We engaged the fort, Fort Morgan, firing several shells. We took some fire in return, both when I was in shelter and when I was on deck, but it didn’t do to ponder it more than you had to. One of our guns stopped working early, when an iron splinter blocked its vent hole and could not be removed. I took my turn at that, since I had sawed timber and had some strength about me, but I was not able to remove it. We then closed on the ironclad CSS Tennessee and, while we sustained some more hits also, we destroyed its steering and its stern gun and the Tennessee had no choice but to surrender. I was not aware of that at the time, of the damage inflicted or the surrender. All I knew was that we had a gun not working and, try as I might, that would not change. Another messenger arrived saying the white flag was up on the Tennessee and we were to cease fire.

I was not the hero of that battle, nor did I say anything famous about it, in the manner of Admiral Farragut, but the timely relay of messages is a necessity too, when guns are firing and requiring direction.

I cannot say the Tsarevitch found this tale particularly remarkable, but he was a well-mannered young man and gave it his full attention, asking questions at times. Some concerned strategy and the movement of ships about the bay, and those I could only answer because I had read books about the battle years later. I told him that. I wanted him to understand clearly that the personal experience of a battle is not the same as the history of it, and that I believed it in his interests for him to understand both.

Somehow the conversation then got onto parliaments. I don’t believe that was my choice. Perhaps he had some awareness of my discussion with his father. He asked about our Congress – how it is elected, its powers and their limits, its relationship with the President – and he told me it was his desire to see it one day, and to travel to Britain and study their parliament too. I sensed he had a preference for the British model, which is understandable, I suppose. He could see the worth in a parliament constituted from the people, passing laws that would affect the lives of those people, but answerable to them by free election. But he could also see a role for a monarch, providing oversight, casting an eye across the whole nation and long into the future, free from the burden of election.

I can’t say with any certainty where the conversation might have gone, had his tutor not arrived at that point, ready to begin lessons.

Do you believe the Tsarevitch would have expanded upon any interest in democracy, had his tutor not arrived then?