THE TSAR AS SENTRY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12770, 11 February 1910, Page 1

THE TSAR AS SENTRY.

A story of how the Tsar, like Har-oun-al-R,aschid,took a two hours' walk disguised as a simple soldier is officially reported from Livadia by tho Court bulletin. His Majesty wore tho uniform of a private of the 16th liiflo Regiment, with complete accoutrements ; a rifle, 120 cartridges, and a flasks tilled with water. Tho Tsar walked alone. Unrecognised, he saluted the officers, and ho thus iiad an opportunity of seeing the soldier's life as it really is, and not as it appears at Imperial parades. A second anecdote also comes from Livadia, though unofficially. TJio Tsar, accompanied . by an adjutant, was strolling in the gardens when ho suddenly noticed a sentry attacked by hemorrhage. The man vainly tried to salute tho Emperor. His Majesty at one© sent his aide-de-camp to order the soldier to leave his post and to report himself to a doctor. But the sentry refused, declaring that the was bound by oath rather to die than to leave his post without beiug relieved. The Emperor himself then approached the soldier, and observed to him that by the same oath he was bound first to obey his Emperor, and that by tho military code he, the Tsar, had, together with the officer of the guard, alone the right to relieve a sentry. The Tsar ordered the soldier to pass him his rifle and to be off at once. The- Emperor then stood on duty till the officer of the guard hurried to relieve the Imperial sentry.