.. most
unfortunate...."
But we could not stay.
The world into which we stepped was wonderful. The background of snow
under the star-blazing sky made it even more fantastic than it naturally
was. We slipped into the crowd and, becoming part of it, were at once,
as one so often is, sympathetic with it. It seemed such a childish,
helpless, and good-natured throng. No one seemed to know anything of
arms or directions. There were, as I have already said, many women and
little children, and some of the civilians who had rifles looked quite
helpless. I saw one boy holding his gun upside down. No one paid any
attention to us. There was as yet no class note in the demonstration,
and the only hostile cries I heard were against Protopopoff and the
police. We moved back into the street behind the Fontanka, and here I
saw a wonderful sight. Some one had lighted a large bonfire in the
middle of the street and the flames tossed higher and higher into the
air, bringing down the stars in flights of gold, flinging up the snow
until it seemed to radiate in lines and circles of white light high over
the very roofs of the houses.
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