When he was at last released, after five-and-a-half years in captivity, he weighed less than seven stone and was unable to combhis own hair, because his broken bones had healed so badly.
By the time that Rasputin was murdered by a group of aristocrats led by Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dimitri, Nicholas had been reduced to running Rasputin's holy comb through hishair before making a decision.
Still, I liked him most when he was back in his clothes, with his fine parting restored (he used hair oil and a steel comb), when he was great and good once more, settling me in an armchair, deftly drawing the cork from a Pinot Grigio, directing my reading.