Since the time she saved the little
grand-duchesses the police had orders to allow her to act and talk
as she pleased. She had been mixed up in the deepest plots against
the government. Those who lent the slightest countenance to such
plottings and were not of the police simply disappeared. Their
friends dared not even ask for news of them. The only thing not in
doubt about them was that they were at hard labor somewhere in the
mines of the Ural Mountains. At the moment of the revolution
Annouchka had a brother who was an engineer on the Kasan-Moscow line.
This Volkousky was one of the leaders on the Strike Committee. The
authorities had an eye on him. The revolution started. He, with
the help of his sister, accomplished one of those formidable acts
which will carry their memory as heroes to the farthest posterity.
Their work accomplished, they were taken by Trebassof's soldiers.
Both were condemned to death. Volkousky was executed first, and
the sister was taking her turn when an officer of the government
arrived on horseback to stop the firing. The Tsar, informed of her
intended fate, had sent a pardon by telegraph. After that she
disappeared. She was supposed to have gone on some tour across
Europe, as was her habit, for she spoke all the languages, like a
true Bohemian.
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