initial commit of ebook 22720HEADmain

1 files changed, 10091 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/22720.txt b/22720.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d70d63b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22720.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10091 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Minister of Evil, by William Le Queux
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Minister of Evil
+       The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia
+
+Author: William Le Queux
+
+Release Date: September 22, 2007 [EBook #22720]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MINISTER OF EVIL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michael Ciesielski and the booksmiths at
+http://www.eBookForge.net
+
+
+
+
+
+The Minister of Evil
+
+The Secret History of
+RASPUTIN'S
+Betrayal of Russia
+
+
+William Le Queux
+
+
+Cassell and Company, Ltd
+London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
+
+
+First Published August 1918.
+_Reprinted September 1918._
+
+
+Copyright, 1917, by William Le Queux, in the United States of America.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE READER
+
+
+AFTER the issue to the public of the curious chronicle of "Rasputin the
+Rascal Monk," based upon official documents, and its translation into a
+number of languages, I received from the same sources in Russia a bulky
+manuscript upon very thin paper which contained certain confessions,
+revelations, and allegations made by its writer, Feodor Rajevski, who
+acted as the mock-saint's secretary and body-servant, and who, in
+consequence, was for some years in a position to know the most inner
+secrets of Rasputin's dealings with those scoundrelly men and women who
+betrayed Holy Russia into the hands of the Hun.
+
+This manuscript, to-day before me as I write, is mostly in Italian, for
+Rajevski, the son of a Polish violinist, lived many years of his youth in
+Bologna, Florence, and old-world Siena, hence, in writing his memoirs, he
+used the language most familiar to him, and one perhaps more readily
+translated by anyone living outside Russia.
+
+In certain passages I have been compelled to disguise names of those who,
+first becoming tools of the mock-saint, yet afterwards discovering him to
+be a charlatan, arose in their patriotism and--like Rajevski who here
+confesses--watched patiently, and as Revolutionists became instrumental
+in the amazing charlatan's downfall and his ignominious death.
+
+These startling revelations of the secretary to the head of the "dark
+forces" in Russia, as they were known in the Duma, are certainly most
+amazing and unusually startling, forming as they do a disgraceful secret
+page of history that will prove of outstanding interest to those who come
+after us.
+
+I confess that when first I read through the bald statements of fact,
+which I have here endeavoured to place in readable form for British
+readers, I became absorbed--therefore I venture to believe that they will
+be just as interesting to others who read them.
+
+WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+
+DEVONSHIRE CLUB, LONDON,
+_January, 1918_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                    PAGE
+ 1. RASPUTIN MEETS THE EMPRESS                1
+ 2. RASPUTIN ENTERS TSARSKOE-SELO            19
+ 3. THE POTSDAM PLOT DEVELOPS                36
+ 4. THE MURDER OF STOLYPIN                   53
+ 5. THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE              68
+ 6. RASPUTIN IN BERLIN                       85
+ 7. SCANDAL AND BLACKMAIL                   100
+ 8. RASPUTIN THE ACTUAL TSAR                116
+ 9. THE TRAGEDY OF MADAME SVETCHINE         132
+10. TRAITOROUS WORK                         148
+11. POISON PLOTS THAT FAILED                163
+12. RASPUTIN AND THE KAISER                 180
+13. THE "PERFUME OF DEATH"                  197
+14. MILIUKOFF'S EXPOSURE                    214
+15. THE TRAITORS DENOUNCED                  229
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+RASPUTIN MEETS THE EMPRESS
+
+
+THE Spanish author Yriarte wrote those very true words:
+
+    "_Y ahora digo yo; llene un volumen_
+     _De disparates un Autor famoso,_
+     _Y si no alabaren, que me emplumen._"
+
+For those who do not read Spanish I would translate the passage as:
+
+     "Now I say to you; let an author of renown fill a book with
+     twaddle, and if it is not praised by the critics, you may tar and
+     feather me."
+
+I am not an author of renown. Indeed, I make no pretence of the
+delicacies of literary style, or the turning of fine phrases of elegant
+diplomacy. My object is merely to record in these pages the truth
+regarding the crumbling of Russia, and the downfall of our Imperial
+Throne.
+
+Anyone who cares to search the voluminous records in the Bureau of Police
+in the long Bibikovsky Boulevard, in Kiev, will find my _dossier_ neatly
+filed and tabulated, as are those of most Russians. You will find that I,
+Feodor, son of Feodor Rajevski, musician temporarily abroad, and his wife
+Varvara, was born in the Via Galliera, at Bologna, in Italy, on July 8,
+1880, and on March 3, 1897, entered the University in the Vladimirskaya.
+I venture to think that the police have but little inscribed to my
+detriment save perhaps a few students' pranks in the Kreshtchatik, and
+the record of that memorable night when we daubed with blue and white
+paint the equestrian statue in front of the Merchants' Club, and I was
+fined twenty roubles by the bearded old magistrate for the part I played
+in the joke.
+
+Had there been anything serious against me I doubt whether I should have
+occupied, as I did for some years, the post of confidential secretary to
+"Grichka," that saintly unwashed charlatan whose real name was Gregory
+Novikh, and whom the world knew by the nickname of "Rasputin."
+
+Of my youth I need say but little. After my student days I obtained,
+through the influence of a high Government official named Branicki, a
+friend of my father, a clerical post in the bureau of political police of
+the Empire, a department of the Ministry of the Interior, and for several
+years pursued a calm, uneventful life in that capacity. In consequence of
+a grave scandal discovered in my department--for my chief had secured the
+conviction of a certain wealthy nobleman named Tiniacheff, in Kharkoff,
+who was perfectly innocent of any offence--I was one day called as
+witness by the court of inquiry sitting in Moscow.
+
+It was at that inquiry early in 1903 that I first met General
+Kouropatkine, who at that time had risen to high favour with Her Majesty
+the Empress and was--as was afterwards discovered--urging the Tsar to
+make war against Japan, well knowing that any attacks by us would be
+foredoomed to failure. At the General's instigation I was transferred to
+the Ministry of War as an under-secretary in his Cabinet, and he sent
+me--on account of my knowledge of Italian--upon a confidential mission to
+Milan. This, I presume, I carried out entirely to his satisfaction, for
+on two other occasions I was sent to Italy with messages to a certain
+Baron Svereff, a rich Russian financier living in San Remo, and with whom
+no doubt Kouropatkine was engaged in traitorous dealings.
+
+One day, having been called by telephone to the house of His Excellency,
+I found, seated in his big luxuriously furnished room, and chatting
+confidentially, a strange-looking, unkempt, sallow-faced man of thirty or
+so, with broad brow, narrow sunken cheeks, and long untrimmed beard, who,
+as soon as he turned his big deep-set eyes upon mine, held me in
+fascination.
+
+His was a most striking countenance, broad in the protruding forehead
+which narrowed to the point of his black beard, and being dressed as a
+monk in a long, shabby, black robe I recognised at once he was one of
+those fakirs we have all over Russia, one of those self-sacrificing bogus
+"holy" men who wander from town to town obsessed by religious mania, full
+of fictitious self-denial, yet collecting kopecks for charity.
+
+Religion of all creeds has its esoteric phases, and our own Greek Church
+is certainly not alone in its "cranks."
+
+"Rajevski, this is the Starets, Gregory Novikh," said the General, who
+was in uniform with the cross of St. Andrew at his throat.
+
+I stood for a few seconds astounded. On being introduced to me, the
+unkempt, uncleanly fellow crossed his arms over his chest, bowed, and
+growled in a deep voice a word of benediction.
+
+I expressed pleasure at meeting him, for all Russia was at the moment
+ringing with the renown of the modest Siberian "saint" who could work
+miracles. For the past month or so the name of "Grichka" had been upon
+everyone's lips. The ignorant millions from the Volga to Vladivostok had
+been told that a new saint had arisen in Russia; one possessed of Divine
+influence; a man who lived such a clean and blameless life in imitation
+of Christ that he was destined as the spiritual Guide and Protector of
+Russia, and to eclipse even Saint Nicholas himself.
+
+As one level-headed and educated I had always had my doubts concerning
+all "holy" wanderers who meander across the steppes collecting alms.
+Knowing much of the evil life lived in our Russian monasteries and
+convents, and the warm welcome given to every charlatan who grows his
+beard, forgets to wash, lifts his eyes heavenwards, and begs, I had, I
+confess at the outset, but little faith in this new star in Holy Russia's
+firmament now introduced to me by His Excellency the Minister of War.
+
+"I have been speaking with the Starets concerning you," the Minister
+said, as he turned in his padded chair, and flicked the ash from his
+exquisite Bogdanoff cigarette. "I have detached you from my department to
+become secretary to the Starets. Yours will be an enviable post, my dear
+Feodor, I assure you. Russia is in her degeneration. The Starets has been
+sent to us by Divine Providence to regenerate and reform her."
+
+"But, your Excellency, I am very content in my present post--I----"
+
+"I issued the decree from the Ministry this morning," he interrupted in
+his fierce, blustering manner, that manner which, years later, carried
+him through the war with Japan. "It is all arranged. You are the
+secretary of our protector whom Almighty God has sent to Russia for our
+salvation."
+
+My eyes met the piercing gaze of the unkempt scoundrel, and, to my
+surprise, I found myself held mystified. Never before had any man or
+woman exercised such an all-powerful influence over me by merely gazing
+at me. That it was hypnotic was without doubt. The fellow himself with
+his sallow cheeks, his black beard, his deep-set eyes, and his broad brow
+was the very counterpart of those portraits which the old cinquecento
+artists of Italy painted of criminal aristocrats.
+
+In the Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence, in the great gallery in Siena;
+in Venice, Rome, and Milan hung dozens of portraits resembling closely
+that of Gregory Novikh, the man who, to my own knowledge as I intend to
+here show, betrayed Russia, and destroyed the Imperial House of Romanoff.
+
+In that look I had foreseen in him something terrible; I had read the
+whole of his destiny in his glance. His gaze for the moment overwhelmed
+me. Once or twice in my life--as it comes to most men--I have met with
+that expression in the countenances of those I have come across: it
+presaged crime, and the prophecy, alas! has been verified. Crime was in
+Gregory Novikh.
+
+Perhaps Rasputin--as the world called him and as I will call him--knew
+that crime was in him. I think he did. By his eyes I knew him to be a
+criminal sensualist with murder in his heart.
+
+I had heard a whisper of his sordid and miserable elemental passions,
+even though the Starets was, next to His Majesty the Tsar, the most
+popular man in all the Empire.
+
+To be appointed his confidential secretary was surely great advancement
+at a single bound, for though sensuality was to him as natural as the air
+he breathed, yet he had the highest society of Petrograd already at his
+feet.
+
+Compelled to accept my unwanted appointment, I bowed, and expressed
+gratification that I should have been chosen for such a post.
+
+"You must be discreet, my dear Feodor," said His Excellency, throwing his
+cigarette end into the great bronze bowl at his elbow. "When I have sent
+you upon confidential missions you have been as dumb as an oyster. This
+new post I give to you because I know that you are a true patriotic
+Russian, and if you see and know certain things you will never chatter
+about them to the detriment of myself, or of our very good friend
+Grichka. To him, remember, everything is permitted. You will learn much,
+but rather than speak let your tongue be cut out. And that," he added,
+looking at me very seriously as he lowered his voice, "and that, I warn
+you, will be the judgment upon you in the fortress of Schluesselburg if
+you dare to divulge a single secret of Russia's saviour!"
+
+I stood aghast between this all-powerful War Minister in his glittering
+decorations, the Emperor's right hand and confidant, and the unkempt,
+ragged, wandering collector of kopecks--the man whose eyes held me in
+their fascination each time they met my gaze.
+
+The suddenness of it all bewildered me. The salary I was to receive, as
+mentioned by His Excellency, was most generous, indeed, more than double
+that which I had been paid by the Ministry of War. It meant luxury beyond
+my wildest dreams; a life of ease, affluence, and influence.
+
+Is it any wonder therefore that I accepted it, little knowing in those
+days of peace that I was a pawn in the great game of the Hun?
+
+How shall I describe Rasputin? My pen fails me. He was one of a few great
+charlatans of saintly presence and of specious words, fascinators of
+women, and domineerers of men, who have been sent to the world at
+intervals through all the ages. Had he lived in the twelfth or thirteenth
+century of our era he would no doubt have been canonised. This rough,
+uncouth, illiterate Siberian peasant, who had been convicted of
+horse-stealing, and of immorality, who had served years of imprisonment
+in the gaol at Tobolsk, and who had only a month before we met been flung
+out of a monastery in Odessa and kicked half to death by its inmates as a
+fraud, had actually become the most popular person in Petrograd.
+
+With the women of the aristocracy he was well-known, but to the Imperial
+Court he had not risen. Yet, being a _protege_ of Kouropatkine, matters
+were no doubt being arranged, although I was, of course, in ignorance of
+the traitorous plans in progress.
+
+On the following morning, according to my instructions given me by my new
+chief, I called upon him at the small ground-floor flat which he occupied
+in the Poltavskaya, close to the Nicholas Station. The house, the
+remaining rooms of which were unoccupied, was a dark forbidding-looking
+one, with a heavy door beneath a portico, and containing deep cellars
+into which nobody ever penetrated save the Starets himself.
+
+On the morning of my first visit there, I was, from the beginning, much
+mystified. The dining-room was quite a luxurious apartment, so was the
+"saint's" study--a den with a soft Eastern carpet, a big writing-table, a
+high porcelain stove of chocolate and white, and silk-upholstered
+settees. From this den a door opened into the "holy" man's
+sleeping-room, an apartment of spartan plainness save for its big stove,
+a replica of the one in the study.
+
+The household, I found, consisted of one other person, an old Siberian
+peasant woman of about sixty, named Anna, who came from Pokrovsky, the
+"saint's" native village. She acted as housekeeper and maid-of-all-work.
+
+That first morning spent with Rasputin was full of interest. He was a
+dirty, uncouth, illiterate fellow who repelled me. His hands were hard,
+his fingers knotty, his face was of a distinctly criminal type, and yet
+in my bewilderment I remembered that General Kouropatkine had declared
+him to be sent by the Almighty as the Protector of Russia.
+
+His conversation was coarse and overbearing, and interlarded by
+quotations from Holy Writ. He mentioned to me certain ladies in high
+society, and related, with a broad grin upon his saintly countenance,
+scandal after scandal till I stood aghast.
+
+Truly the "saint" was a most remarkable personality. From the first I had
+been compelled to admit that whatever the Russian public had said, there
+was a certain amount of basis for the gossip. His was the most weird and
+compelling personality that I had ever met. Even Stolypin had been
+impressed by him, though the Holy Synod had declared him to be a fraud.
+
+My work consisted of reading to him and replying to letters from hundreds
+of women who had become attracted by his peculiar distorted emotional
+religion, many of whom desired to enter the cult which he had
+established. As secretary it was also my duty to arrange for the weekly
+reunions of the "sister-disciples," held in a big bare upstairs room, in
+which hung a holy ikon and several sacred pictures, and in which the
+mysteries of his "religion" were practised.
+
+Ere long, I found that to those weekly seances there flocked many of the
+wealthiest and most cultured women in Petrograd, who actually held the
+ex-horse-stealer in veneration, and believed, as the peasants believed,
+that he could work miracles.
+
+One afternoon, after I had been nearly a month in Rasputin's service,
+Boris Stuermer, a well-known Court sycophant, with bristling hair and a
+sweeping goatee beard, was brought to the monk by Kouropatkine. Both were
+in uniform, and after ushering them into Rasputin's study I felt that
+some dark conspiracy was on foot.
+
+They remained in council for nearly an hour when I was called into the
+room, and to me, as the monk's right hand, the plot was explained so that
+I could assist in it.
+
+To me the German Stuermer, who afterwards rose to be Prime Minister of
+Russia, was no stranger. Indeed, it was he who, inviting me to be seated,
+explained what was in progress.
+
+"It is necessary, Rajevski, that the Father should meet Her Majesty the
+Empress. He is our saviour, and it is but right that he should come to
+the Imperial Court. But he cannot be introduced by any of the ordinary
+channels. Her Majesty must be impressed, and her curiosity aroused."
+
+I bowed in assent, little dreaming of the devilish scheme which,
+instigated from Potsdam, and paid for by German gold, was about to be
+worked. Already Germany had decided to conquer Russia, and already the
+far-seeing Kaiser had watched and recognised that he could use Rasputin's
+undoubted influence in our priest-ridden country for his own dastardly
+ends.
+
+"Now," continued Stuermer, stroking his beard as he looked at me. "We have
+just discovered that Her Majesty intends to pay a visit incognita next
+Friday to the shrine of Our Lady at Kazan, in order to pray for the birth
+of an heir to the Romanoffs. We have therefore decided that our Father
+shall go to Kazan, and be found by the Empress praying before the shrine
+beseeching the Almighty to grant Her Majesty her fond desire. He will
+appear to her a perfect stranger uttering exactly the same prayer as that
+in her mind."
+
+"They will not speak," Kouropatkine added. "Our Father will apparently
+take no notice of her save to glance into her face, for why should he
+recognise in her the Empress?"
+
+I saw with what ingenuity the plan was being laid, for well I knew the
+amazing and quite uncanny fascination for women of all classes possessed
+by the Starets.
+
+At the time I naturally believed that Stuermer and his friend Kouropatkine
+were both convinced that it would be to the advantage of Russia if the
+holy man gained admission to the Imperial Court as spiritual guide to
+Nicholas II. Such a widely popular figure had the Starets become, and so
+deeply impressed had been the people of Moscow and Warsaw, where he had
+performed some mysterious "miracles," that there were hundreds of
+thousands of all classes who, like the two Ministers of the Crown who sat
+in that room, really believed that he was possessed of Divine power.
