...
Around in front stood a little, grey-moustached man in the uniform
of a general, the centre of a knot of soldiers. He was very red in
the face.
"I am General Alexeyev," he cried. "As your superior officer and as
a member of the Council of the Republic I demand to be allowed to
pass!" The guard scratched his head, looking uneasily out of the
corner of his eye; he beckoned to an approaching officer, who grew
very agitated when he saw who it was and saluted before he realised
what he was doing.
"_Vashe Vuisokoprevoskhoditelstvo_-your High Excellency-" he
stammered, in the manner of the old r?gime, "Access to the Palace is
strictly forbidden--I have no right-"
An automobile came by, and I saw Gotz sitting inside, laughing
apparently with great amusement. A few minutes later another, with
armed soldiers on the front seat, full of arrested members of the
Provisional Government. Peters, Lettish member of the Military
Revolutionary Committee, came hurrying across the Square.
"I thought you bagged all those gentlemen last night," said I,
pointing to them.
"Oh," he answered, with the expression of a disappointed small boy.
"The damn fools let most of them go again before we made up our
minds...."
Down the Voskressensky Prospect a great mass of sailors were drawn
up, and behind them came marching soldiers, as far as the eye could
reach.
We went toward the Winter Palace by way of the Admiralteisky.
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