[The following is in regards to a life-threatening injury related to hemophilia, suffered by the young heir to the throne of Romanov Imperial Russia, Alexis Romanov.]
”The days between the 6th and the 10th [of October] were the worst,” the emperor reported to his mother. “The poor darling suffered intensely, the pains came in spasms and recurred every quarter of an hour. His high temperature made him delirious night and day, and he would sit up in bed and every movement brought the pain on again. He hardly slept at all, had not even the strength to cry, and kept repeating, ‘Oh Lord, have mercy upon me.’”
So intense and unrelenting was the pain that the normally exuberant young boy began to see death as a welcome relief. “When I am dead, it will not hurt anymore, will it?” he whispered at one point. And at another, the child solemnly instructed his parents to “build me a little monument of stones in the woods.” Nicholas and Alexandra both believed that time was rapidly drawing near.
As her dying child struggled desperately, the empress remained where she always did – by his side, providing whatever poor comfort she could. “During the entire time,” recounted Anna Vyrubova, “the Empress never undressed, never went to bed, rarely even laid down for an hour’s rest. Hour after hour she sat beside the bed where the half-conscious child lay huddled on one side, his left leg drawn up… His face was absolutely bloodless, drawn and seamed with suffering, while his almost expressionless eyes rolled back in his head. Once, when the Emperor came into the room, seeing the boy in his agony, and hearing the faint screams of pain, the poor father’s courage completely gave way and he rushed, weeping bitterly, to his study.”
Source:
Farquhar, Michael. “Chapter 14 – Nicholas II (1894-1917: Gliding Down a Precipice.” Secret Lives of the Tsars: Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014. 275-76. Print.
Further Reading:
Alexei Nikolaevich (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич)
Alexandra Feodorovna / Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine / Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Feodorovna_(Alix_of_Hesse)
Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova (née Taneyeva; Russian: А́нна Алекса́ндровна Вы́рубова (Тане́ева))
No comments, yet...