From ‘Grand Duches Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, Biographical Sketch and Letters’:
Seeheim, June 27th.
Aunt Marie (Empress Maria Alexandrovna) arrived at two on Monday, and a few hours later came to see me, and was so sympathizing, motherly, and loving ; it touched me much. At such moments she is peculiarly soft and womanly, and she loves her own children so tenderly. She cried much, and told me of the sad death of her eldest girl, who was seven, and of the terrible, irreparable loss her
eldest son was to her. She has such a religious, truly resigned way of looking at great sorrows such as these…She is coming to " Sunshine's" toilet this evening; it always amuses her, and she is very fond of the children.
From “The Royal Romances of Today”
Now, this incident by itself would have no significance, but Miss Eager relates in connection with it other incidents which give it interesting if fantastic value. Miss Eager, during her long stay in the Royal Household, always slept with the nursery. One night, she maintains, she distinctly heard a voice coming from directly beneath her bed. The voice was far off and weird and was as of one weeping bitterly and making terrible com- plaints and the language used was French. The story she was relating was one of extreme intimacy. Miss Eager says that she sat up in bed to try to locate from whence the sounds were coming, but no sooner had she raised herself upright than the voice ceased. Upon laying her head on the pillow again, the voice resumed and the complaints were
of her husband's unfaithfulness. While Miss Eager was still meditating the extraordinary experience, the Empress as was her wont, entered the room and Miss Eager asked her what room was directly beneath the room they were then in. The Empress replied, "Merely storerooms." Miss Eager then said to the Empress, "But there is some poor woman there and suffering from the most terrible affliction." The Empress replied, "What are you saying?" Whereupon, Miss Eager related what she had just experienced. The Empress then asked if the words were spoken in English. "No," replied Miss Eager, "It is French; at first I thought it might be the cook, but that is impossible because the French spoken was very pure and elegant." The Empress then said that if Miss Eager thought there was any one below, she had better get out of bed and listen at the floor, which she did, but could hear nothing. The Empress then told her to get back into bed and go to sleep. Immediately her head touched the pillow, the voice was again audible to her. Suddenly the Empress said, "Tell me, does it remind you of anything you have ever heard before? Do you know anything of the story of this room before it was done up for my little ones?"
Miss Eager replied that she knew that the wife of Alexander II slept in this room and then she recalled having heard that this woman was very unhappy because of her husband's numerous peccadilloes with other women. She recalled, also, that the Princess Dolgoruki was Alexander II's mistress. His wife, who used this room over a long period of time, used nightly to bury her face in her pillow and cry aloud. After she recalled these things, the Empress said, "Yes, but before she died, she went to the Dolgoruki and told her of her unhappiness, using the very selfsame words that you have just repeated to me as having heard while on your pillow." The Empress thereupon told Miss Eager that she was sleeping on the very bed which Alexander II's wife had used and upon which she died. The next day, the Empress herself, insisted that the entire furnishings of the room be changed and that a new bed be installed. It is said that Alexander II, after the death of his wife, wanted to marry the Princess Dolgoruki, which indeed, he may have done morganatically. Miss Eager was deeply impressed by this experience and in the mind of the Empress there was no question or shadow of doubt whatever.