+
+As we walked in the Nevski, people, mostly women, would rush to him and
+kiss his dirty hand, or raise the hem of his greasy kaftan to their lips,
+asking for the Father's blessing. By the enlightened Western peoples the
+ignorance and superstitions of our great Russian people cannot be
+understood. You, who have travelled in our Holy Russia, know our
+trackless country where settlements are to distances, as one of our
+writers has put it, as fly-specks upon window-panes, where whole villages
+are the prey of disease, and where seventy-nine people out of every
+hundred cannot read or write. You also know how in the corner of every
+room hangs the ikon, how the gold or blue-domed basilica strikes you in
+every street, the long-haired priests chanting in their deep bass, the
+passer-by ceaselessly crossing himself, the peasantry crushed and
+down-trodden, and the middle and upper classes lapped in luxury and
+esteeming good manners more highly than morals. Such is Russia of
+to-day--Russia in the age of my employer Rasputin, the era of the
+downfall of the Imperial Romanoffs, and the fierce struggle with the
+barbaric Hun.
+
+In accordance with the plan formed by Boris Stuermer I next day
+accompanied the Starets by rail direct to Nijni Novgorod, by way of
+Moscow, thence taking steamer down the great Volga, a twelve-hour
+journey, to that city where they make bells and ikons, Kazan.
+
+Rasputin had put on his oldest and most ragged monk's habit, and carried
+a staff. Over his threadbare dress he wore another of finer texture which
+it was his intention to discard ere entering before the shrine, in order
+to appear most lowly and humble in the eyes of the shrewd Tsaritza. We
+left Petrograd at night, that our departure should not be known and
+commented upon, but ere we did so I received a note from the General to
+the effect that the director of Secret Police at Tsarskoe-Selo had
+telephoned that Her Majesty was not leaving till the following day.
+
+Hence we were travelling a day ahead of the Empress.
+
+Kazan is a city full of the odour of sanctity if judged by the number of
+priests and monks one meets in its streets. It is situated about seven
+versts from the river, an old-world picturesque place wherein one rubs
+shoulders with people in all sorts of curious costumes, especially in the
+Tartar suburb where the low houses border upon narrow unpaved streets
+dotted here and there with mosques.
+
+On arrival we drove up the hill to the great Preobrazhensky Monastery
+where Rasputin, as became a holy man, sought hospitality and was
+immediately very warmly welcomed, while I afterwards went on to the Hotel
+Frantsiya, in the long busy Vozkrensenkaya, where I took a room in order
+to watch the arrival of Alexandra Feodorovna, who would travel incognita,
+and of whose coming I was to give warning to Grichka.
+
+For two days I waited, ever on the alert, and, of course, interested in
+the adventure. It is not always that one waits in an hotel in expectation
+of the arrival of an empress. Meanwhile I had made friends with the hotel
+clerk, without, of course, explaining my business, and he had promised to
+tell me of all new arrivals.
+
+The Frantsiya is a very comfortable hotel, conducted upon French lines,
+and the two days I spent in Kazan were certainly quite enjoyable ones.
+
+On the evening of the third day my friend the hotel clerk sent a message
+to my room, and in response I at once descended to the bureau, when he
+informed me that the ladies had just arrived, a Madame Strepoff, and her
+maid Mademoiselle Kamensky. He described the first-named, and I at once
+recognised her as the Tsaritza herself, though, of course, the tall, pale
+young man had no idea of her identity. I had merely told him that I
+expected the arrival of a lady whom I had met in Moscow some time ago.
+
+"Madame has taken the best suite of rooms in the hotel," the clerk said.
+"She is evidently an aristocrat though she is only Madame Strepoff. I
+have just sent their passports to the police."
+
+The hour was immediately before dinner, therefore I lounged about the
+entrance hall awaiting the appearance of the two travellers who, the
+clerk had told me, had not ordered dinner in their rooms, so evidently
+they intended to dine in the public restaurant.
+
+Just after half-past seven they descended the broad staircase. There was
+but little difference in their ages. In an instant I recognised the
+handsome Empress by the many photographs I had seen. The other, dark and
+also good-looking, was evidently a lady-in-waiting, a lady whom I
+afterwards met at Court.
+
+The pair, dressed inconspicuously in black, seated themselves at a little
+_table a deux_ in the window, while I followed, and having selected a
+table opposite, ate my meal as I watched.
+
+The Empress in incognita seemed in high spirits, perhaps because she had
+escaped from the Imperial Court. She chatted confidentially with her
+companion, and more than once cast an inquiring glance in my direction,
+as though wondering whether I were not an agent of the Okhrana, the
+ubiquitous secret police of the Empire. It is only too true that wherever
+one goes in Russia one is "shadowed" by the police, and Her Majesty knew
+full well that the bureau of "personal police" at Tsarskoe-Selo would
+know that she had left the palace and would keep an eye upon her, because
+just about that period the air was full of plots against the dynasty.
+
+The Empress and her bosom friend Mademoiselle Zeneide Kamensky--whom I
+afterwards knew her to be--finished their meal unrecognised by the
+servants, or any of those in the restaurant, and then returned to their
+rooms. Afterwards I took a droshky up to the Preobrazhensky Monastery,
+which I reached about ten o'clock. The old monk who answered my ring at
+the barred door returned with a message from Rasputin to the effect that
+I was to tell him the object of my visit. This I refused to do, and
+became insistent upon seeing him. Such hesitation on Rasputin's part
+greatly surprised me. Indeed, it was not before nearly half an hour had
+elapsed that the long-bearded old janitor unwillingly conducted me
+through the long, bare corridors of the monastery where my footsteps on
+the flags awakened the echoes, and after several turns ushered me into a
+small, well-furnished room, wherein, in an armchair before the stove, sat
+the charlatan who was posing as the Saviour of Russia.
+
+In an instant I realised that he was in an advanced state of
+intoxication. As I entered he rose unsteadily, and addressing me declared
+that life in the Spasso-Preobrazhensky was most pleasant, and at once
+began singing a ribald song.
+
+I stood aghast. This was the man who, by the scheming of Stuermer and his
+catspaw, was to be introduced to the Imperial Court! So fuddled was he by
+vodka that he was unable to understand the purport of my visit. He merely
+laughed inanely and began to repeat parrot-like those curious prayers
+which he recited at the weekly reunions of the sister-disciples--passages
+culled haphazard from Holy Writ, interspersed with the most obscene and
+ribald allegations, a jumble of piety and blasphemy that none could ever
+understand.
+
+Soon I realised the hopelessness of the situation. This was the first I
+knew that the "saint" was addicted to alcohol, although he drank wine
+freely at meals and always kept champagne for his friends, paid for out
+of his collections for charity. In his inebriated state his wild-looking
+eyes glowed like coals, and as he looked at me I experienced once more
+the strange sensation of being enthralled. Truly, there was something
+mesmeric about that gaze of his, a mystery that I have never solved.
+
+A priest entered after I had been there a few minutes, and to him I
+remarked that the Father being "rather unwell" I would return early next
+day. He smiled meaningly, and I departed.
+
+Having no knowledge of what hour the Empress intended to visit the shrine
+of Our Lady, I was back again at the monastery at dawn when I found the
+Starets had quite recovered. As soon as I told him of the presence of the
+Tsaritza he bustled about, and in his oldest robe, rusty, travel-worn and
+frayed, he accompanied me to the fine church of Bogoroditsky.
+
+It was then only seven o'clock, and we found the church with its many
+candles and its much venerated shrine quite deserted save for one or two
+peasant women who had halted to pray on their way to work.
+
+Outside we stood together gazing down the long white road which led from
+the direction of the Hotel Frantsiya.
+
+"Alexandra Feodorovna must certainly come this way," remarked the ragged
+"saint" as I stood at his side. "Remain here and keep watch. I shall go
+to yonder house and speak with the people. When the carriage approaches,
+let me know quickly."
+
+Then leaving me the Starets crossed to a small house which he entered to
+give its inmates his blessing--blessing forsooth from such an unholy,
+unwashed scoundrel!
+
+Through an hour I waited in patience, until in the distance I saw a
+carriage approaching, and at once gave warning, whereupon the Father
+entered the church and threw himself upon his knees devoutly before the
+holy shrine and began to pray earnestly aloud in his deep bass.
+
+I had entered after him, and secreting myself behind one of the massive
+pillars watched the arrival of the two females in dead black, who,
+crossing themselves as they entered, approached the shrine.
+
+As they did so Rasputin, apparently unconscious of their presence, cried
+in a loud voice:
+
+"O God! in Thy gracious bounty give unto our Imperial House of Romanoff a
+son--one who shall in due time wear the glorious crown of the Tsars and
+become the Sovereign Defender of All the Russias against our enemies. In
+this my prayer I most humbly echo the voice of Russia's millions, whose
+dearest wish is that a son be born unto our Imperial House. O God, I
+beseech thee to grant us our request!"
+
+From my place of concealment I saw the Tsaritza start visibly. She wore a
+veil, so that I could not see her countenance. She had halted, entranced
+by overhearing that prayer uttered by the unkempt stranger. I noticed
+that she whispered a word to her companion, who, like herself, was
+veiled, and then Her Majesty threw herself upon her knees, an example
+followed by Mademoiselle Kamensky.
+
+The Empress, her head bowed in silence, knelt before the weird impressive
+shrine, side by side with the Starets. The great church was dark save for
+the light of the myriad candles, and silent save for the twittering of a
+bird, yet I could see that the pious exhortation of Rasputin had been
+taken as an omen by Her Majesty.
+
+Suddenly, the mock saint's voice again rang out clearly in the great
+cavernous basilica as he repeated the prayer in clear impassioned
+words--that same prayer which the Empress was repeating in silence.
+
+Only the three knelt there. For a full ten minutes silence again reigned.
+Neither of the kneeling figures stirred until Rasputin crossed himself
+slowly, and for a third time, raising his voice still higher he besought
+the Almighty to grant Russia an heir to the Throne.
+
+Then, at last, he rose with slow dignity as became a saintly priest, and
+again he made the sign of the cross.
+
+As he did so the Empress who had raised her veil turned her head,
+whereupon he halted for several seconds and gazed straight into her face
+with that intense, hypnotic stare which always held women in such
+mysterious fascination. I saw that the Empress was again startled, but
+folding his hands across his breast, an attitude habitual to him, the
+Starets passed out of the church without a second glance at her, leaving
+her breathless and trembling.
+
+When he had gone she turned in alarm and whispered with her
+lady-in-waiting. Both women rose, and, following the monk, stood gazing
+at his receding figure as he went down the long white road.
+
+"A strange man surely, Zeneide!" I heard the Empress exclaim. "How
+curious that, unconscious of my presence, he should be here, praying for
+me--a holy man without a doubt! We must discover who he is. What eyes!
+Did you notice them?"
+
+"Yes. His gaze really frightened me," her companion admitted.
+
+"Ah! His is the face of a true saint--a wonder-worker! Of that I am
+certain. We must make inquiries concerning him," remarked Her Majesty. "I
+must see him again and speak with him!"
+
+Then the pair, entering the carriage, drove rapidly away.
+
+While standing upon the church steps they had discussed the Starets while
+I had lounged close by unnoticed, believing that we were alone.
+
+As the carriage moved off, however, I was startled to feel strong hands
+laid heavily upon me, as a rough voice exclaimed:
+
+"Halt! You are under arrest!"
+
+Next second I became aware that I was in the hands of two rather well
+dressed men, no doubt agents of the Okhrana.
+
+"You have been loitering here with evil intent!" exclaimed the elder of
+the pair. "We have been watching you ever since you entered behind that
+good Father. We saw you secrete yourself. Have you any firearms?"
+
+I unfortunately had a revolver, and at once produced it.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the brown-bearded agent of Secret Police as he took
+possession of it. "I thought so! You had discovered the identity of the
+lady with the long veil, and have been here awaiting an opportunity to
+fire at her!"
+
+"What?" I gasped, aghast at the serious charge levelled against me. "I am
+no revolutionist! I carry that weapon merely for my self-protection."
+
+The bearded man gave a low whistle, and next moment three grey-coated
+policemen in uniform sprang up from nowhere, and I was unceremoniously
+marched through the streets to the head police bureau in the Gostiny
+Dvor, well knowing the seriousness of the allegation against me.
+
+Two hours later I was taken to the dark-panelled room of the Chief of
+Police, a bald-headed, flabby-faced functionary in a dark blue uniform
+glittering with decorations. Before his big table, standing between two
+policemen, I answered question after question he put to me, my replies
+being carefully noted by a clerk who sat at a side table. In the room
+were also the two officers of the Okhrana who had travelled, unknown to
+the Empress, in order to keep Her Majesty beneath their surveillance.
+
+"Why did you arrive at the Frantsiya and await the coming of the two
+ladies?" snapped the Chief of Police in his peculiarly offensive manner.
+
+I was at loss what to say. I was unable to tell the truth lest I should
+betray the plot of Boris Stuermer and General Kouropatkine. I recollected
+my friendship with the hotel clerk, and my eagerness for the arrival of
+the travellers.
+
+"Ah! You hesitate!" said the all-powerful functionary with a sinister
+grin, and knowing what I did of the political police and their arbitrary
+measures towards those suspected, I realised that I was in very grave
+danger.
+
+"You had secret knowledge of Her Majesty's journey incognita, or you
+would not have been watching in the church with a loaded revolver in your
+pocket," he went on. "Your Brothers of Freedom, as you term them, never
+lack knowledge of Their Majesties' movements," my inquisitor said.
+
+"I deny, your Excellency, that I was there with any evil intent," I
+protested. "Such a thing as you suggest never for a second entered my
+mind."
+
+The man in the brilliant uniform laughed, saying:
+
+"I have heard that same declaration before. It is a clever plot, no
+doubt, but fortunately you were watched, and the knowledge that you were
+being watched prevented you from putting your plans into execution.
+Come--confess!"
+
+"I had no idea that I was being watched until I was arrested," I
+declared.
+
+"But you cannot explain the reason why you travelled from Petrograd to
+Kazan. Let us hear your excuse," he said with increased sarcasm.
+
+"I have no excuse," was my very lame reply. I was wondering what had
+become of the Starets. It was quite evident that they knew nothing of my
+double journey up to the monastery, and further, there was no suspicion
+against Rasputin. That being so I hesitated to explain the truth, in the
+faint hope that Kouropatkine, as Minister of War, would hear of my
+arrest, and contrive to obtain my release. I saw that, at least, I ought
+to remain loyal to those who employed me, and further, even if I told the
+truth it would not be believed.
+
+"It will be best to make some inquiries in Petrograd regarding this
+individual," suggested the police agent who had arrested me.
+
+"I really don't think that is necessary," replied the Chief of Police of
+Kazan, tapping his desk impatiently with his pen, as he turned to me and
+said:
+
+"Now, tell me quickly, young man. Why are you here?"
+
+What could I reply?
+
+"Ah!" he said, smiling. "I see that there are others whom you refuse to
+implicate. It is useless to send such people as you for trial."
+
+"But I demand a fair trial!" I cried in desperation, a cold sweat
+breaking out on my brow, because I knew that he had power to pass
+sentence upon me as a political suspect who refused information--and that
+his order would certainly be confirmed by the Minister of the Interior.
+
+Too well did I know the drastic powers of the Chiefs of Police of the
+principal cities.
+
+At my demand the bald-headed man simply smiled, and replied:
+
+"My order is that you be conveyed to Schluesselburg. You will there have
+plenty of leisure in which to repent not having replied to my questions."
+
+To Schluesselburg! My heart fell within me. Once within that dreaded
+fortress, the terrible oubliettes of which are below the surface of the
+Lake Ladoga, my identity would be lost and I should be quickly forgotten.
+From Schluesselburg no prisoner ever returned!
+
+Would any of the conspiring trio, whose tool I had been, raise a finger
+to save me? Or would they consider that having served their purpose it
+would be to their advantage if my lips were closed?
+
+"Schluesselburg!" I gasped. "No--no, not that!" I cried. "I am
+innocent--quite innocent!"
+
+"You give no proof of it," coldly replied the Chief of Police, rising as
+a sign that the inquiry was at an end. "My orders are that you be sent to
+Schluesselburg without delay." Then, turning to the two agents of the
+Okhrana, he added: "You will report this to your director at
+Tsarskoe-Selo. I will send my order to the Ministry for confirmation
+to-night. Take the prisoner away!"
+
+And next moment I was bundled down to a dirty cell in the basement, there
+to await conveyance to that most dreaded of all the prisons in the
+Empire.
+
+By a single stroke of the pen I had been condemned to imprisonment for
+life!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+RASPUTIN ENTERS TSARSKOE-SELO
+
+
+I CONFESS that I felt my position to be absolutely hopeless.
+
+I was a political suspect, and therefore I knew full well that to attempt
+to communicate with anyone outside was quite impossible. The Chief of
+Police of Kazan, honestly believing that he was doing his duty and
+unearthing a subtle plot against the life of the Empress, on account of
+the revolver in my possession, had condemned me to imprisonment in the
+Fortress of Schluesselburg. Its very name, dreaded by every Russian,
+recurred to me as I recollected Kouropatkine's significant words. Had he
+not threatened that, if I revealed one single word of the secret doings
+of the holy Starets, my tongue would be cut out within those grim dark
+walls of that prison of mystery?
+
+We Russians had from our childhood heard of that sinister fortress, the
+walls of which rise sheer from the black waters of Lake Ladoga--that
+place where the cells of the political prisoners, victims of the thousand
+and one intrigues of the Russian bureaucracy, consequent upon the
+autocracy of the Tsar, are deep beneath the lake's surface, so that they
+can--when it is willed by the Governor or those higher Ministers who
+express their devilish desire--be flooded at will.
+
+Hundreds of terrified, yet innocent and nameless victims of Russia's
+mediaeval barbarism, persons of both sexes--alas! that I should speak so
+of my own country--have, during the past ten years of enlightenment,
+stood in their narrow dimly-lit oubliette and watched in horror the black
+tide trickle through the rat holes in the stone floor, slowly, ever
+slowly, until water has filled the cell to the arched stone roof and
+drowned them as rats in a trap.
