By return of post came the answer. The Excellency indeed would be
welcome. The Regent--the Grand Duke Peter--had bidden him say that if the
Excellency should be travelling for pleasure, as the nobility of his
country often did, he would gladly be received by the Regent, who was
himself a great _chasseur_ and _voyageur_. The Excellency would then see
the never-to-be-sufficiently-beloved baby King. Of this glorious child
he--Dmitry--found it difficult to write. It was as if the _Imperatorskoye_
breathed again in his spirit, while he was the portrait of his illustrious
father, proving how deeply and well the _Imperatorskoye_ must have loved
that father. If the Excellency could arrive in time for the Majesty's fifth
birthday, on the 19th of February, there was to be a special ceremony in
the great church which the Regent thought might be of interest to the
Excellency.
Paul wired back he would travel night and day to be in time, and he
instructed Dmitry to have the necessary arrangements made that he might go
straight to the church, in case unforeseen delay should not permit him to
arrive until that morning.
It was in a shaft of sunlight from the great altar window that Paul first
saw his son. The tiny upright figure in its blue velvet suit, heavily
trimmed with sable, standing there proudly.
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