Gulf of Finland, within sight of the scene of the troubles. It seemed as though nobody but the mutineers had any power left. Suddenly a messenger came to the palace with the news that the sailors were starling for Peterhof to assassinate the Tsar and his son. The history of that eventful day has still to be written. What really happened was as follows : The' crews got drank, and their leaders lost their heads. Had they carried out their plans and crossed the gulf to the White Palace, within a stone's throw, the dynasty of the Romanoffs would have ceased to be. The shots and cries of the mutineers at Cronstadt could be heard at the palace. The royal family, when they learned what the noise meant, were terror-stricken. Many of the servants had already fled, but Baron Fredericks, grand master of the court ceemonies, rushed to the stables, ordered horses to be put to a couple of carriages, put the Tsar and his family in and had them driven post haste to the station, a couple of miles away. Thence they fled to Tsarkoe Selo. As they left, their ears were filled with the booming of cannoni at Cronstadt and the, cheers for the revolution. Not so much as a handbag had been taken, and they arrived at Tsarkoe Selo half dead with cold and fright. A second great shock to the Tsarina's health occurred a year later, when a plot to kill the Tsar in his bed , was v disclosed by a Cossack oiv, guard. 'The'; officer who had charge of the duplicate" keys to the rooms had joined in the plot and given the keys to the revolutionaries. When the Tsarina heard this, she threw herself on her husband's neck and implored him to leave the covratry. "Here," she cried, "we are never safe. Everybody pursues us." ATTEMPT TO DESTROY YACHT. The third great shock was the attempt to blow up the Imperial yacht, the Polar Star, when the Tsar and his family were cruising in the Gulf of Finland in September, 1907. One evening a terrific report was heard, the lights went out, and the yacht began to fill with water. The fears of that night brought on the state of nervous prostration, which lasted for many months, only to return at stated intervals, and which has now become so grave. When the lights went out on ' the yacht the little Tsarewitch could not be found. It was some time before lights could be procured, and meanwhile panic and darkness reigned. The Tsarina thought her son had been done away with during that time. He was, however, quite safe on the bridge, in the arms of a faithful sailor, who was about to swim to shore with him, but the mother never recovered from those terrible moments. Of course the attempt to wreck the yacht •had failed, but, as she said, another one might be successful, and during the voyage to France and England she was in hourly dread of a similar attempt. Now things have got so bad that she knows nothing of .what is going on around her. This Nervous collapse cannot possibly be due to over-excitement, for few women lead quieter lives than Alexandra Feodorowna. When people read of the splendid Russian palaces, with their museums and picture galleries, of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, with its thousand roomS, and of all the wealth of the fifty crowns comprised in the Tsar's title, they are apt to Ithink that he lives the life of magnificence that characterised his.forefathers. This is by no means the case.'