+
+And all that has been done by the accursed German wirepullers in the name
+of the puny puppet who was Tsar, and from whom the truth was, they said,
+ever carefully hidden.
+
+The Kazan police treated me just as inhumanly as I expected. By my own
+experience as an official in the Department of Political Police, and
+knowing what I did in consequence, I was expecting all this.
+
+Four days I spent in that gloomy, but not very uncomfortable cell in
+Kazan, when, on the fifth morning, I was taken, handcuffed to another
+prisoner who I found afterwards had murdered his wife, to the Volga
+steamer which, after twelve hours of close confinement, landed us at
+Nijni.
+
+A hundred times I debated within myself whether it were best to remain
+silent, and not reveal my past career in the Department of Political
+Police, or to state the absolute facts and struggle by that means to
+obtain a hearing and escape.
+
+One fact was patent. General Kouropatkine and Boris Stuermer both trusted
+in my silence, while the rascal monk had found in me a catspaw who had
+remained dumb. In truth, however, my secret intention was to watch the
+progress of events. Of the latter, Rasputin had, of course, no suspicion.
+If I were--as I had already proved myself--his willing assistant, then he
+and his friends might endeavour to save me.
+
+Such were my thoughts as I sat in the train between two police agents on
+the interminable journey from Nijni to the capital.
+
+On arrival at the Nicholas Station the murderer to whom I was manacled
+and myself were shown no consideration. We had been without food for
+twelve hours, yet the three men in charge, though they ate a hearty meal
+in the buffet, gave us not a drink of water. Humanity is not in the
+vocabulary of our police of Russia when dealing with political suspects,
+so many of whom are entirely innocent persons who have proved themselves
+obnoxious to the corrupt bureaucracy.
+
+We had two hours to wait in Petrograd, locked in one of the waiting-rooms
+where we were at last given a hunk of bread and a piece of cold meat.
+Then we were driven out to Schluesselburg in a motor-car, arriving there
+in the grey break of dawn and being conveyed by boat to the grim
+red-brick fortress which rose from the lake.
+
+Stepping from the boat on to the floating landing-stage we were conducted
+by armed warders through the iron gate and along innumerable stone
+corridors where, ever and anon, we passed other warders--men who,
+criminals themselves, spent their lives in the fortress and were never
+allowed to land in order that they might not reveal the terrible secrets
+of that modern Bastille. Those who would form a proper opinion of our
+Empire should remember that this horrible prison was at the disposal of
+each of the Ministers and their sycophants, and that hundreds of entirely
+innocent people of both sexes had for years been sent there out of
+personal spite or jealousy, and also in the furtherance of Germany's aims
+for the coming war.
+
+Within those dark, gloomy walls, where many of the dimly lit cells were
+below the lake, hundreds of patriotic Russians had ended their lives,
+their only offence being that they had been too true to their Emperor and
+their own land!
+
+Ever since my childhood I had been taught to regard Schluesselburg as an
+inferno--a place from which no victim of our corrupt bureaucracy had ever
+emerged. Only His Excellency the Governor and the under-Governor had for
+years landed from that island fortress. To all others communication with
+the outside world was strictly forbidden. Hence I was fully aware that
+now I had set foot in the hateful place my identity had become lost, and
+only death was before me.
+
+And such deeds were being done in the name of the Tsar!
+
+At the time I believed in His Majesty, feeling that he was in ignorance
+of the truth. Nowadays I know that he was, all the time, fully aware of
+the crimes committed in his name. Hence, I have no sympathy with the
+Imperial family, and have welcomed its well-deserved downfall.
+
+Into a small room where sat an official in uniform I was ushered, and
+later, after waiting an hour, was compelled to sign the big
+leather-bound register of prisoners. Already my crime had evidently been
+written down in a neat official hand, yet I was given no opportunity to
+read it.
+
+"Enough!" said the big bearded officer with a wave of the hand. "Take him
+to his cell--number 326."
+
+Whereupon the three men who had conveyed me there bundled me down two
+steep flights of damp stone steps, worn hollow by the tread of thousands
+of those who had already gone down to their doom, into a corridor dimly
+lit by oil-lamps--a passage into which no light of day ever penetrated.
+
+There we were met by an evil-looking ex-convict who carried a key
+suspended by a chain.
+
+"Three-two-six!" shouted one of my guardians, whereupon the gaoler opened
+a door and I was thrust into a narrow stone cell, the floor of which was
+an inch deep in slime, faintly lit by a tiny aperture, heavily barred,
+about ten feet above where I stood.
+
+The door was locked behind me and I found myself alone. I was in one of
+those oubliettes which at the will of my captors could be flooded!
+
+I held my breath and glanced around. Within me arose a fierce resentment.
+I had acted honestly towards my scoundrelly employers--though, be it
+said, my object was one of patriotic observation--yet they had allowed me
+to become the victim of the secret police who would, no doubt, obtain
+great kudos, and probably a liberal _douceur_, for having unearthed "a
+desperate plot against Her Majesty the Empress!"
+
+That there was a plot was quite true--but one unsuspected by the Chief of
+Police of Kazan.
+
+My paroxysm of anger I need not here describe. Through the hours that
+passed I sat upon the stone seat beside the board that served me as bed,
+gazing up at the small barred window.
+
+_Clap--clap--clap_ was the only sound that reached me--and with failing
+heart I knew the noise to be that of waves of the lake beating upon the
+wall within a few inches of my window, the dark waters which in due time
+would no doubt rise through my uneven floor and engulf me. Big grey rats
+ran about in search of fragments of food--of which there was none. I was
+a "political," and my food would certainly not be plentiful.
+
+In those awful nerve-racking hours, never knowing when I might find my
+floor flooded as signal of a horrible death, I paced my cell uttering the
+worst curses upon those who had employed me, and vowed that if they gave
+me the grace--for their own ends--to escape I would use my utmost
+endeavours to destroy them.
+
+I did not blame the Okhrana or the Chief of Police of Kazan. They had
+both acted in good faith. Yet I remembered that I was the catspaw of
+Kouropatkine and of Stuermer, either of whom could easily order my
+release. And that was what I awaited in patience, although in terror.
+
+Days went by--hopeless, interminable days. The lapping of the waters
+above me ever reminded me of the fate that had been of the many hundreds
+who had previously occupied that same fearsome oubliette and had been
+drowned, deliberately murdered by those into whose bad graces they had
+fallen.
+
+When the grey streak of light faded above me the gruff criminal in charge
+would unbolt my door and bring me a small paraffin lamp to provide me
+with light and warmth for the night. When the lamp was brought each night
+I thought of Marie Vietroff whose name was still upon everyone's lips.
+The poor girl, arrested though innocent as I had been, had been confined
+in a cell in the fortress of Peter and Paul, and her fate was known in
+consequence of certain revelations admitted by the Assistant Public
+Prosecutor. This official, the tool of higher and more corrupt officials,
+had admitted that the girl, though entirely innocent of any crime, had
+been arrested out of spite and sent to the fortress where, to escape a
+doom more horrible than death itself, she had emptied the oil from her
+lamp over herself while in bed, and then set fire to it.
+
+Often, even in that deep oubliette, the sounds of woman's shrieks reached
+me, and each time I thought of the girl-victim of an official's revenge.
+
+Days passed--so many that I lost count of them--until I had abandoned
+hope. The scoundrels whom I had served had forsaken me now that I had
+served their purpose. Rasputin had fascinated the Empress by that
+mesmeric glance of his, and it had probably been deemed wiser that my
+mouth should be at once closed. At any moment I might discover the water
+oozing up between those green slime-covered stones.
+
+One day, however, at about noon the gruff uncommunicative peasant who was
+my gaoler--a man incarcerated for murder in Moscow--unlocked the door and
+bade me come out.
+
+In surprise I was taken along the corridors to that same small room in
+which I had put down my name in that Book of Fate they called the Prison
+Register, and there the same official informed me that it was desired to
+interrogate me at the Ministry of the Interior in Petrograd.
+
+Another interrogation! My spirits rose. If my captors meant to have the
+truth, then they should have it. I would expose the plot, let me be
+believed or disbelieved.
+
+Escorted by two agents of police, I was taken out into the dazzling light
+of day back to Petrograd, and to the Ministry of the Interior, where in a
+private room--one that was in a wing of the great building familiar to
+me--I was left alone.
+
+I had only been there for a few minutes, looking out of the window in
+wonder, when the door opened, and before me stood the goat-bearded man
+Boris Stuermer.
+
+"Welcome back, my dear Rajevski!" he exclaimed, coming towards me and
+shaking my hand warmly. "We only knew yesterday where you were. Those
+fools in Kazan spirited you away, but that idiot the Chief of Police has
+been to-day dismissed the service for his meddling. I do hope you are
+none the worse for your adventure," he added with concern.
+
+"Surely Grichka knew of my arrest!" I said. "Did he not inquire?"
+
+"He did not dare to do so openly, lest he himself should be implicated,"
+replied the German. "We were compelled to wait and inquire with due
+judiciousness. Even then we could not discover whither you had been
+sent--not until yesterday. But it is all a mistake, my dear Rajevski--all
+a mistake, and you must overlook it. The Father is eagerly awaiting your
+return."
+
+"I must first go home and exchange these dirty clothes," I remarked.
+
+"Yes. But first accept the apologies of the General and myself. You, of
+course, knew that we should extricate you--as we shall again, if any
+other untoward circumstances happen to arise. Recollect that we can open
+any door of prison or palace in Russia," and then he smiled grimly as I
+took my leave.
+
+I returned to my own rooms to find that they had, during my absence, been
+searched by the police, and some of my correspondence, of a private and
+family nature, had been taken away. At this I felt greatly annoyed, and
+resolved to obtain from Kouropatkine immunity from such domiciliary
+visits in future.
+
+Upon my table lay a letter which had, I was told, arrived for me that
+morning. On opening it I found that it was from the head office of the
+Azof-Don Commercial Bank, in the Morskaya, officially informing me that a
+sum of fifty thousand roubles had been placed to my credit there by some
+person who remained anonymous.
+
+The present was certainly a welcome one, made no doubt as reparation for
+the inconvenience I had suffered.
+
+Half-an-hour later I arrived at the Poltavskaya where old Anna admitted
+me, and I at once went to the monk's sanctum.
+
+Rasputin sprang from his chair and, seizing both my hands, cried:
+
+"Ah! my dear Feodor! So here you are back with us! This relieves my mind
+greatly."
+
+"Yes," I said. "Back from the grave."
+
+"The infernal idiots!" declared the monk, his wide-open eyes flashing as
+he spoke. "I will see that it does not occur again. But you quite
+understand, Feodor, that it was not wise to reveal that I had gone to
+Kazan on purpose to pray in the Empress's presence."
+
+I smiled, and said:
+
+"Somebody has placed fifty thousand roubles to my account at the Azof-Don
+Bank."
+
+In turn the rascal smiled, and said:
+
+"You need not seek its source. It is out of the Government funds, and is
+yours. Keep a still tongue, and there may be other payments." Then,
+turning to his table, he showed me quantities of correspondence which had
+been left unattended in my absence, and urged me to get to work, adding:
+"I have to be at the Baroness Tchelkounoff's this afternoon, and there is
+a seance here to-morrow--five neophytes to be initiated."
+
+So five more silly, neurotic and, of course, wealthy women were to be
+initiated into the mysteries of the mock saint's religion. Grichka had no
+use for those whose pockets were not well lined, for he was accumulating
+vast sums from those weak, fascinated females who believed in his
+divinity as healer and spiritual guide.
+
+Presently I seated myself at the table and recommenced my secretarial
+duties, while he went forth. In many letters were drafts for
+subscriptions for Rasputin's convent in far-off Pokrovsky in Siberia, a
+place which no one had ever visited, yet in support of which he had
+obtained hundreds of thousands of roubles. I might here state that later
+on, when I visited Pokrovsky, I found the wonderful convent, of which he
+told me such pious stories, consisted of a plain house cheaply furnished
+in which lived his peasant wife and children, together with twelve of his
+chosen sister-disciples, foolish women who had made over their money to
+him and devoted their lives to piety as set forth in his new "religion."
+
+A fortnight passed. Of Kouropatkine we saw little. He had, at last,
+assisted by the traitor Stoessel and at Germany's instigation, succeeded
+in forcing war with Japan, and the streets of the capital were filled
+with urging, enthusiastic crowds bent upon pulling the Mikado from his
+throne.
+
+Kouropatkine had, according to what Rasputin told me, assured the Emperor
+that the victory would be an easy one, and that the Japanese would fly at
+first sight of our troops. The General had quite recently returned from
+the Far East, and had presented a personal report to the Tsar describing
+Japan's war preparations. He had declared that if Russia meant victory
+she must strike at once. Hence war was declared; you know with what
+disastrous results to both the Army and Navy of Russia.
+
+It was, however, on the day before the declaration of war that Rasputin's
+real triumph came. The Empress, who had been searching Russia high and
+low for the pious Father beside whom she had knelt in Kazan, had at last
+discovered him, and he received a command to an audience at the Palace of
+Tsarskoe-Selo.
+
+The monk, his eyes shining with glee, showed me the letter from Count
+Fredericks, Minister of the Court, and said: "You must accompany me,
+Feodor."
+
+At noon on the day appointed we therefore left Petrograd together. The
+monk wore, in pretended humility, his oldest and most rusty robe--though
+beneath it, be it said, his under garments were of silk of the finest
+procurable in the capital--while suspended by a thin brass chain around
+his neck was a cheap enamelled cross. He was unkempt, unwashed, his face
+sallow and drawn, yet those wonderful brilliant eyes stared forth with
+uncanny intensity of expression. His hands were grimy, and his long
+tapering finger-nails had not been cleaned for weeks. Such was the man
+whom Alexandra Feodorovna, fascinated by his glance, had called to her
+side.
+
+On arrival at the station of Tsarskoe-Selo we found one of the Imperial
+carriages awaiting us, with footman and coachman in bright blue liveries,
+with outriders.
+
+Two flunkeys, also in blue, advanced, and, placing their hands beneath
+the saint's arms, lifted him into the carriage, an honour always paid to
+those who are special guests of His Majesty the Tsar. As for myself I
+climbed in afterwards, smiling within myself at the spectacle of the
+unwashed monk being lifted in as though he were an invalid. With us was
+an officer in uniform and a civilian--an agent of the Okhrana.
+
+The moment we had seated ourselves the Imperial servants took off their
+cocked hats and replaced them crosswise on their heads as sign that
+within the carriage was a guest of His Majesty, and in order to signal to
+passers-by as we drove along to remove their hats or salute.
+
+Rasputin had already been given instructions by General Erchoff, Chief
+Procurator of the Holy Synod, as to how we should act in the presence of
+Her Imperial Majesty. We had both attended before him, Rasputin well
+knowing that Erchoff was one of his most bitter enemies, but who on
+account of the Tsaritza's interest was now posing as a friend.
+
+After our drive back to Rasputin's house the monk, flinging himself into
+a chair and lighting a cigarette, thoughtfully remarked:
+
+"That puppet Erchoff will later on regret that he denounced me a year
+ago. His term of office is at its limit."
+
+The mock saint was possessed of an almost supernatural intuition. In
+everyday life he would tell me of things that would happen socially and
+politically, and sure enough they would happen. The gift of looking into
+the future is given to a few men and women in the world, those persons
+who sometimes when they look into the face of another hold their breath
+and remain silent, because they see death written upon the countenance
+before them. This curious faculty was possessed by Rasputin to a very
+marked degree--a faculty which has puzzled scientists through all the
+ages, a faculty which usually runs side by side with an overweening
+vanity and an amazing self-consciousness. Sometimes the possessor of that
+most astounding and mysterious intuition is also possessed of a humble
+and retiring disposition. But it is seldom.
+
+Grichka, as all Russia called him, was an outstanding personality,
+clever, scheming, and as unscrupulous as he was avaricious. His mujik
+blood betrayed itself every hour.
+
+Even as we sat there in the Imperial carriage as we drove to the Palace,
+he smiled with self-conscious sarcasm when the people saluted or doffed
+their hats to him as an Imperial guest.
+
+At last we arrived before huge prison-like gates, which opened to allow
+us to pass, sentries saluted, the doors swung back again, and we found
+ourselves in the great well kept park of the Alexander Palace.
+
+I saw two civilians walking together along the drive, which led into a
+wood. They were agents of the secret police patrolling the grounds, for
+every precaution was being taken to guard the persons of Their Majesties.
+The death of the girl Vietroff had aroused the indignation of Russia to
+such an extent that the atmosphere was charged with anarchism.
+
+Our road lay through woods, past a model dairy. Thence we went past two
+large farms, and out into open meadow lands, everything being kept most
+spick-and-span by the hundreds of servants.
+
+The system of defence of Tsarskoe-Selo struck me as amazingly well
+designed. The road we had driven along seemed to be a maze, for twice we
+had left what appeared to be the main road, and passing three
+guard-houses--small fortresses in themselves, in case of an attack by the
+revolutionists--we at last arrived before the main entrance of the royal
+residence, guarded by a detachment of fierce-looking Kubansky Cossacks.
+These were drawn up standing at the salute, with their officers, as we
+approached. It was surely a picturesque guard of honour, with their
+quaint, old-fashioned pointed headgear, their smart comic-opera tunics,
+and their long, shiny boots.
+
+In a great high white wall is an elegant gate of delicately wrought
+ironwork, with the usual striped sentry boxes on either side. Around are
+seated Chinese statues in bronze, each upon its pedestal. Over the
+gateway is the Imperial cipher in bronze, and beyond in the holy of
+holies is the long two-storied palace of Tsarskoe-Selo, that spot
+forbidden to all save to the guests of Their Majesties.
