An account of the death of Kornilof is given by Major Robert Davis, in the course of his article, The March of the Ragged Noblemen, in the "Cornhill Magazine" for April.
"On the morning of April 1," he says, "the last ammunition is issued—two cartridges to a man. Even then no one doubts the ultimate victory. Korniloff is preparing a strategy for the morning. Before daylight on April 1 the fates strike the little army an irretrievable blow. Korniloff is killed. shell explodes in his bedroom. His headquarters are located at The Farm, an eminence outside Ekaterinodar which gives a panorama of the city.
"The adobe house has been an obvious artillery target, but Korniloft could not be persuaded to move his quarters. There is in him a strain of fatalism. Years before al gipsy soothsayer has predicted that} he will die at 63—and he has accepted her words as gospel, giving no thought thereafter to' death, exposure, or pain, his mind being fixed upon the rigid fact that nothing can kill him before he attains the age of 63.
"No one will believe that he is dead. The Cossacks refuse to put} the desolate fact into words. Simply pointing their fingers to_ the sky, they repeat, 'Korniloff is there.' It has been agreed among! the staff that in the event of Korniloff's disability, Denikin shall without discussion ' become com-ni ander.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.