rs have not told you the truth about the
situation. The whole people, trusting in you, has resolved to appear at
the Winter Palace at two o'clock in the afternoon, in order to inform
you of its needs. If you hesitate, and do not appear before the people,
then you tear the moral bonds between you and them. Trust in you will
disappear, because innocent blood will flow. Appear to-morrow before
your people and receive our address of devotion in a courageous spirit!
I and the labour representatives, my brave comrades, guarantee the
inviolability of your person."

Gapon was no longer merely the president of the Workmen's Union:
inebriated with the excitement he had done so much to create, he now
imagined himself the representative of the oppressed Russian people, and
the heroic leader of a great political revolution. In the petition
which he had prepared he said little about the grievances of the St.
Petersburg workmen whose interests he had a right to advocate, and
preferred to soar into much higher regions:

"The bureaucracy has brought the country to the verge of ruin, and, by
a shameful war, is bringing it to its downfall. We have no voice in the
heavy burdens imposed on us; we do not even know for whom or why this
money is wrung from the impoverished people, and we do not know how it
is expended. This state of things is contrary to the Divine laws, and
renders life unbearable. Assembled before your palace, we plead for our
salvation. Refuse not your aid; raise your people from the tomb, and
give them the means of working out their own destiny. Rescue them from
the intolerable yoke of officialdom; throw down the wall that separates
you from them, in order that they may rule with you the country that was
created for their happiness--a happiness which is being wrenched from
us, leaving nothing but sorrow and humiliation."

With an innate sentiment of autocratic dignity the Emperor declined
to obey the imperious summons, and he thereby avoided an unseemly
altercation with the excited priest, as well as the boisterous public
meetings which the Social Democrats were preparing to hold in the Palace
Square. Orders were given to the police and the troops to prevent the
crowds of workmen from penetrating into the centre of the city from the
industrial suburbs. The rest need not be described in detail. On Sunday
the crowds tried to force their way, the troops fired, and many of the
demonstrators were killed or wounded. How