+
+I give this in detail because few outsiders, very few indeed--save
+ambassadors and other jackanapes in uniform--had, until the arrest of the
+Romanoffs, ever trod within the hallowed precincts of the
+palace-fortress, the bomb-proof home of the incompetent weakling who had
+been crowned Tsar of All the Russias.
+
+As we passed through that last gate I saw before us a building very much
+like a French chateau of the sixteenth century, a long low building with
+sloping slated roofs, few chimneys, and a clock--which, by the way, had
+stopped--high over the entrance.
+
+Everywhere since we had entered the Imperial domain all was most
+scrupulously well kept. Not a gravel stone was out of place. Gangs of men
+were, indeed, kept to rake over instantly the gravel drives so as to
+obliterate the track of the wheels of the carriages.
+
+At last with due pomp we drew up before the long portico of the
+comfortable but not imposing house in which lived Their Imperial
+Majesties.
+
+As we descended an attendant took Rasputin's staff, when instantly there
+came forward a lieutenant of Cossacks, a curiously crafty-looking fellow,
+who asked us if we desired to wash, or wished for a drink or for food.
+
+The fellow was repulsive, even to the charlatan himself. The latter gazed
+at him, and replied in his deep, serious tones:
+
+"I am here to see our Empress. I have no need for thy ministrations."
+
+At this rebuke the evil-looking officer looked daggers, and seeing that I
+was but a menial as secretary he did not deign to address me.
+
+A few seconds later we were taken in charge by the "skorochodi," servants
+who are so intelligent that they are nicknamed the "quick-walkers." The
+palace contains hundreds of servants and hangers-on, but these are the
+ones picked to take visitors through the semicircular built palace to
+audience of either the Tsar or his spouse.
+
+Through a long corridor we were conducted past the doors of a number of
+rooms. At each were two sentries, one a big Abyssinian negro in blue and
+gold--called an "Araby" in the palace--and the other a stolid Cossack
+sentry with his fixed bayonet.
+
+At the end of the corridor we were met by one of the Emperor's personal
+servants who came forward in all humility, and bowing before Rasputin,
+asked.
+
+"Can I be of service, Father, before you have audience?"
+
+Both of us were surprised. Here, in the midst of all the pomp and
+ceremony was an ordinary Russian peasant, as unlettered and as uncouth as
+Rasputin himself, and a personal attendant of his Majesty.
+
+He ushered us into a pretty room, with a long balcony upholstered in pale
+grey silk, with thick soft carpet to match, an apartment which might have
+been the boudoir of the Empress herself.
+
+"I am here at Her Imperial Majesty's command," replied the Father, ready
+for the crowning of the slow and subtle plot which Stuermer had engineered
+with Kouropatkine. "She desires to speak with me."
+
+Next instant the servant, who no doubt knew of Grichka's wonder-working
+with his mock miracles, threw himself upon his knees, and craved:
+
+"Oh, our Father, I beseech thee to place thy blessing upon me, and upon
+my wife and my invalid child. The doctor who came yesterday said that she
+is suffering from phthisis, and that the case is serious. I beg of thee
+to cure her."
+
+"Thy name?" he asked quickly, looking straight into his face with those
+wonderful eyes.
+
+"Aivasoff--Ivan Aivasoff."
+
+"Whence do you come?"
+
+"From Ossa, in the Government of Perm."
+
+"And you are His Majesty's valet, eh?"
+
+"I am one of His Imperial Majesty's valets. He told me that the Tsaritza
+had commanded you here, and that I was to introduce you and your
+secretary, Feodor Rajevski."
+
+Rasputin halted, and assuming his most pious demeanour--that same
+attitude which had attracted Petrograd society--and incidentally
+extracted hundreds of thousands of roubles from its pockets--crossed his
+hands, muttered some words, and bestowed his blessing upon the Tsar's
+body servant.
+
+A minute later the man Aivasoff straightened himself and, pointing to a
+door on the opposite side of the room, asked:
+
+"Are you both ready? The Tsaritza is awaiting you."
+
+Rasputin, though pretending to be careless of his personal appearance,
+stroked his long beard, and then announced his readiness to pass into the
+presence of the Empress.
+
+"You will go first, and bow," said our attendant. "Your secretary will
+remain within the door with hands crossed before him," he said.
+
+Then with his knuckles he rapped thrice upon the white enamelled door,
+and, turning the handle of the lock, entered, walking before to announce
+us.
+
+In front I saw a deep glow of electricity shaded with daffodil silk, a
+pretty artistic room with high palms, choice cut flowers, and soft
+luxurious couches upholstered in grey and gold brocade. There sat two
+ladies, one of whom was in a silk gown of bottle green, which was, no
+doubt, the latest creation of the Rue de la Paix--the Empress--while the
+other, who was in elegant black, I afterwards recognised as her bosom
+friend who had accompanied her to Kazan, Mademoiselle Zeneide Kamensky.
+
+Ivan Aivasoff bowed low as he uttered his stereotyped words of
+introduction. He was one of those ignorant persons with whom the
+unscrupulous bureaucrats had surrounded the person of the Tsar. He was an
+honest, well-meaning fellow from the Urals, who had been selected to
+pose as a palace official, and to act just as I was acting, as the tool
+of others; a peasant chosen because he would naturally be less affected
+by revolutionary and progressive influence.
+
+Aivasoff was, as I afterwards learnt, but one of many peasants in
+immediate contact with the Emperor and Empress, the other servants being
+German.
+
+As we bowed before the two ladies they rose smiling, while the Father
+with raised hands pronounced upon them his blessing in that pious,
+slightly hoarse, but deeply impressive voice of his. Then, after the
+Empress had welcomed him he fixed her with that impelling, hypnotic gaze
+of his, and in pretence of never having met her before, exclaimed:
+
+"O Gracious Lady, I have come here at thy bidding, though I am but a poor
+and unlettered wanderer, unfamiliar with palaces. My sphere is in the
+houses of the very poor in order to direct, to advise, and to succour
+them. Such is God's will."
+
+"Already, Father, we have heard of you," responded the Empress,
+fascinated by the extraordinary thraldom of his gaze. "Your great
+charitable works are well known to us, as they are known through the
+length and breadth of our Empire. It is said by many that you have been
+sent unto us as saviour of Russia."
+
+"Yes--it is so, by God's Almighty grace," the mock saint said, bowing low
+at the Empress's words, while Mademoiselle Kamensky exchanged inquiring
+glances with myself.
+
+That scene was, indeed, a strange one, the dirty, unkempt monk in his
+faded, ragged habit, greasy at collar and sleeves, his black matted beard
+sweeping across his chest, and his hair uncombed, standing erect and
+rather imperious, posing as a Divine messenger, in that luxurious private
+apartment of the Empress herself.
+
+"It is but right that you, as our spiritual guide, should be in direct
+touch with the Emperor and myself," she said, without, however, referring
+to the meeting at Kazan, to which I had certainly expected she would
+allude. "From our friend Stuermer I have learnt much concerning your good
+works, Father, and I wish to support them financially, if I may be
+permitted, just as I did those of Father Gapon."
+
+"Truly I thank thee, O Lady," he replied, bowing low again. "My convent
+at Pokrovsky is in urgent need of funds."
+
+"Then I shall give orders for you to receive a donation immediately," she
+said in a low voice, and with that pronounced German accent which always
+reminded those with whom she came into contact that she was not a
+true-born Russian. "Stolypin, too, has told me of the wonderful miracle
+you performed in Warsaw."
+
+I knew of that miracle, an outrageous fraud which had been perpetrated
+upon an assembly of ignorant peasants by means of a clever conjuring
+trick in which Rasputin's friend, the chemist Badmayev, and another, had
+assisted. Stuermer had been laughing heartily over it at Rasputin's house
+on the previous night.
+
+"God hath given me strength," replied the monk simply, and with much
+humbleness. "I am His servant, sent by Him unto Russia as her guide and
+her deliverer. As such I am before thee."
+
+As he stood there with devout piety written upon his sallow, shrunken
+countenance, he certainly presented a most saintly, picturesque
+appearance, his attitude being that of a most humble ascetic of the
+Middle Ages. Saint Francis of Assisi could not have been humbler.
+
+That Her Majesty was much impressed by the crafty charlatan was quite
+apparent. In that strange jumble of quotations from the Scriptures which
+he so often used, he declared to her that by Divine command he intended
+to guide Russia in her forthcoming progress and prosperity, so that she
+should rise to become the all-powerful nation of Europe.
+
+"It is well, O Lady, that thou hast sent for me," he added. "I am thy
+most devoted servant. I am entirely in thy hands."
+
+And again crossing his begrimed hands upon his breast he raised his eyes
+to Heaven, and repeated his blessing in that same jumbled jargon which he
+used at the weekly seances of the sister-disciples.
+
+"O Father, I sincerely thank you," replied Her Majesty at last. "The
+Emperor is unfortunately away in Moscow, but when he returns you must
+again come to us, for I know he will welcome you warmly. We are both
+striving for the national welfare, and if we receive your goodwill we
+shall have no fear of failure."
+
+"There are, alas! rumours of plots against the dynasty," said Rasputin.
+"But, O Lady, I beg of thee to heed these my words and remain calm and
+secure, for although attempts may be made, desperate perhaps, it is
+willed that none will be successful. God in His grace is Protector of the
+House of Romanoff, to whom a son will assuredly soon be born."
+
+Alexandra Feodorovna held her breath at hearing those words. That scene
+before the shrine of Our Lady of Kazan was, no doubt, still vivid in her
+mind.
+
+"Are you absolutely confident of that?" she asked him in breathless
+suspense.
+
+"The truth hath already been revealed unto me. Therefore I know," was his
+reply. "I know--and I here tell thee, O Lady. The Imperial House will
+have a son and heir."
+
+That prophecy, duly fulfilled as it was later on, caused the Empress to
+regard the dissolute "saint" as a "holy" man. In that eventful hour at
+Tsarskoe-Selo the die was cast. The Empress had fallen irrevocably
+beneath the spell of the amazing rascal, and the death-knell of the
+Romanoffs as rulers had been sounded.
+
+When we backed out of the Empress's presence the peasant Ivan, who had
+introduced us, handed us over to the Tsar's chief valet, an elderly
+grey-bearded man in the Imperial livery, a man whose name we understood
+was Tchernoff, and who had been valet of the old Emperor Alexander III.
+
+The Starets left the palace full of extreme satisfaction, and indeed,
+when an hour later we were alone together in the train returning to
+Petrograd, he grinned evilly across at me, and said meaningly:
+
+"Alexandra Feodorovna did not forget our meeting at Kazan, though she did
+not allude to it. Ere long, though she is Empress, I intend that she
+shall sit at my feet and do my bidding!"
+
+And he chuckled within himself as was his peasant's habit when mightily
+pleased.
+
+Truly, that meeting with the Tsar's valet Tchernoff was quite as fateful
+to Russia as the meeting with the neurotic spiritualistic Empress
+herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE POTSDAM PLOT DEVELOPS
+
+
+ABOUT a week after Rasputin's first audience of the Empress Alexandra,
+the Bishop Theophanus, confessor of the Imperial family, paid him a visit
+at the Poltavskaya.
+
+The Bishop, a big, over-fed man, had a long chat with the Starets in my
+presence.
+
+"Her Majesty was very much impressed by you, my dear Grichka," said the
+well-known cleric to the man who, having pretended to abandon his
+profligate ways, had parted his hair in the middle and become a pilgrim.
+"She has daily spoken of you, and you are to be commanded to audience
+with the Tsar. Hence I am here to give you some advice."
+
+The "holy" man grinned with satisfaction, knowing how complete had been
+the success of Stuermer's plans. At the moment Theophanus was in ignorance
+of the deeply laid plot to draw the Empress beneath the spell of the
+Starets whom the inferior classes all over Russia--as well as the
+well-to-do--believed was leading such a saint-like, ascetic life in
+imitation of Christ.
+
+Truly, Grichka dressed the part well, and gave himself the outward
+appearance of saintliness and godliness. Even the Bishop was bamboozled
+by him, just as Petrograd society was being mystified and electrified by
+the rising of "the Divine Protector" of Russia.
+
+Of his doctrine I need not here write. Dark hints of its astonishing
+immorality have already leaked out to the world through chattering women
+who were members of the cult. My object here is to expose the most subtle
+and ingenious plot which the world has known--the Teutonic conspiracy
+against our Russian Empire.
+
+Rasputin's "religion" was not a novel one, as is generally supposed. It
+was simply a variation conceived by his mystically-inclined mind upon the
+one devised by Marcion in the early days of the Christian era. He had
+conceived the theory that the only means by which the spirit could be
+elevated was to mortify and destroy the flesh.
+
+The Bishop Teofan, or Theophanus, was a mock ascetic, just as was
+Rasputin. Bishop Alexis of Kazan, after Rasputin's visit there, had
+introduced him to the Rector of the Religious Academy, and already the
+mock saint had established a circle of ascetic students, of whom Teofan
+and another Starets named Mitia the Blessed (a name derived from Dmitry),
+who came from Montenegro, were members. But Rasputin, although the
+leader, had entirely imposed upon Teofan.
+
+In all seriousness the Bishop told the Starets of the interest in him
+which the Empress had aroused in the mind of the Tsar.
+
+"He is a keen spiritualist, just as is the Empress," said the confessor.
+"At Court everyone has heard of your marvellous powers. I can promise you
+great success if you carry out the views I will place before you. You
+must form a Court circle of disciples. The woman most likely to assist
+you is Madame Vyrubova, who, with Mademoiselle Kamensky, is Her Majesty's
+greatest confidante."
+
+"Very well, I will meet her. You arrange it."
+
+"To-morrow is Monday, and there will be the usual clerical reception at
+the Countess Ignatieff's. I will see that she is there to meet you."
+
+"Excellent, my dear Teofan!" said the "saint." "In this affair we will
+help each other. I will form a circle of believers at Court, and
+Alexandra Feodorovna shall be at their head."
+
+The fact is that Teofan knew that Rasputin was possessed of a marvellous
+hypnotic power, and, being aware of the vogue of hypnotists at Court, saw
+in the Starets an able assistant by whom to gain power in the immediate
+entourage of Their Majesties. Thus, quite unconsciously, he was
+furthering the plans of Kouropatkine and Stuermer, who were receiving
+money from Berlin.
+
+Already one of Rasputin's principal disciples was Madame Golovine, the
+elder sister of the Grand Duke Paul's morganatic wife, Countess
+Hohenfelsen, a woman who had become his most ardent follower, and who
+never failed to attend, with her two daughters, the famous seances held
+weekly in that big upstairs room.
+
+On the following evening I went with Rasputin to the great house of the
+Dowager Countess Ignatieff to attend the usual Monday gathering of
+prelates and ascetics, for her salon was a rendezvous for all kinds of
+religious cranks, theologians, and people interested in pious works.
+Rasputin's unexpected appearance there caused a sensation.
+
+Outside his circle of "disciples" he was unapproachable. The instructions
+given me by Boris Stuermer were absolute and precise. The reason that I
+was always at the charlatan's right hand was because he could only write
+with difficulty, and was therefore unable to make any memoranda. His
+letters were the painful efforts of an unlettered mujik, as indeed he
+was.
+
+And yet already he had become the most renowned man in the Russian
+capital!
+
+Our Empire's quarrel with Japan had not been finally settled. The country
+was in a state of serious unrest. While the revolutionary spirit, started
+by the death of the girl Vietroff, was seething everywhere, the dynasty
+was threatened on every hand. Yet the ever-open eye of the Okhrana was
+upon everyone, and arrests of innocent persons were still continuing.
+
+That night the salon of the Countess Ignatieff was responsible for much
+concerning the downfall of the Romanoffs. In the great luxurious
+drawing-room there were assembled beneath the huge crystal electroliers a
+curious, mixed company of the pious and the vicious of the capital. There
+was the Metropolitan in his robes and with his great crucifix, Ministers
+of State in uniforms with decorations, Actual Privy Councillors and their
+wives, and dozens of underlings in their gaudy tinsel, prelates with
+crosses at their necks, and women of all classes, from the highest
+aristocracy to the painted sister of the higher demi-monde.
+
+The gathering was characteristic of Petrograd in those times of Russia's
+decadence, when Germany was preparing for war. The fight with Japan had
+already been engineered through Kouropatkine as a preliminary to the
+betrayal and smashing of our Empire.
+
+Of the conflict with the Mikado I have no concern. My pen is taken up in
+order to reveal what I know regarding the astounding plots conceived in
+Potsdam and executed in Petrograd, in order fearlessly to expose those
+who were traitors to their country, and to whom the _debacle_ of 1917 was
+due.
+
+In that great well-lit saloon, crowded by religious personages of all
+kinds, the old Dowager Countess Ignatieff, in stiff black silk, came
+forward to receive the popular Starets as the newest star in Russia's
+religious firmament. With Stuermer behind him to advise and to plot, aided
+by an obscure civil servant named Protopopoff--who afterwards became
+Minister of the Interior and a spy of Germany--the "saint" never held
+himself cheap. That was one of the secrets of his astounding career.
+Though he possessed no education and could scarcely trace his own name,
+he possessed the most acute brain of any lawyer or banker in Petrograd.
+In every sense he was abnormal, just as abnormal as Joan of Arc, Saint
+Anthony, Saint Francis, or a dozen others who have been beatified.
+
+The rheumatic old countess, after shaking hands with us both, introduced
+us to a dozen other persons around her. Suddenly she said:
+
+"Ah! Here is my dear friend the Lady-of-the-Court Anna Vyrubova. Allow me
+to introduce you, Father."
+
+The Starets instantly crossed his hands piously over his breast and bowed
+before a good-looking, sleek-faced woman of forty, who was elegantly
+dressed, and who greeted him with a humorous smile. Having heard much of
+the woman's scandalous past, I naturally regarded her with considerable
+curiosity. She was a woman of destiny. Petrograd had not long before been
+agog with the scandal following her marriage with a young naval officer,
+who had gone to the Baltic, and unexpectedly returning to his wife's room
+in the palace at Tsarskoe-Selo, had been shut out by the Empress herself.
