TSAR'S DAUGHTER MARIE（13）

INT. STUDY -- ALEXANDER PALACE -- DAY

Nicholas turns over the pages of a newspaper.

NICHOLAS

(reading)

King George V of Great Britain announced that his government would not insist on its former offer of asylum to the Russian imperial family.

Nicholas' hands tremble with the newspaper, sighing deeply. TERENTY CHEMODUROV, Nicholas' sixty-eight year old senile valet, stands by and appears fidgety.

TERENTY

Your Majesty, I don't know how to soothe you. I think there must be a way out.

NICHOLAS

All around me, I see treason, cowardice, and deceit. Life and death, everything is predetermined. Everything is God's doing.

Nicholas looks through some letters and documents, then burns them in the fire.

EXT. GARDEN -- DAY

Sitting on a blanket spread on the lawn, Alexandra embroiders, accompanied by Olga and Tatiana. Nicholas shovels snow with his valet Terenty.

Marie picks flowers along the wall. She is stunned by the sudden sight of Victor's face emerging from behind the wall. Victor leaps over the wall and reaches for the branch of a huge tree. He swings, holding the branch, and then jumps from the tree to the ground. His hand covers Marie's mouth before she utters a cry.

VICTOR

(whispering)

Shh, go, let's go.

MARIE

(whispering)

Where?

VICTOR

Don't talk. Follow me.

Victor helps Marie climb up the tree near the wall. Nicholas approaches, cutting trees for firework.

NICHOLAS

Marie, are you there?

Nicholas walks closer and sees Marie and Victor trying to leap over the wall from the tree.

MARIE

Papa, I have to go. I'm sorry.

NICHOLAS

Marie, are you crazy? You can't go like this.

VICTOR

Let go of your daughter, Sir, please.

NICHOLAS

We're confined here as prisoners. Do you understand, young man? Everyone of my family is not free to go anywhere.

VICTOR

I don't care. You've fallen victims in the struggle between the Provisional Government and the Soviet power. I can't let Marie sacrifice her life to stay with you.

NICHOLAS

We expect to leave for England. We will be safe there.

VICTOR

No.  England would never provide a haven for you, since you've been accused by your own people as a tyrant and traitor. You may be exiled, or killed, but never released.

FOOTSTEPS are heard. Some SENTRIES approach.

NICHOLAS

The sentries are coming. They'll pursue you, and, and shoot you.

VICTOR

Marie, hurry up, follow me.

MARIE

(crying)

Papa, what should I do?

NICHOLAS

Marie, don't go. If Victor leaves without you, he'll be safe. If you go together, they'll kill both of you. For Victor's safety, don't go.

Marie drops down from the tree and cries on her father's shoulder. Nicholas pats his daughter on the back. The sentries step toward them. Victor leaps over the wall and vanishes.

SENTRY

What happened?

NICHOLAS

Nothing serious. Marie dropped down from the tree.

SENTRY

You climbed up the tree?

MARIE

(murmuring)

Just take a look at the birds in their nest.

INT. SEMICIRCULAR HALL -- AUGUST 1917 -- NIGHT

Kerensky walks through the tall French door. The imperial family and their retainers gather in the hall, waiting for the time of departure. The guards haul the luggage into the hall. Steamer trunks are heaped on the marble floor.

KERENSKY

During the Bolshevik-led riots in Petrograd, radical sailors nearly made a march on Tsarskoe Selo. So, it's urgent, for your safety, to remove you to Tobolsk. That small Siberian town, remote and isolated, may be a brief respite from the chaos of the revolution until I can arrange for your safe transport out of Russia.

Nicholas stands quietly in a corner, smoking cigarette. Alexandra, dressed in a traveling suit, sits by her husband, weeping. The four grand duchesses, clad in white summer dresses, sob softly. Alexei is excited at first and then suddenly bursts into tears.

ALEXEI

Why don't they kill us at once? It'd be better than a slow murder.

ALEXANDRA

We've not suffered enough for all the faults we've committed.

EXT. ALEXANDER PALACE -- NIGHT

A string of cars pulls into the driveway and up to the ramp. Nicholas and his family take a last look at the Palace and then climb into the cars, followed by more than forty retainers.

From the driving cars, the imperial family watches the Palace vanish gradually in the distance.

EXT. ALEXANDROVSKY STATION -- TSARSKOE SELO -- DAY

Nicholas and Alexandra walk along the rails to their trains across the tracks, followed by their children and retainers. Nicholas leads ahead and then turns back to Alexandra to support her from behind by the elbow as she struggles to climb the high steps.

Under the Red Cross flag and with curtains drawn, the puffing trains pass through the station and head toward Siberia, carrying into exile the Romanovs and their retainers.