"Force is being used against us!
We cannot have our innocent blood upon the hands of these ignorant
men! It is beneath our dignity to be shot down here in the street by
switchmen-" (What he meant by "switchmen" I never discovered.) "Let
us return to the Duma and discuss the best means of saving the
country and the Revolution!"
Whereupon, in dignified silence, the procession marched around and
back up the Nevsky, always in column of fours. And taking advantage
of the diversion we slipped past the guards and set off in the
direction of the Winter Palace.
Here it was absolutely dark, and nothing moved but pickets of
soldiers and Red Guards grimly intent. In front of the Kazan
Cathedral a three-inch field-gun lay in the middle of the street,
slewed sideways from the recoil of its last shot over the roofs.
Soldiers were standing in every doorway talking in low tones and
peering down toward the Police Bridge. I heard one voice saying: "It
is possible that we have done wrong...." At the corners patrols
stopped all passersby-and the composition of these patrols was
interesting, for in command of the regular troops was invariably a
Red Guard.... The shooting had ceased.
Just as we came to the Morskaya somebody was shouting: "The
_yunkers_ have sent word they want us to go and get them out!"
Voices began to give commands, and in the thick gloom we made out a
dark mass moving forward, silent but for the shuffle of feet and the
clinking of arms.
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