+The husband had afterwards died in mysterious circumstances, which had
+been hushed up by the police, and madame had remained as the personal
+attendant upon Her Majesty with her inseparable friend Zeneide Kamensky.
+
+As I watched the monk's meeting with this woman of adventure, I saw that
+he had at once fascinated her, just as completely as he had hypnotised
+her Imperial mistress. She stood before him, using her small black fan
+slowly, for the room was overpoweringly hot, and began to chat, assuring
+him that she had for a long time been desirous of meeting him.
+
+As I stood beside Rasputin I heard him say, in that humble manner which
+always attracted society women:
+
+"And, O Lady, I have heard of thee often. It is with sincere pleasure
+that I gaze upon thy face and speak with thee. It is God's will--let Him
+be thanked for this our meeting."
+
+The blasphemy of it all appalled me. I knew of certain deep plots in
+progress, and I watched the handsome lady-in-waiting, with whom the monk
+crossed the room, nodding self-consciously to the bishops, prelates, and
+mock-pious scoundrels of all sorts, with their female victims. I held my
+breath in wonder.
+
+As I followed I saw Stuermer, the goat-bearded traitor, standing chatting
+to a pretty young girl in turquoise blue. Then I overheard Madame
+Vyrubova say to the Starets:
+
+"I came here to-night, Father, especially to meet you. Her Majesty gave
+me a message. She is in despair. She requires your help, prayers, and
+advice."
+
+"Ah! my dear lady, I regret; I am fully alive to the high honours which
+our Tsaritza has done me to command me to Court. But my sphere is with
+the poor. My life is with them--for their benefit and guidance."
+
+"I bear you a message," said the well-preserved woman of whom a thousand
+tongues had gossiped evilly in Petrograd. "To-morrow the Empress expects
+you informally. She will take no refusal."
+
+"Refusal--how can I refuse my Empress?" he replied. "I can beg of her to
+excuse me. I have to attend a meeting in the lowest quarter of the city
+to-morrow among those who await me. And in the evening I go upon a
+pilgrimage. Her Majesty will not begrudge the poor my ministrations.
+Please tell her this. My sphere, as designed by God, is with the masses
+and not in the Imperial Palace."
+
+That was all I overheard. Stuermer called me aside to whisper, and as he
+did so I saw that the Starets had at once become surrounded by women, of
+whom he always became the centre of attraction, with hands crossed so
+humbly over his breast.
+
+His refusal to go to Court was in accordance with his extraordinary
+intuition and acumen, though his meeting with the woman Vyrubova marked
+another milestone in the history of Russia's betrayal.
+
+The days passed. The world was, of course, in ignorance, but we in the
+Poltavskaya, the monk and myself, knew of the despatch of Admiral
+Rozhdestvensky's blundering fleet on its voyage half-way round the world,
+how he was ordered to fire upon anything he saw in the North Sea, and
+how, as soon came out, he fired upon some of your British trawlers on
+the Dogger Bank, for which our Government paid quite willingly sixty-five
+thousand pounds in compensation.
+
+But let the first war-chapter of Russia's history pass. With it Rasputin
+had but little to do. The person who, unwilling or not, carried out the
+will of Potsdam's Kaiser was the Empress Alexandra. And having done so
+she, with her curious nature, suddenly turned from gay to grave. She
+became strange in her conduct and discarded her wonderful Paris gowns--in
+which, by the way, she was eclipsed by "Liane," the dark-haired diva of
+the Paris _cafes chantants_, in whom Nicholas II. took such a very
+paternal interest.
+
+Time after time I had been present when Stuermer and Rasputin, chuckling
+over the undoubted success of their conspiracy, discussed the situation.
+
+Since Her Majesty had met the rascal monk at Tsarskoe-Selo she had never
+appeared in public. On certain occasions, when a Court pageant or
+function had to be held according to custom and the calendar, it was the
+Emperor's mother who, with her well-known charm and honesty, received the
+guests. Excuses were made for Alexandra Feodorovna's non-appearance. The
+truth was that the Empress, full of spiritualistic beliefs, had suddenly
+developed a religious mania, centred around the amazing personality of
+the mock monk.
+
+Thrice had Her Majesty sent him commands through her pro-German puppet
+Fredericks, and thrice he, at Stuermer's suggestion, refused to comply.
+This illiterate Siberian monk, ex-horse-thief and betrayer of women,
+actually disregarded the Imperial order! He had declared himself to be
+the saviour of Russia, and greater than the Romanoffs.
+
+"The Empress is furious!" declared the Bishop Teofan one day as, with his
+heavy bejewelled cross upon his breast and wearing clothes of the richest
+texture, he sat with the rascal in his den. "Sometimes she is in anger,
+at others in despair. Anna Vyrubova is frantic. Why do you not come to
+audience?"
+
+"She promised that I should see Nicholas," was the reply. "After I have
+spoken with him I will see her. It does a woman good to wait."
+
+"I agree, but your refusal may be stretched too far," said the Bishop.
+
+"None will tell the truth concerning her," Rasputin said. "I hear on one
+hand that she thinks herself too fat and is taking the 'Entfettungscur'
+against the advice of the Court physician. Others say that she has eczema
+and dare not show her face, while others say she is mad. What is the
+truth?"
+
+"Come and ascertain for yourself."
+
+"Her devotion is that of a fanatic--I take it?"
+
+"Exactly. She lives only for the entertainment of monks and pilgrims. You
+are lucky, my dear Grichka. Madame Vyrubova was evidently entranced by
+you at Countess Ignatieff's. She will do your bidding. Only, I beg of you
+to come to Court."
+
+The charlatan, however, steadily refused the Bishop's advice. Instead, he
+left Petrograd that night alone, and went away to his wife and
+sister-disciples at Pokrovsky, in Siberia.
+
+For more than two months he was absent from Petrograd. One day a frantic
+message came to me over the telephone from Madame Vyrubova, who inquired
+the whereabouts of the Starets.
+
+"The Father has gone to his convent at Pokrovsky, Madame," I replied.
+
+"What!" she gasped. "Gone to Siberia! Why, Her Majesty is daily expecting
+him here at the Palace. When will he return?"
+
+"I regret, Madame, that I cannot say," was my reply. "He has told me
+nothing."
+
+"Will you please take a confidential message to Boris Stuermer for me?"
+she asked. And when I replied in the affirmative, she went on:
+
+"Please go at once to him and ask him to come to the Palace this evening
+without fail. I am very anxious to see him concerning a highly important
+matter. A carriage will meet the train which arrives at seven-thirty."
+
+I promised to carry out the wishes of the Tsaritza's favourite
+lady-in-waiting, and half an hour later called upon Stuermer at his fine
+house in the Kirotshnaya, where I delivered the message.
+
+During the next few weeks I merely called at the Poltavskaya each morning
+for the monk's letters, which I opened and dealt with at my leisure.
+
+His correspondence was truly amazing. The letters were mostly from
+wealthy female devotees, missives usually couched in pious language. Some
+contained confessions of the most private nature, and asking the Father's
+advice and blessing. All these latter he had given me strict instructions
+carefully to preserve. Any letter which contained self-condemnation by
+its writer, or any confession of sin, was therefore carefully put away,
+after being duly replied to. At the time, it did not occur to me that the
+impostor ever intended to allow them to see the light of day, and,
+indeed, it was not until several years later that I discovered that he
+was using them for the purpose of extracting large sums from women who
+preferred to pay the blackmail he levied rather than have their secrets
+exposed to their sweet-hearts or husbands.
+
+While Rasputin, having thrown off his cloak of piety, was leading a
+dissolute life in far-off Pokrovsky, and refusing to obey the Empress's
+repeated invitations, the guns of Peter and Paul one day boomed forth
+salvo after salvo, announcing to the world that the prayer uttered by the
+Starets before our Lady of Kazan had been granted.
+
+An heir had been born to the Romanoffs!
+
+There was but little public rejoicing, however, for Russia was, at the
+moment, plunged into grief over the disastrous result of her attack upon
+Japan. Nevertheless, the event more than ever impressed upon the neurotic
+Empress that Grichka was possessed of some mysterious and divine
+influence. Her Majesty believed entirely in his saintliness, and her
+faith in the power of his prayers was complete. God had granted his
+prayer and sent an heir to the Romanoffs because of his purity and
+perfect piety. Already she was wondering whether, in some mysterious way,
+the child's life was not linked with that of the holy Father whom the
+Almighty had sent to protect her son's existence.
+
+Because of this the Empress sent to Rasputin, at Pokrovsky, a number of
+telegrams, which eventually the monk gave over to me to docket and put
+away with the incriminating letters of his foolish and fascinated
+admirers. The women of Russia, from the Empress to the lowly
+superstitious peasant, were now at the charlatan's feet.
+
+One telegram from Alexandra Feodorovna read as follows:
+
+     "Father and Protector of our House, why do you refuse to come and
+     give us comfort? God has given the Romanoffs an heir, and we
+     desire your counsel and your prayers. Do, I beg of you, return to
+     sustain us with your presence. When we met our conversation
+     remained unfinished. I confess that I doubted then, but I now
+     believe. Make haste and come at once to us. From your
+     sister--ALEXANDRA."
+
+Of this appeal the Starets took no notice. He preferred the society of
+his sister-disciples at Pokrovsky to that of the Tsaritza. Besides, was
+it not part of his clever plan to place the Empress beneath his influence
+by bringing her to the brink of despair? He had not yet met Nicholas II.,
+and it was his intention to place his amazing and mysterious grip upon
+him also at the crucial moment. So again the Empress sent him a
+communication--a letter written in her own hand, and delivered by one of
+the Imperial couriers.
+
+     "Why do you still hesitate?" she asked. "I sent you word by Anna
+     [Madame Vyrubova] that I desired eagerly to see you again. Your
+     good works are to-day in everyone's mouth. All at Court are
+     speaking of you and your beautiful soul-inspiring religion, of
+     which I am anxious to know more details from your own lips. It
+     is too cruel of you to sever yourself from Petrograd when all are
+     longing for your presence. What can I do in order to induce you
+     to come? Ask of me anything, and your wish shall be granted. Do
+     reply.--ALEXANDRA."
+
+Again he treated her invitation with contempt, for following this, ten
+days later, she sent him another telegram:
+
+     "If you still refuse to come I will send Anna to you to try and
+     induce you to reconsider the situation. Nicholas is extremely
+     anxious to consult you. Father, I again implore you to come to
+     us.--A."
+
+Rasputin, who had created such a favourable impression upon the
+lady-in-waiting Vyrubova, certainly had no intention of allowing her to
+go to Pokrovsky and see the sordid home which Russia believed to be a
+wonderful "monastery," and to which Petrograd society had subscribed so
+freely. He therefore sent Her Majesty a message--the first response she
+extracted--to the effect that he was leaving for Petrograd as soon as it
+was possible to fulfil his Divine "call."
+
+In the meantime I had been introduced by Boris Stuermer, whom I met almost
+daily, to Stolypin, a friend of Rasputin's principal disciple in
+Petrograd, Madame Golovine, and to Monsieur Raeff, who afterwards, by
+Rasputin's influence, received the appointment of Procurator of the Holy
+Synod. At Stuermer's fine house there were, in the absence of the Starets,
+constant meetings of Raeff, General Kurloff, the Chief of the Political
+Police, and a beetle-browed official named Kschessinski, who was director
+of that secret department of State known as "the Black Cabinet," a suite
+of rooms in the central postal bureau in Petrograd, where one's
+correspondence was daily under examination for the benefit of the corrupt
+Ministers and their place-seeking underlings. In addition, at these
+dinners, followed by the secret conferences, there attended a certain
+smart, well-set-up officer named Miassoyedeff, a colonel stationed at
+Wirballen on the East Prussia frontier, and who had received gracious
+invitations from the Kaiser to go shooting and to hob-nob with him. This
+man afterwards became a spy of Germany, as I will later on reveal.
+
+Kurloff, as head of the Political Police, had, before my appointment as
+secretary to the Starets, been my superior, and therefore I well knew the
+wheels within the wheels of his department. Naturally he was
+hand-in-glove with the director of the Black Cabinet, the doings of which
+would require a whole volume to themselves, and to me it was evident that
+some further great and deep laid plot was in progress, of which Rasputin
+was to be the head director.
+
+One day in the Nevski I met Mitia the Blessed, the Starets who ran
+Rasputin so closely in the public favour. I saw he was hopelessly
+intoxicated, and was being followed by a crowd of jeering urchins. I did
+not, however, know that Stuermer and his friends had arranged this
+disgraceful exhibition of unholiness in order to discredit and destroy
+Grichka's rival. Five minutes later I met the Bishop Theophanus walking
+with the Procurator of the Holy Synod, who, like myself, witnessed the
+degrading sight, and from that moment Mitia the Blessed no longer
+exercised power, and was not further invited to the salons of those
+mystical members of the aristocracy. He had been swept into oblivion in a
+single day.
+
+Rasputin at last returned, forced to do so by the determined attitude of
+the Empress, who without doubt was suffering from serious religious
+mania, as well as an acute form of neurotic heart disease. The monk
+arrived quite unexpectedly at the Poltavskaya, and rang me up on the
+telephone late one evening.
+
+The Bishop Theophanus was, I found, with him. He knew of his arrival, and
+had come from Peterhof to meet him and urge him to go next day and see
+the Empress.
+
+"If it is thy wish, I will," replied the "saint" with some reluctance,
+for he knew too well that already he wielded an unbounded influence over
+the Tsaritza. The fellow whose record was the worst imaginable, and
+whose very nickname, "Rasputin," meant in Russian "the dissolute," was
+regarded by the Empress as possessed of divine power, and as saviour of
+Russia and protector of the Imperial family and its heir.
+
+"I hear that Alexis, Bishop of Kazan, has turned your enemy, and has
+written to the Holy Synod regarding your questionable monastery at
+Pokrovsky," remarked Theophanus. "It is very regrettable."
+
+"Bah! my dear friend. I have no fear," declared the man whose vanity was
+so overweening. "Soon you will see that Nicholas himself will do my
+bidding. I shall play the tune, and he will dance. All appointments will,
+ere long, be in my hands, and I will place one of our friends as
+Procurator of the Holy Synod."
+
+At the moment I was inclined to laugh at such bombastic assertion.
+Little, indeed, did I dream that within twelve months his prophecy would
+be fulfilled, and that the ex-horse-stealer, whose secretary I had
+become, would actually rule Russia through the lethargic weakling who sat
+upon the throne as Tsar Nicholas II.
+
+A week later I accompanied the Starets to have his first audience with
+His Majesty the Emperor at the Palace of Peterhof, that wonderful
+Imperial residence where the great Samson Fountain in gilded bronze
+throws up from the lion's jaws a thick jet seventy feet high, in
+imitation of Versailles, and where nearly six hundred servants were
+employed in various capacities. We passed the Marly Pond, where the carp
+were called by the ringing of a bell, and the Marly Cascade, where water
+runs over twenty gilded marble steps. Truly, the beauties of Peterhof
+were a revelation to the Starets and myself. On the previous day he had
+had audience of the Empress at Tsarskoe-Selo, but I had not been present,
+therefore I remained in ignorance of what had transpired. All I know is
+that he returned home and drank a whole bottle of champagne to himself,
+in full satisfaction--not that he cared for the wine, for his peasant
+taste favoured the fiery vodka.
+
+On entering Peterhof we were met by the valet Tchernoff, who greeted
+Rasputin very warmly with some meaning words, and said:
+
+"His Majesty is in his private cabinet expecting you. Come."
+
+Another valet took our hats and overcoats, and then Tchernoff led us up a
+great flight of marble stairs, and on through nearly a dozen panelled
+rooms with historic portraits, much like those I had once passed through
+at Fontainebleau, until he entered the blue drawing-room, a great,
+old-fashioned, eighteenth-century apartment adorned by a number of
+magnificent pictures by Saltzmann.
+
+Your British public have never truly realised the gorgeousness of the
+Palace at Peterhof, or the fact that in the Imperial service at the
+various residences there were no fewer than four thousand domestics, most
+of them useless and all uniformed. The "Arabys," imported especially from
+Abyssinia, and who wore fantastically embroidered blue and gold uniforms
+with a great crimson sash, and a kind of turban upon their heads, were
+simply well-paid puppets, who added pomp to the gorgeous salons, the
+doors of which they guarded.
+
+As we passed through the great rooms on our way to the Tsar's private
+cabinet, a hundred servants and officials bowed to us, but Rasputin
+remained quite unimpressed. He was possessed of a most astounding
+intuition, and he knew that by his mystical practices, his mock piety,
+and by apparently ignoring the Imperial pair that success was assured.
+
+At last we stood before the door of the autocrat's room, which Tchernoff
+threw open unceremoniously, when we were confronted by His Majesty, who
+wore a rough tweed shooting-suit, presenting anything but an Imperial
+figure. I had expected to see him in uniform, like the thousand and one
+pictures which purport to represent him, instead of which I found a very
+ordinary-looking, bearded man, with deep-set eyes, a wan countenance, and
+rather lank hair. He was square-built, a trifle below the medium height,
+and a man whom, had you passed him in the Nevski, you might have taken
+for a Jew tailor or a small tradesman. But the room itself was a
+beautiful one, like all the apartments in Peterhof, semicircular in
+shape, with a great bay window looking out upon the wonderful fountains,
+all of which were throwing up their jets, with a great vista of greenery
+beyond.
+
+The Tsar bowed as the Starets, crossing himself, bestowed his blessing
+upon him. The owner of twenty palaces and seven hundred million acres of
+land turned his eyes to the carpet humbly as the mock saint uttered those
+words of incomprehensible jargon which half Russia believed to be
+inspired by the Divine will.
+
+When Rasputin spoke His Majesty seemed cowed and thoughtful. Over his
+whole frame was written fear and exhaustion. His voice was hollow when he
+replied, and his glance was full of anticipation. At every gesture of the
+Starets he seemed startled.
