Baby in the Palace - PART I

back to the lodge, but the faster the carriage, the rougher the ride. By the time they arrived back in the safety of the lodge, Aleksei had a new hemorrhage in his upper thigh. A streamline of the best doctors in Russia began to stream into Poland to treat the Heir to the Throne, the robust and healthy little boy whom no one could have suspected of illness only weeks earlier.

Aleksei had torn vessels in his leg, and blood was flowing into his abdomen. Suddenly, he was fighting for his life. His father wrote, “the poor darling suffered terribly. The pains came in spasms and recurred every quarter of an hour. His high temperature made him delirious night and day. He would sit up in bed and every movement brought on the pain again. He hardly slept at all, had not even the strength to cry, and kept repeating, ‘Oh Lord, have mercy upon me.’” Anna Vyrubova would write years later that “the half-conscious child lay huddled on one side, his left leg drawn up. His face was absolutely bloodless, drawn and seamed with suffering.” Pierre Gilliard recorded the illness with “his head rested on his mother’s arm, and his small, deathly white face was unrecognizable. At times the groans ceased and he murmured the one word -- Mommy! -- in which he expressed all his sufferings and distress... Every now and then, the door opened and one of the Grand Duchesses came in on tip-toe and kissed her little brother, bringing a gust of sweetness and health into the room. For a moment, the boy would open his great eyes, and then almost immediately close them again.”

Alexandra Feodorovna was at Aleksei’s side from the onset of the attack, never leaving for a single moment, forgetting to eat and sleep, hoping by a thousand attentions to alleviate his suffering. The Tsar came the moment he was free from official duty, and tried to comfort the boy as much as he could, telling him stories to amuse him. Yet the pain was stronger, and there were tears, then piercing shrieks of pain, then delirious groans. The mansion’s staff were forced to plug their ears with cotton to block out the screams, which were too piteous, too terrible to hear from the child who had been all smiles and affection so recently. Everyone -- even his sisters -- were ordered to

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