Sources:
Alexandra Feodorovna: Diaries and Correspondence, volume 2: Engagement and Marriage, 1894, pages 32 to 33, by George Hawkins, 2023
The letter:
28 Апр./10 Мая. 1894 г.
No. 8.
Palais Anitchkoff.
Perspective de Nevsky.
Милая душка Аликс!
I am sitting here quite alone in the empty house & though completely ramolished or cretinized must write to you a few lines to thank my own darling for the sweet little No 5; I telephoned to Гатчина it was to be sent me over here, because I would never be patient enough to write still I go back there tomorrow & read it.
Oh! my lovely little girly-dear I feel so greedy for news from you that I look for your name in the Times & am pleased even with that short Court Circular where they only speak about Granny & driving out with this or that person. And when that person is my own little darling I rejoyce! I feel I am telling you such rot & such stupidities you might really get anxious about my mental condition. But as I told you I think yesterday, that all day long from 9 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon Costia has been inspecting the recruits of my battalion & I have been standing the whole time in idleness, till at length I felt my legs growing out of the back, a delightful sensation I can tell you. Oh! how I thought of my darling love & how thankful I felt that you were not there & had not to go through that trial. But that is the duty & one must not lament over such details if one is really devoted to one's service!
Now I must leave off my sweet one & go to my regiment again!
A bit of history now: the 3rd Company in my battalion since Peter the Great was composed of marines & it has a boat, in which officers of the regiments & their wives row about in the river. Every spring it is an old custom to hoist up the flag the first time the boat goes out; the band follows & many small steamers also with those who have no place in that boat. We did that yesterday & after a pretty cruize round the islands, which look lovely in spring, and supped altogether. It was then that Costia drank my sweet one's health & they yelled & bellowed — and then sent off to you the telegram.
Well! that is a fine dream you have had about u. Alexei, how naughty! But now my own beloved one I must end as the letter will [be] late for the post. Good-bye my own darling & God bless you +.
Ever dear love your own old Nicky
Above: Nicholas and Alix. Photo courtesy of Ilya Grigoryev on Flickr.
No comments:
Post a Comment