+
+Was it any wonder when one recollected, so many were the plots against
+the dynasty, that at the moment he had removed from Tsarskoe-Selo, where
+a gang of a thousand men were engaged in digging deep trenches around the
+palace because the Okhrana had got wind of a desperate plot to tunnel
+beneath the Imperial residence and blow it up together with its Imperial
+occupiers.
+
+His Majesty addressed the Starets as "thee" and "thou."
+
+"I know, Father, that thou art our guide and saviour," said the autocrat,
+when together we were seated in the window, Rasputin explaining that he
+always took me with him in order that I might take mental notes of
+conversations and decisions.
+
+"Feodor is mute," he added. "And he is part of myself."
+
+Then His Majesty referred to Rasputin's "miracles" which he had performed
+in Warsaw, Kiev, and other places, mere conjuring tricks which had held
+the peasants speechless in amazement.
+
+"Theophanus has told us of them. Thou hast healed the sick and cured the
+lame," said His Majesty. "Truly, thou art greater in Russia than
+myself."
+
+"Pardon, your Majesty," replied the impostor humbly, "I am but God's
+messenger, but thou art Tsar. It is not for me to exert authority, only
+to pray unceasingly for the Empire and for the well-being of its Imperial
+House. Theophanus hath, I hope, told thee that I seek no emoluments, no
+advancement, no favour, no honour; I am but the humble Starets--a pilgrim
+who hopes one day to see Mount Athos, there to retire in devotion."
+
+"Theophanus has told me much," said the Emperor. "He has told me how at
+spiritualistic seances thou canst work thy will with our departed, and
+how at the house of our dear Stuermer not long ago thou didst obtain
+communication with the spirit of my dear father Alexander. Truly, thy
+powers are great, and we have need of thee. Why didst thou refuse to come
+to us even though the Empress sent thee so many commands?"
+
+"Because, as I have replied to Her Majesty, I am no courtier. My work
+lies in the homes of the poor, not in the palaces."
+
+"Ah, no," laughed the autocrat with good humour. "Thou art truly sent to
+us to save Russia. Thy place is here, in our own home."
+
+I drew a long breath when I heard the Tsar pronounce those words, for
+they showed quite plainly the strong, invincible grip the impostor had,
+by posing with unconcern, already obtained upon the Imperial family and
+the Court.
+
+The Starets crossed himself, and again bowed. I was amazed to witness the
+crass ignorance and astounding superstition displayed by the Emperor of
+Russia, whom all Europe believed to be a progressive, wideawake monarch.
+That he possessed a spiritualistic kink, as did also his German wife, was
+quite apparent. Any bogus medium or charlatan could easily impose upon
+him. A dozen men and women who, by their vagaries and pretended powers,
+had brought psychic studies into ridicule, had given seances before the
+Emperor, and had told him things which his crafty entourage had already
+paid them to "reveal."
+
+On the night of the declaration of war with Japan, Kouropatkine brought
+to Peterhof the French medium Jules Verrier, who received a handsome fee
+for pretending to get into touch with the spirit of Peter the Great, who
+declared that Russia, in declaring war, had carried out his wishes. And
+Nicholas was at once in high glee, and mightily enthusiastic to know that
+his historic ancestor approved of his action.
+
+The Imperial Court was full of frauds, traitors, and sycophants. In all
+of them Nicholas had the fullest confidence, while his wife was possessed
+of certain knowledge which sometimes caused her to discriminate.
+
+The commonplace-looking man in tweeds, who was the entire reverse of
+one's idea of an Emperor, grew confidential, and it was plain that he was
+quite as much impressed by Grichka as the Empress had been, for
+throughout the audience the monk had used to the full his inexplicable
+hypnotic power.
+
+"Our good Theophanus and Helidor favour us with their counsel, but,
+Father, thou hast our most complete confidence. I beg of thee to grant
+the Empress another interview to-morrow, for she is daily longing for
+counsel from thee. I will fix the audience. So, as our friend, please
+keep the appointment. But before we part I wish to grant to thee any
+request that thou mayest desire--any appointment or advancement of any
+friend. Speak, and thy wish shall be at once granted."
+
+The monk reflected. It was, indeed, the moment of his first triumph.
+
+"I have a young and extremely able friend named Protopopoff in the
+Ministry of the Interior," he replied. "He is a loyal son of Russia, and
+a pious believer. Cannot he be advanced?"
+
+"He shall be. I will make a note of the name," and turning to his desk,
+he scribbled it upon the blotting-pad with a stubby pencil, repeating the
+words:
+
+"Protopopoff--in the Ministry of the Interior."
+
+And such was the manner in which the man who was the most audacious spy
+that Germany employed in Russia was placed in the path of advancement,
+subsequently in 1915 becoming Minister in his own Department, and
+betraying his country for German gold.
+
+Truly, the Potsdam plot was rapidly maturing, and its amazing
+ramifications I intend to disclose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MURDER OF STOLYPIN
+
+
+WITHIN a fortnight of the mock monk's audience of the Tsar he found
+himself installed in a fine suite of rooms in the Palace at
+Tsarskoe-Selo, one apartment being assigned to myself as his secretary.
+
+Rasputin's ascendancy over the Imperial couple became daily more marked.
+I was the onlooker of a very curious and clever game. Spiritualistic
+seances were held frequently, at which the Emperor and Empress assisted.
+In Petrograd the monk also continued the weekly receptions of his
+"disciples," chief among them being Madame Golovine and the Princess
+Paley. The Empress fell more and more beneath the evil influence of the
+Starets, for she felt convinced that his prayer had been answered by the
+birth of an heir.
+
+To one man--even though of the Germanophile party--the intrusion of
+Rasputin into the Court circle caused great annoyance. That was Count
+Fredericks.
+
+Madame Vyrubova one day told me that the count had that afternoon, in her
+presence, inquired of the Emperor:
+
+"Who is this new Starets of whom everybody is talking?"
+
+"Oh! merely a simple mujik whose prayers carry right to Heaven," was His
+Majesty's answer. "He is endowed with most sublime faith."
+
+The count then warned the Tsar of the displeasure which Rasputin's
+presence at Court was creating on every hand, adding:
+
+"There are rumours that he is a mere drunken libertine. Make inquiries
+for yourself of his doings in Petrograd."
+
+"Well, my dear Count," laughed the Emperor carelessly, "better one
+Starets than ten hysterics."
+
+This seemed to me to prove that Rasputin's presence often saved the
+Emperor from the hysterical outbursts of his wife.
+
+Indeed, only the previous day the monk put about a story in Petrograd to
+account for the Empress's hysterical state. He started a rumour that Her
+Majesty was, against the advice of the Court physicians, following a
+system of German _Entfettungscur_, or cure for obesity, the result having
+been a complete breakdown of the nervous system.
+
+Thus, by slow degrees, the artful monk ingratiated himself with the
+Imperial family, just as years ago, when a mere cabdriver, in his
+pre-saintly days, he happened to ingratiate himself with Alexis, Bishop
+of Kazan, who became greatly struck with him, and later pushed him
+forward as a holy man, yet for his trouble afterwards found himself swept
+away, and his successor appointed by Rasputin's own hand. The monk was
+relentless, overbearing, suspicious of any persons who did him a favour,
+and at the same time ready to lick the boots of Germany's War Lord.
+
+The "Dark Forces" were now strenuously at work. Little did I enjoy the
+quiet of my own rooms in Petrograd. My "saintly" master was ever active
+holding conferences, often hourly, with Ministers of State, councillors,
+and the "disciples" of his own secret cult.
+
+Very soon I noted that his closest friend was Stolypin, a good-looking
+man with beard and curled moustache, who was President of the Council of
+Ministers.
+
+At that period Stolypin and the Emperor were inseparable. His Majesty
+gave him daily audiences, and sometimes, through Mademoiselle Zeneide
+Kamensky, the Empress's chief confidante, he had audience of Her
+Majesty.
+
+I met Stolypin often. His Excellency was a bluff but elegant bureaucrat,
+who had succeeded Count Witte, a man of refinement, belonging to a very
+old boyar family. He was an excellent talker, and with his soft, engaging
+manners he could, when he wished, exercise a personal charm that always
+had a great effect upon his hearers. His Excellency's great virtue in the
+Emperor's eyes was that he never wearied him, and that was much in his
+favour; he always curtailed his business. Whatever he had to report to
+the Emperor was done quickly, without unnecessary comment, and the
+conference ended, they smoked together on terms of almost equality.
+
+I beg the reader's pardon if I here digress for a moment. After Stolypin
+we had a well-meaning statesman as Prime Minister in Kokovtsov, who
+endeavoured to follow the same lines as his master. He was a talented and
+eloquent man, whom I often met, and who at first impressed the Tsar by
+his crystallised reports. But Emperor and Prime Minister had no personal
+attraction towards each other, as they should have if an empire is to
+progress. Nicholas never gave him his confidence.
+
+Perhaps I may be permitted to reveal here a scene historic in the history
+of the Empire, being present with my master Rasputin in the Tsar's
+private cabinet. It was a very curious incident, and revealed much
+concerning the attitude of Nicholas towards the nation.
+
+Kokovtsov, who had allowed Akimoff to be present--the latter, I believe,
+in eager anticipation of a triumph--read to the Emperor his new project
+for enlarging the Government monopoly system for the sale of vodka. This
+would have greatly increased the Government's exchequer, but would
+inevitably have ruined the people.
+
+In the room Rasputin sat in his black robe and his big jewelled cross
+suspended by its chain, while I stood beside him.
+
+The Emperor, with a cigarette in his mouth, sat in a big arm-chair at his
+desk, tracing circles and squares upon a sheet of paper, his habit when
+distracted. Now and then he scratched his head. He was attentive to the
+report, still drawing his circles, but making no comment, except that his
+lips relaxed in a faint smile.
+
+Suddenly he turned to Rasputin and asked: "Well Father, what do you
+understand in all this?"
+
+Kokovtsov ceased reading his project, and stood in wonder. Not a single
+item of the project had been criticised, no comment had been offered,
+therefore His Excellency naturally believed that his efforts were
+receiving approbation. Rasputin was silent.
+
+Suddenly the Tsar rose from his chair with a sigh of weariness, and
+slowly selected a fresh cigarette from the big golden box upon his
+writing-table. Then he shook hands with Kokovtsov as a sign that the
+audience was at an end, and said:
+
+"Really, my dear Excellency, I do not agree with your project at all. It
+is all utter rubbish, and will only lead the Empire into further
+difficulties. Surely Russia has sufficient alcohol!"
+
+I watched the scene with wide-open eyes.
+
+Poor Kokovtsov, so well meaning, bowed in assent and crumpled up before
+the Tsar of all the Russias. The blow was quite unexpected. When I left
+the Emperor's presence with Rasputin, the latter said:
+
+"Well, my dear Feodor. The day of Kokovtsov is ended. One may be thankful
+for it, because it will mean less friction between the Emperor and the
+Empress."
+
+Three days later His Majesty dismissed his Prime Minister, but gave him
+the title of Count. He had no son, therefore the distinction was a mere
+empty one.
+
+With this digression, for which I hope I may be pardoned, I will return
+to Stolypin. The mystery of his assassination has always been carefully
+hushed-up by the Secret Police, but I here intend to lift the veil, and,
+at the risk of producing certain damning evidence, disclose the whole of
+the amazing and dastardly plot.
+
+Few people know of it. Rasputin knew it, I know it, the Empress knows it,
+and a certain woman living in seclusion in London to-day knows it. But
+to the world the truth which I here write will, I venture to believe,
+come as a great surprise.
+
+The cry "Land and Liberty" was being heard on every hand in the Empire.
+Peter Arkadievitch Stolypin, son of an aide-de-camp general of Alexander
+II., was in the zenith of his popularity. He had become a _vermentchik_,
+the traditional appellation applied to the favourite of the Emperor, and
+as such he loomed largely in the eyes of Europe. He had entered the
+public service as a youth, and had later on become governor of the
+province of Samara, where he had attracted the notice of Count Witte
+because of the drastic way in which he had suppressed some serious riots
+there. In due course he was called to Petrograd, where he was introduced
+to the Emperor, and later on the mantle of Count Witte had fallen upon
+him.
+
+Though in high favour with the Emperor he was clever enough to court the
+good graces of Rasputin, knowing full well what supreme influence he
+wielded over the Imperial couple. For that reason I frequently had
+conversation with him both at Court and at the Poltavskaya. He was a man
+of complex nature. A lady-killer of the most elegant type, refined and
+determined, yet lurking in the corners of his nature was a tyrannical
+trait and a hardness of heart.
+
+In Samara he had distinguished himself by various injustices to the
+population, and hundreds of innocent persons had, because they had been
+denounced by the _agents-provocateurs_ of the secret police, been sent to
+prison or to Siberia by administrative order. At first there was a
+rivalry between him and General Trepoff in the Tsar's good graces, but
+Trepoff died, leaving Stolypin master of the situation.
+
+Though Rasputin behaved graciously towards him and often dined at his
+table, he was in secret his enemy. So cleverly did the monk form and
+carry out his plot that to the last he never believed but that the holy
+man, who prayed so fervently for his success in the guidance of Russia,
+was his most devoted friend.
+
+Many crimes have been committed in Russia beneath the shadow of the Black
+Wings, but perhaps none more ingenious than the one under notice.
+
+The first I knew of the deep conspiracy was in the spring of 1911, by the
+visit one night to Rasputin's house in the Poltavskaya of a tall,
+fair-haired man named Hardt, whom I knew as a frequent visitor to the
+monk. He was a merchant in Petrograd and a man of considerable means,
+but, as I afterwards discovered, was an agent of Potsdam specially sent
+to Russia as the secret factotum of the Tsaritza. He was ever at her beck
+and call, and was the instrument by which she exchanged confidential
+correspondence with the Kaiser and other persons in Germany.
+
+On that evening when Hardt called quite half-a-dozen of the
+sister-disciples were taking tea with the saint and gossiping, for each
+Thursday he would hold informal receptions, and with horrible blasphemy
+bestow upon the society women who attended his accursed blessing. The
+ladies there on that night were all of the most exclusive circle in
+Petrograd.
+
+On Hardt's arrival the reception was cut short after he had whispered
+some words to the Starets, who made excuse that he had to leave to return
+to the palace.
+
+Indeed, he went to the telephone at the farther end of the room and held
+a conversation with the Tsaritza's confidante, Mademoiselle Kamensky.
+None knew, however, that that private telephone by which the charlatan so
+impressed his visitors was merely a fake one, its wires not extending
+farther than the end of the garden.
+
+Grichka sometimes when alone rehearsed those conversations, until he
+succeeded in producing a perfect series of answers which would strike the
+hearer as a most intimate conversation concerning either Emperor or
+Empress.
+
+From the chatter upon the mock telephone the assembly concluded that his
+presence was required at the palace immediately, therefore they rose and
+retired, leaving the mysterious Hardt alone with us.
+
+Instead of going to Tsarskoe-Selo we retired to the saint's little den,
+where we opened a bottle of champagne, of which we all three drank.
+
+"Well, my friend Hardt?" asked the monk, flinging himself carelessly into
+his easy chair and unbuttoning his long black coat for comfort. "What has
+happened? You can, as you know, speak before our faithful Feodor," he
+added.
+
+"I have waiting outside a young woman whom I want you to see," replied
+the German agent.
+
+"Does she wish to enter our circle?" inquired the monk, adding with his
+usual avariciousness: "Has she money?"
+
+"No--neither," was Hardt's reply. "She does not want to become one of
+your disciples; indeed, the less you say on that matter the better!"
+
+"Then why should I trouble to see her?"
+
+"I will tell you all after you have chatted with her. May Feodor invite
+her in? She is sitting in a droshky outside."
+
+"If you wish," growled Rasputin. "But why all this mystery? I have much
+to do. I am due at Countess Ignatieff's--and am already late."
+
+"Remain patient, I beg of you, Father," urged the German suavely. "I am
+acting upon instructions--from Number Seventy."
+
+"From Number Seventy!" echoed the monk, instantly realising that Hardt,
+an agent of the German Secret Service, was carrying out some
+well-concealed and ingenious project. "Very well," he said. "I rely upon
+you not to delay me longer than necessary. Feodor," he added, turning to
+me with that lofty air which his low mujik mind sometimes conceived to be
+superiority, "go and find this mysterious young person."
+
+A few minutes later I conducted into the saint's presence a dark-haired,
+extremely handsome young woman of about thirty, who spoke with
+considerable refinement and whose arrival mystified me greatly.
+
+Hardt introduced her to the holy man, saying:
+
+"This is Mademoiselle Vera Baltz, of Stavropol, a friend of His
+Excellency Peter Stolypin."
+
+"Ah! Welcome, my dear mademoiselle," exclaimed the monk affably. "So you
+are a friend of His Excellency--when he was Governor of Samara, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Yes. I have come here because I crave your assistance. Monsieur Hardt
+knows all the circumstances, and will explain."
+
+The saint turned to the fair-haired man seated opposite him, Mademoiselle
+Baltz having been given an easy-chair close by Rasputin's table. It was a
+writing-table, but the scoundrel never wrote. Sometimes he pretended to
+do so, but the truth was that it was a long and painful procedure with
+him. He preferred to scrawl his initials to any typewritten letter which
+I prepared.
+
+"The explanation is briefly this, Father," said Hardt in his businesslike
+way. "Mademoiselle has been the dupe of His Excellency, who, while
+Governor, often went to Stavropol, where he stayed at an hotel under
+another name. Mademoiselle never knew his identity until a year ago, when
+she saw his photograph in the papers as Prime Minister. She never knew
+that he was married--though I have here a letter in which he proposes
+marriage to her."
+
+And he produced from his pocket a note, bearing the heading of the
+Centralnaya Hotel at Samara, which Rasputin read through.
