rrying out his idea on Sunday, but he stood firm. He had
already committed himself publicly to the project. At a workmen's
meeting in another quarter (Vassiliostrof) earlier in the day he had
explained the petition, and said: "Let us go to the Winter Palace and
summon the Emperor, and let us tell him our wants; if he does not listen
to us we do not require him any longer." To a Social Democrat who shook
him warmly by the hand and expressed his astonishment that there should
be such a man among the clergy, he replied: "I am no longer a priest; I
am a fighter for liberty! They want to exile me, and for some nights I
have not slept at home." When offered assistance to escape arrest, he
answered laconically: "Thanks; I have already a place of refuge."
After his departure from the meeting one of his friends, to whom he had
confided a copy of the petition, rose and said: "Now has arrived the
great historical moment! Now we can and must demand rights and liberty!"
After hearing the petition read the meeting decided that if the Tsar
did not come out at the demand of the people strong measures should be
taken, and one orator indicated pretty plainly what they should be: "We
don't require a Tsar who is deaf to the woes of the people; we shall
perish ourselves, but we shall kill him. Swear that you will all come to
the Palace on Sunday at twelve o'clock!" The audience raised their hands
in token of assent.

Finding it impossible to dissuade Gapon from his purpose, the Social
Democrats told him that they would take advantage of the circumstances
independently, and that if he was allowed to enter the city with his
deputation they would organise monster meetings in the Palace Square.

The imperious tone used by Gapon at the public meetings and private
consultations was adopted by him also in his letters to the Minister of
the Interior and to the Emperor. To the former he wrote:

"The workmen and inhabitants of St. Petersburg of various classes desire
to see the Tsar at two o'clock on Sunday in the Winter Palace Square,
in order to lay before him personally their needs and those of the
whole Russian people. . . . Tell the Tsar that I and the workmen,
many thousands in number, have peacefully, with confidence in him, but
irrevocably, resolved to proceed to the Winter Palace. Let him show his
confidence by deeds, and not by manifestos."

To the Tsar himself his language was not more respectful:

"Sovereign,--I fear the Ministe