+
+"Well?" asked the Starets, blowing a cloud of cigarette smoke from his
+bearded lips.
+
+"Mademoiselle is anxious to meet His Excellency."
+
+"Ah! I see," exclaimed the monk, whose mind at once turned to blackmail,
+a course which he himself was actively pursuing. "Mademoiselle wishes for
+money--eh?"
+
+"No, Father," replied the young woman stoutly. "Not money--only justice!
+Peter Stolypin misled me, as you see according to his letter. I am but
+one of his many victims, and I desire to expose him."
+
+"H'm!" grunted Rasputin, who, having ascertained that no monetary
+consideration was forthcoming, was not particularly interested in the
+affair. He never did anything without reward. Those who could pay him
+well obtained through his influence at Court high office and big
+emoluments. Within my own knowledge in at least twenty cases he was
+already receiving heavy percentages upon the salaries, including those of
+two bishops and three under-secretaries, who had been dug out from
+nowhere and pitchforked into office by him.
+
+By his influence with Nicholas the rascal ruled Russia with a relentless
+recklessness unparalleled in all history.
+
+"Mademoiselle has already had audience of Her Majesty, who has sent her
+here to interview you," Hardt explained. "I am placing her case in the
+hands of our friend Altschiller."
+
+The latter was a well-known lawyer, who, by the way, was afterwards
+proved to be a spy of Austria.
+
+"What do you desire of me, my dear young lady?" asked Rasputin in the
+paternal manner he so often assumed towards the fair sex who hung about
+the hem of his ragged robe, and knelt so constantly before him for his
+blessing.
+
+"You, Father, are all-powerful in Russia," replied Vera Baltz. "Her
+Majesty told me that you would help me to--to destroy Stolypin," she said
+with a fierce expression in her black eyes.
+
+Rasputin exchanged glances with the secret agent of Potsdam who, I knew,
+did so much dirty work on the Empress's behalf.
+
+"What Her Majesty desires, I am here to obey," was the monk's quiet
+response. "I pray that no injustice be done," the blasphemer added,
+piously crossing himself.
+
+"Injustice!" cried the girl angrily. "He deceived me, and left me to
+starve when he received his advancement and came here to Petrograd. He
+became the Tsar's favourite because of his cruel and harsh treatment of
+our poor people of Samara, and has climbed to office over the bodies of
+those shot down in the streets at his orders. Injustice! There is
+assuredly no injustice to drag the ghastly truth concerning him into the
+light of day."
+
+"Not at all! I quite agree," said Rasputin, rising and shaking her hand.
+"You can tell your lawyer from me that you have my assistance, but in
+strictest secrecy, of course. Not a soul must know of it, remember!" he
+added, looking straight at her with that strange hypnotic glance of his,
+a gaze beneath which she quivered visibly.
+
+"I shall remain silent," she promised.
+
+"If the truth leaks out that you have seen either Her Majesty or myself,
+then I shall instantly become your enemy, and not your friend," the monk
+declared.
+
+"Only Monsieur Hardt knows," the girl said. "It was he who took me to
+Peterhof."
+
+"You may rely upon the silence of both my friends," Rasputin assured her,
+and a moment later I conducted her downstairs and out into the street.
+
+When I returned to where Rasputin was still seated with his visitor, the
+latter was, I found, making explanation how he had, after considerable
+difficulty, traced the woman Baltz at the Empress's orders and taken her
+to the Palace, first, however, prompting her to seek revenge upon the
+Prime Minister.
+
+"I cannot understand it at all," Hardt added.
+
+"I do. Cannot you see that Stolypin is violently anti-German and openly
+disapproves of the Germanophile party at Court?"
+
+"But he is closeted daily with the Emperor, I understand. And the Empress
+grants him frequent audiences."
+
+"Because she is endeavouring to ascertain the true extent of His
+Excellency's knowledge of her own dealings with our friends in Berlin,"
+was the monk's reply. "Alix pretends to be most gracious to him, yet she
+is distinctly antagonistic, more from fear than anything else. To-day he
+is a favourite at Court, to-morrow----"
+
+And Grichka made a wide sweep with his dirty knotted hand without
+concluding his sentence.
+
+"Has Her Majesty spoken to you concerning her fears that Stolypin has
+discovered something?" asked the man Hardt eagerly.
+
+The monk grinned meaningly.
+
+"Her Majesty is taking precautions," he replied evasively. "Possibly
+Stolypin has discovered the reason you travelled to Berlin a month ago. I
+have an idea that you were watched by the Okhrana."
+
+"Do you really think so?" gasped the German in quick apprehension. "Why
+do you suspect?"
+
+"From something whispered to me a week ago."
+
+"Then Stolypin may know that Alexandra Feodorovna is behind the
+traitorous dealings of Colonel Miassoyedeff on the frontier--eh?"
+
+Rasputin, his eyes fixed upon his visitor, slowly nodded in the
+affirmative.
+
+"That means ruin--perhaps imprisonment for me!" Hardt gasped, his face
+pale and anxious.
+
+"I might say the same thing," remarked the saint, stroking his long,
+untrimmed beard. "But I do not. We are both strong enough to resist all
+attacks. Any suspicion against Miassoyedeff must be removed. I will see
+that the Emperor promotes him to-morrow. Our one stumbling-block is Peter
+Stolypin."
+
+"One that, I take it, must be removed?"
+
+"Yes--at all costs. That is why the Empress has sought out this woman
+Baltz, who, if my estimate of her sex is correct, is a wild firebrand."
+
+"She certainly is viciously vindictive."
+
+"One thing is certain, our friend Stolypin has no idea that he is seated
+on the edge of a volcano," remarked the monk. "He lives extremely happily
+with his wife and children in that beautiful villa over on the Islands of
+the Apothecaries, and has no suspicion of the coming storm. I promised
+his wife to go to her salon to-morrow night."
+
+"And will you go?"
+
+"Of course. There must be no suspicion. Are we not, all of us, his best
+friends?" asked the monk, grinning evilly.
+
+"I am returning to Berlin by way of Stockholm on Thursday," Hardt said,
+for he gave as the reason for his frequent visits to Germany and
+Scandinavia that he bought leather in those countries. "Have you anything
+to report?"
+
+"Yes. One or two things," replied the Starets, who ordered me to write at
+his dictation as follows:
+
+     "MEMORANDUM.
+
+     "FROM GREGORY TO NUMBER SEVENTY.
+
+     "Have acted upon your instructions regarding the Kahovsky affair.
+     Some important correspondence was seized by the police at his
+     arrest, and for two days matters looked extremely unpromising. I
+     paid T. twenty thousand roubles to close his lips, and induced
+     the Emperor to release Kahovsky and restore his papers. I suggest
+     that he should be recalled from Russia and sent to London, where,
+     being unknown, he might be extremely useful to you.
+
+     "Madame Zlobine is at the Adlon Hotel in your city. She has
+     quarrelled with the General, and strict watch should be kept upon
+     her. She has been heard to express very decided views against Her
+     Majesty. It may be found that she is in communication with J. If
+     so, it is in the interests of Stolypin's anti-German campaign!
+
+     "Hardt will explain verbally the position of the latter, and the
+     discovery of the woman Baltz. Meanwhile His Excellency is
+     unsuspicious that we are aware of his hostile intentions towards
+     us.
+
+     "Please do me the favour to assure His Majesty the Emperor of my
+     continued efforts in the service of Alexandra Feodorovna, even
+     though matters are daily growing more complicated. Anna [Madame
+     Vyrubova], moreover, is more difficult to please.
+
+     "Both Stuermer and Protopopoff are under my protection, and I have
+     already contrived to advance them. Kokovtsov is growing in favour
+     and will be a force to be reckoned with in the immediate future.
+     Urge Miassoyedeff, from your side, to exercise the greatest
+     caution. There are whispers, but I have endeavoured to stifle
+     them by contriving his advancement through the Emperor, who
+     yesterday decorated him.
+
+     "The Imperial pair will shortly visit the Danish and Swedish
+     Courts, and probably go for a cruise in Norwegian waters, though
+     there is, as yet, no announcement.
+
+     "I am still working upon the project you set out when we met in
+     Helsingfors two months ago regarding the reduction and weakening
+     of the army. I have already initiated the matter through ladies
+     whose husbands are in the Ministry of War. It will mean the
+     expenditure of a considerable sum of your money, but I know it
+     will be a mere bagatelle if your object is accomplished.
+
+     "I have to acknowledge a payment of one hundred thousand roubles
+     into the Azof Bank from an unknown source. Please remember that
+     S. in Paris and J. in Rome are making big claims upon me, and
+     that next month I must receive a similar sum.
+
+     "Hardt has told me that matters are progressing well at Carlton
+     House Terrace, and also in Paris. Of that I am glad to hear. Let
+     our next meeting be at the Phoenix Hotel in Abo, where I am
+     unknown, and which you can reach without notice. At present I
+     dare not leave Russia, as Her Majesty will not hear of it.
+
+     "It would be as well to make the next payment through the
+     Aktiebank in Abo. They would not suspect.
+
+     "Do not fail to impress upon both Sukhomlinoff and Miassoyedeff
+     the necessity for the utmost caution. Till we meet."
+
+When I had typed this at his dictation I handed it to him, and he managed
+painfully to append his illiterate signature.
+
+Then I placed the sheets in an envelope and gave them to Hardt to convey
+in secret to the headquarters of the German Secret Service in the
+Koeniggraetzerstrasse in Berlin.
+
+"And, friend Hardt," Rasputin said, as the Kaiser's emissary placed the
+letter carefully in his wallet, "please impress upon Number Seventy what
+I have said about money. All this costs much. Tell him that sometimes
+when inordinate demands are made upon me--as you know they are often
+are--I have to use my own funds in order to satisfy them. Smith in London
+receives unlimited funds through the Deutsche Bank, I know, so please
+tell our friend from me that I expect similar treatment in future."
+
+The Starets was one of the most far-seeing and mercenary scoundrels. He
+had accounts in different names in half-a-dozen banks in Petrograd and
+Moscow, into which he constantly made payments as the result of his
+widespread campaign of espionage and the blackmailing of silly women who
+fell beneath his uncanny spell.
+
+When Hardt had left, the saint opened another bottle of champagne and
+drank it all from a tumbler, afterwards consuming half a bottle of
+brandy. I was busy with three days' accumulation of letters, and did not
+notice it until, an hour later, I found him dead asleep on the floor of
+the dining-room--a pretty spectacle if presented to the millions of our
+patriotic Russians who believed in the Tsar as their "Father" and in the
+divinity of the "holy man" who directed the Empire's affairs.
+
+The saint filled me with increasing disgust, yet I confess I had become
+fascinated by the widespread and desperate conspiracies which he either
+engineered himself or of which he pulled the most important strings.
+
+In the plot against Stolypin, though none dreamed of it, he had been the
+most active agent. Stolypin, a purely honest and loyal Russian, who, on
+taking office as Prime Minister, was actuated by a firm determination to
+do his level best for the Empire, was an unwanted statesman. He was too
+honest, and, therefore, dangerous to the Court camarilla set up and paid
+by Potsdam.
+
+As the days passed the monk frequently referred to him as a thorn in the
+side of the Empress.
+
+"The fellow must be got rid of!" he declared to me more than
+once. "He suspects a lot, and he knows too much. He is dangerous to us,
+Feodor--very dangerous!"
+
+One night, when we were together in his room at Tsarskoe-Selo, after he
+had been dining _en famille_ with the Imperial family, he remarked:
+
+"Things are going well. I saw the lawyer Altschiller to-day. All is
+prepared for the coup against Stolypin, who is still ignorant that Vera
+Baltz is in Petrograd."
+
+I knew Altschiller, who often called at the Poltavskaya. He was a close
+friend of Monsieur Raeff, whom Rasputin, when all-powerful a little later
+on, actually appointed as Procurator of the Holy Synod, having placed the
+appointment upon the Emperor's desk to sign!
+
+The law case was, however, delayed. Hardt was on one of his frequent
+absences--in Germany, no doubt--and matters did not move so rapidly as to
+satisfy the Empress. The whole plot was to keep the Prime Minister in the
+dark until the moment when the skeleton of his past should be dragged
+from its cupboard.
+
+As announced by Rasputin, the Emperor and Empress had visited Denmark and
+Norway on board the _Standart_, and were back again at Peterhof, when one
+day Rasputin received his friend Boris Stuermer, the bureaucrat, at that
+time struggling strenuously for advancement. In the monk's den Stuermer,
+chatting about Stolypin and the vindictive woman who had come to
+Petrograd to destroy him--for he was one of the paid servants of Potsdam,
+and in consequence knew most of the secrets--said:
+
+"Have you, Father, ever met a Jew named Bagrov?"
+
+"Never to my knowledge. Why?"
+
+"Because I know from my friend Venikoff, one of the assistant-directors
+of Secret Police, that the man, a discharged _agent-provocateur_ and
+incensed at the way he has been treated by Stolypin, has joined forces
+with some mysterious young woman named Baltz. There is a whisper that
+between them they are engineering a plot to assassinate the Prime
+Minister!"
+
+Rasputin's strange eyes met mine. Both of us knew more than this
+struggling sycophant.
+
+"Bagrov?" the saint repeated. "Who is he?"
+
+"Oh! A fellow who was assistant to Azeff in some disgraceful matters in
+Warsaw--an _agent-provocateur_ who lived afterwards for some time in
+Paris and on the Riviera. He attributes his downfall to Stolypin, and
+hence is most bitter against him. He has, I hear, fallen in love with the
+woman Baltz, who hails from Samara."
+
+"Well?" asked the saint.
+
+"Well?--nothing," laughed the man with the goat-beard. "I simply tell you
+what I know. There is a plot--that is all! And as far as I can discern
+the swifter Stolypin leaves the Court, the easier it will be for Her
+Majesty and ourselves--eh? While Stolypin is daily with the Emperor there
+is hourly danger for us."
+
+"In that I certainly agree," declared Rasputin. "We must be
+watchful--very watchful."
+
+We remained alert--all of us. That same night Rasputin informed the
+Empress of the secret plot of the black-haired Vera and her lover
+Bagrov.
+
+The Court left for the Crimea next day, and Rasputin travelled with the
+Imperial family. Stolypin, in ignorance of what was in progress, was of
+the party, I being left in Petrograd to follow three days later.
+
+On arrival at Kiev, where the Emperor had arranged to review the troops,
+a gala performance was held in the theatre that night. Opposite the
+Imperial box sat Stolypin, with two other high officials of the Court,
+when, during the entr'acte, a man dashed in, and in full view of the
+Emperor and Empress fired a revolver at the Prime Minister.
+
+The confusion this caused was terrible. Her Majesty fainted and was
+dragged out of the box by Mademoiselle Kamensky, while the Tsar swiftly
+jumped to his feet and regarded the scene calmly.
+
+"I'm done!" gasped the patriotic and honest Stolypin, as those present
+seized the assassin, who was none other than the ex-_agent-provocateur_
+Bagrov.
+
+Six hours later the Prime Minister breathed his last, a victim of the
+Empress and her Potsdam camarilla, while Vera Baltz fled to Switzerland.
+
+Rasputin afterwards told me that he urged the Court to leave Kiev at
+once, adding:
+
+"It was far best for Alix and Nicholas to pretend horror of the tragedy
+than to offer condolences."
+
+And so ended another chapter of Russia's underground history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
+
+
+THE murder of Stolypin, though unsuspected by the chancelleries of
+Europe, was, as I have explained, the work of the Hidden Hand of Germany.
+Stolypin had suspected the true state of affairs at the Russian Court,
+therefore the success of Germany in the coming war depended upon closing
+his mouth; so Potsdam, using the erotic monk Rasputin as its catspaw,
+effected a coup which had, alas! sad result to Holy Russia.
+
+Stolypin was but one of many persons of both sexes who, because they knew
+too much of Germany's secret propaganda in Russia, fell victims in those
+constant conspiracies whereby they were swept either into the net of the
+corrupt police or into their graves.
+
+As servant of the head of Russia's "Dark Forces"--as Rasputin and
+Protopopoff were afterwards denounced in the Duma--I was compelled to be
+ever at the saint's elbow; hence I saw and heard much that was
+astounding.
+
+One night, a few months after Stolypin's assassination, we had been
+bidden to dinner by the great Polish landowner Ivan Volkhovski, who had a
+beautiful villa outside Petrograd. There I met a smart, middle-aged
+Russian officer, who, over our champagne, declared to me that things were
+growing critical in Europe over the Balkan question, but that France and
+Russia were united against any attack that Germany might secretly
+engineer.
+
+"Then you think that war is really coming?" I asked him in surprise.
+
+"Think!" he echoed. "You are a cosmopolitan, surely! Don't you know? Are
+you really blind?"
+
+"Well, I am blind politically," I replied with a wink. "I see that on all
+sides people are getting rich quickly and receiving ironmongery--as I
+call the tin decorations from the Sovereign--as reward for closing their
+eyes to the true facts."
+
+"Ah! I see that you are quite wideawake, my dear Rajevski," said the
+officer, whose name was Colonel Dubassoff. "Our friends here in Petrograd
+will continue to remain asleep, for they have every incentive, thanks to
+the great pro-German propaganda and the generous distribution of German
+gold. To-day our enemies in Berlin have their hands outstretched and
+clutching upon Paris, New York, Rome and London, just as they have here
+in Petrograd. War must come--depend upon it. The English Lord Roberts has
+forecast it. He knows!"
+
+"Then you believe that Germany is at work actively arming in preparation
+for war?"
+
+"Most certainly I do," replied the colonel. "Only a month ago I was in
+London and afterwards in Paris. In London the authorities are not so
+entirely asleep as we are in Russia."
+
+Suddenly, as he spoke, I noticed that Rasputin, who was in whispered
+conversation with Bishop Theophanus, a fellow-guest, had been listening
+very attentively.
+
+Two hours later, when I returned home with Rasputin, he ordered me to sit
+down and write a note, which the scoundrel dictated as follows:
+
+     "Please listen to N.N. Colonel Paul Dubassoff, of the
+     Preobrajensky Regiment, has expressed in my presence to-night
+     disloyalty to the Sovereign, and he is a serious danger to the
+     State. He should be suppressed."
+
+To this lie the monk scrawled his initials, and next morning the letter
+was sent to the Chief of the Secret Police. Within twelve hours the
+unfortunate colonel who had dared to pronounce his opinion concerning
+Germany's activities was already lodged in the fortress of Peter and
+Paul, where, I believe, he remained until the Revolution of 1917.
+
+At that moment, however, the German propaganda in Russia found itself in
+an extremely critical state. By Stolypin's murder a new difficulty had
+arisen. All the colleagues of the late Prime Minister believed themselves
+entitled to become his successor, and as each had his own particular
+circle of friends, each naturally pulled all the political wires
+possible. Intrigues arose on every hand, and though everybody realised
+the personal danger of anybody appointed to the dead man's position, yet
+ambition was apparent everywhere.
+
+The Empress, who had now returned from her fateful journey to the Crimea,
+was in daily consultation with the monk, it being their intention to
+obtain the appointment of some hard-up Minister who, by being well paid
+with German gold, would remain inert and keep his mouth closed regarding
+the world-plot in progress. Being at Tsarskoe-Selo, and conducting the
+Starets's correspondence, I know how deep was the intrigue to keep out
+and discredit the Minister of Finance, Vladimir Nicholaievitch Kokovtsov,
+who was known to be the only strong man who could succeed Stolypin.
+
+The whole machinery of the pro-German propaganda had been set to work
+from Berlin to prevent the mantle of Stolypin falling upon Kokovtsov. Yet
+one afternoon, while I sat writing at Rasputin's dictation in his elegant
+sitting-room in the palace of Tsarskoe-Selo, the Empress, who was dressed
+ready to go for her daily drive, burst angrily in, saying:
+
+"Nikki has just appointed that hateful money-grubber Kokovtsov! I tried
+all I could to prevent it, Father. But I have failed!"
+
+Rasputin smiled at her words, and with that sinister calmness that
+characterised him in moments of chagrin, he replied:
+
+"Pray do not distress thyself, O lady! Kokovtsov will assuredly not be
+long in office when the hand of Gregory is lifted against him."
+
+"He must not remain long. He may get to know too much, as others have
+done. In Berlin his appointment will give the greatest offence," she
+said.
+
+"I will ask the Almighty's intercession, for I see, O lady, that thou art
+nervous and unstrung. Compose thyself, I beg of thee. All will be well,"
+and the "healer" crossed himself piously.
+
+Truly, the condition of our dear land was in parlous state. A vogue for
+asceticism had sprung up, just as other vogues have become popular in
+other European countries.
+
+As head of this circle of ascetic followers the monk had, with the
+connivance of Badmayev the herbalist, invented an expedient to deaden the
+flesh so as to render it benumbed as with cocaine. Hundreds of
+weak-minded women were flocking about him. Some of them were wives and
+daughters of the wealthy manufacturing class, but most were of the high
+aristocracy, who all regarded my employer as the Saviour of Russia, sent
+by Heaven to reform and deliver the "Holy" land from the toils of unrest
+and desolation.
+
+We Russians are always idealists. That is our curse. Our religion is,
+unfortunately, an obsession, for any drunken scoundrel can become a "holy
+man" by simply making such declaration, and ever afterwards "sponging"
+upon his neighbours. Rasputin was but an example of this.
+
+After all, it was but natural that, with the bevy of female devotees ever
+at his knees, he should attract the gossip of the scandalmongers. Much,
+indeed, of what they said was true, for I happen to know that personally.
+
+But on that day at Tsarskoe-Selo I noted the Empress's agitation that
+Kokovtsov had been appointed, and began to suspect that the camarilla
+would take drastic action in order to defeat him. Indeed, when the
+Empress had left the room, Rasputin grew thoughtful in turn, and stroked
+his unkempt beard as he paced the floor, saying:
+
+"Ah, Feodor! We must crush this jackanapes. I must see what we can do."
+
+Weeks went by. The usual meetings of the monk's "sister-disciples" were
+held at the house in the Poltavskaya, and often in the presence of a
+stranger or a female novice about to be admitted to the cult he pretended
+to speak to Alexandra Feodorovna over his mock telephone.
+
+Every action of the monk was that of an arrogant and erotic swindler. His
+intelligence was, however, extremely perceptive, and he was not wanting
+in finesse of the mujik order, combined with a sense of foresight that
+was utterly amazing. These, with his suave manner, his affectation of
+deepest piety, and his wonderful fascination over women of every age and
+every class, had now brought him to the position of the power behind the
+Throne.
+
+He already ruled Russia. Tsar and Tsaritza were his puppets, so cleverly
+did he play his cards, yet as he frequently remarked to me in the weeks
+that followed:
+
+"Kokovtsov is against me. We are enemies. He must go."
+
+I knew that if the Premier had an enemy in Grichka, then the statesman
+was doomed.
+
+Now, the plot which Rasputin formed against the new Prime Minister was an
+extremely clever and subtle one.
+
+While it was being carried out I often met Vladimir Nicholaievitch, who
+was naturally compelled to curry favour with the Father, and consequently
+sometimes visited him even against his inclination, no doubt. He was a
+long, rather narrow-faced, bearded man, with a pair of deep-set eyes and
+a secretive air, subtle by temperament, and keenly alive to his own
+interests as well as those of the Empire.
+
+His one sin in the eyes of Alexandra Feodorovna was that he hated
+Germany.
+
+"He once lost money in a German financial concern," Rasputin declared to
+me one day with a laugh. "That is why he cannot bear the Germans."
+
+The Premier, risen from the middle-class, was a dandy who never looked
+one in the face, and whose eyes were ever upon his own clothes, as though
+expecting to find specks of dust upon them. He was always immaculately
+dressed, and his newly-acquired manners were so perfect that I often
+wondered if he carried a book of etiquette in his pocket.
+
+My own estimate of him was that he was too neat, too well groomed, too
+civil, too bowing, and too anxious not to forget what he should say at
+the right moment. In a word, he was an elegant who had suddenly entered
+the Court entourage, in which there was no place for him.
+
+The Tsar had no affection for him, and had merely appointed him because
+he believed that he might worry him less than others whose names and
+abilities had been put forward.
+
+Poor Kokovtsov! He was in complete ignorance of the clever plot which
+Rasputin, at the Empress's suggestion, was engineering against his
+patriotic activities. Germany intended to rule Russia in the near
+future, and woe betide any statesman who would not remain inert and be
+spoon-fed by Teutonic propaganda, or place in his pocket the German marks
+held out so temptingly to him. In that way lay advancement, emoluments,
+decorations, and the Tsar's favour. To be Russian was, alas! to court
+disaster and ignominy.
+
+Monsieur Kokovtsov was typically a good Russian. He had no fighting
+spirit, but was essentially a man of peace, entertaining a horror of
+bloodshed or of sanguinary deeds. His placid temper caused him to avoid
+all questions in dispute. He was prepared to do all possible to benefit
+our country. He had cleverly conducted the election campaign, and had all
+the governors of each province with him. The Emperor trusted him; the
+Empress hated him.
+
+Besides, Kokovtsov was a worker. He did not believe in that favourite
+expression among Russians, "_nechevo_," which really means "nothing," but
+is equivalent to "don't bother" or "don't worry." In Russia we
+unfortunately always have a "_zarftra_," or to-morrow. For that reason he
+was disliked also by the people.
+
+It was not many months after his appointment when one night, at the
+Poltavskaya, Rasputin received a visit from General Rogogin, the Director
+of the Black Cabinet, the _cabinet noir_, the existence of which was
+rigorously kept secret until the Revolution afforded the public a glimpse
+of Russia behind the scenes.
+
+Even from the tribune of the Duma it was declared that the Black Cabinet
+was a fiction. Yet I happened to know that it existed, for later that
+evening I accompanied Rasputin and the Director to the General Post
+Office, where in three rooms on the second floor of the building the
+mysterious department, where correspondence was opened and read, was
+situated. Here was the most secret establishment of the Imperial Police.
+For over a hundred years had this mysterious department been at work
+examining the letters of all classes of people whose thoughts or doings
+could be of interest to the Tsar, his Minister of the Interior, or the
+Okhrana. Indeed, I learned from the general's conversation with the
+monk--I first having taken an oath never to divulge anything of what I
+saw or heard--that even the correspondence of the Tsar, his relatives, or
+friends was not immune from examination.
+
+Then I instantly realised the reason that the Tsaritza and Rasputin, in
+communicating with their friends in Germany, sent their letters by hand.
+
+On the night in question I stood watching with interest how letters for
+secret examination were taken from a lift which passed up and down from
+the sorting-rooms above to the distributing room below. The basket was
+taken off the lift during its slow descent, and another basket
+substituted containing letters already examined, so quickly that the man
+in charge of the lift below noticed nothing.
+
+We saw several processes of opening letters by steaming them, first
+taking an impression in plaster of any seal, and also by cutting off the
+end of the envelope by means of a small guillotine. The letters were
+dexterously opened, photographed, replaced in their respective envelopes,
+refastened and new seals made, or in other cases the ends of the cut
+envelopes were resealed by means of paper pulp to match the colour of the
+envelope, and placed under pressure in a hot press, thus actually
+remaking the paper!
+
+The watchman of this secret chamber was an illiterate, deaf and dumb
+peasant.
+
+"Each functionary on being first admitted here," said Rogogin, "is
+compelled to take a solemn oath never to divulge its existence to a
+living soul--not to his wife, father, sister, brother, or dearest
+friend."
+
+All was remarkable, a spying system of which I had never dreamed.
+
+When we entered the Director's well-furnished private room and the door
+was closed, Rogogin took from a locker drawer a letter which he handed to
+the monk, saying:
+
+"Here is the letter of which I spoke; if I hold it back it may arouse
+suspicion."
+
+Rasputin, who could only read with difficulty, looked at the letter, and
+then, handing it to me with that lofty air he assumed in the belief that
+he could conceal his ignorance, said:
+
+"Feodor, read it to me."
+
+It was on grey paper, and was as follows:
+
+                                "IMPERIAL RUSSIAN EMBASSY,
+                                        "UNTER DEN LINDEN, 7.
+                                             "June 8th.
+     "_Secret._
+
+     "YOUR EXCELLENCY,--In accordance with your instructions I beg to
+     report confidentially as follows: On arrival here I presented my
+     credentials of His Excellency our Ambassador, and in consequence
+     was allowed to conduct a confidential inquiry among the staff of
+     the Embassy, and in other quarters, in which I have been actively
+     assisted with excellent results by P. Ostrovski, agent of the
+     Okhrana in Berlin, whom I recommend for advancement.
+
+     "My discoveries are several, and of an interesting nature. First,
+     a person named Hardt, who is often resident in Petrograd, is the
+     secret courier of the Empress between Potsdam and Tsarskoe-Selo.
+     Secondly, a sum of one hundred thousand marks was paid by the
+     Dresdner Bank on March 11th last to the account of one Boris
+     Stuermer, who has an account in Riga at the Disconto Gesellschaft.
+     Thirdly, the Emperor William on April 2nd gave audience in secret
+     at the Berlin Schloss to M. Protopopoff, for which no reason can
+     be assigned. Fourthly, I have learned on the best authority that
+     if Herr Hardt were arrested on any of his journeys to Sweden or
+     Germany, some highly interesting private correspondence would be
+     found upon him. Fifthly, there is no doubt whatever that the monk
+     Rasputin is in receipt of money from this city, as I have in my
+     possession a receipt given by him for two hundred thousand
+     roubles paid him by the Deutsche Bank, and this I am bringing
+     with me on my return.
+
+     "Further, I have documentary evidence of a widespread German
+     intrigue in Russia, facts which will, I feel confident, amaze
+     your Excellency. When I return I shall place in your hands
+     weapons by which the enemy may be combated. I hesitate to send
+     any documents through the post in case they miscarry, and I am
+     addressing this letter to Mademoiselle Pauline, as your
+     Excellency suggested.
+
+     "I have yet some further inquiries to make on your Excellency's
+     behalf, but I intend to leave Berlin in any case on the
+     twenty-second. I have the honour to remain, your Excellency's
+     obedient servant,                               IVAN BOTKINE."
+
+The monk listened attentively, his big, strange eyes wearing a sly,
+crafty expression. He fingered the jewelled cross suspended from his
+neck--a habit of his.
+
+"Ah! So Botkine leaves Berlin on the twenty-second. It is well that we
+know this, my dear Rogogin--eh?"
+
+"Yes," laughed the traitorous general. "He must not reach Russia."
+
+"Of course not," agreed the monk. "We must obtain possession of this
+documentary evidence that he will carry upon him. Who is he?"
+
+"Botkine is a confidential agent in Kokovtsov's employ," was the
+Director's reply. "He was, I find, assistant-director of police in Nijni
+before the Minister was appointed, and is now in His Excellency's private
+service."
+
+"Well, it is excellent that by your astuteness, my dear General, we are
+forewarned. If not, there might very easily have resulted a serious
+contretemps--eh?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And who is this Mademoiselle Pauline?" asked Rasputin, his clever
+criminal brain already at work to defeat a revelation of the truth.
+
+"Pauline Lahure, the little French dancer at the Villa Rode."
+
+"Lahure!" cried Rasputin. "I know her, of course, a music-hall artiste.
+She has been lately taken up by the old Countess Bronevski. She was at my
+house only a fortnight ago, and wanted to become a 'sister'!"
+
+"As spy of Kokovtsov--eh?"
+
+"Without a doubt," I chimed in. "From all I hear His Excellency is a gay
+dog."
+
+"True, my dear Feodor," remarked the monk, fingering the cross nervously,
+and then taking a cigarette which the general offered him. "But had not
+our friend Rogogin been on the alert and opened the dainty dancer's
+letters, what a trap we should have fallen into--not only ourselves, but
+the Empress also! Vladimir would have presented the documents to the
+Emperor, and an unholy domestic scene would have resulted. This fellow
+Botkine must never reach Russia!" he added seriously.
+
+"I agree," replied the general. "Let us see Gutchkoff at once," he added.
+General Gutchkoff was a Jew and the director of the dreaded political
+police, with whom Rogogin, of course, worked hand-in-glove.
+
+It was then nearly eleven o'clock at night, but we all three drove to
+General Gutchkoff's house in the Spaskaya. He was out, his man informed
+us.
+
+"I must see him at once," said the monk loftily. "Where is he?"
+
+"He went out to dinner, Holy Father, and he is probably now at the
+Krestovsky or at the Bouffes."
+
+"Go at once and find him," said the monk. "It is a matter of extreme
+urgency, and we will await him here."
+
+Thus ordered by Gregory Rasputin--who was all-powerful in the
+capital--the general's servant ushered us into a cosy little salon,
+placed a box of cigarettes and some liqueurs before us, and then himself
+left in a droshky to find his master, who was so well known in Petrograd
+as a _bon viveur_.
+
+For half an hour Rasputin, much worried by the secret inquiries of the
+Premier into the doings of the pro-German camarilla, chatted with the
+general, more than once expressing fear regarding the perilous situation.
+
+"Revelations seem imminent," he exclaimed anxiously. "The man Botkine
+must never arrive in Russia--you understand that, Rogogin!"
+
+"I quite agree," said the Director of the Black Cabinet. "But Gutchkoff
+must see to it. I have done my part in the affair."
+
+"You have done excellently, my dear friend--most excellently," declared
+the monk. "Nothing could have been better. I will mention your great
+services to the Empress. Yes, we must rely upon Gutchkoff."
+
+In half an hour the servant returned with his master, the head of the
+political police, a short, fat man in general's uniform, with
+decorations, who, when he entered the room, betrayed unmistakable signs
+of having dined well. Indeed, he had been unearthed from a midnight
+carouse at a questionable restaurant.
+
+At sight of Rasputin, a power to be reckoned with and a person of whom
+even the greatest in the land craved favours, he pulled himself together
+and cast himself into a chair to listen.
+
+The monk was clever enough not to enlighten the Police Director regarding
+the plot to upset Kokovtsov's undue inquisitiveness. He merely told him
+that a certain secret agent named Botkine was leaving Berlin for
+Petrograd on the twenty-second.
+
+"The man is dangerous," he added, "extremely dangerous."
+
+"Why?" asked Gutchkoff, somewhat surprised at our midnight visit.
+
+"Because--well, because I happen to know that he is in possession of
+certain facts concerning very high personages. He is a blackmailer, and
+has been to Berlin to endeavour to sell some documents to Maximilian
+Harden--documents which, if published, would place a certain member of
+our Imperial family in a very unsatisfactory light," Rasputin said. "My
+friend Rogogin here will bear me out."
+
+The Police Director, after a few minutes' silence, asked:
+
+"Has he sold the documents in question?"
+
+"I think not," was Rasputin's reply. "If he has not, he will have them in
+his possession on his return. We must secure them at all costs."
+
+"You wish to close his mouth--eh?"
+
+"Yes. He must be suppressed at all hazards," declared the monk. "It is
+the wish of the Emperor," he added, a glib lie always ready upon his
+tongue. "Further, I need not add that if this affair be conducted in
+secrecy and scandal in the Imperial House avoided, His Majesty will
+certainly see that you are adequately rewarded. I can promise you that."
+
+General Gutchkoff was again silent. He well knew that if the Tsar had
+ordered the man Botkine to be silenced there must be some very unsavoury
+affair to be hushed up.
+
+"There is an agent of yours in Berlin named Ostrovski, is there not?" the
+monk asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then he must also be removed at once to another post. Transfer him to
+Constantinople, or, better still, to Yokohama. He must not remain in
+Berlin another twenty-four hours, and he must, not, at any cost, be
+allowed to return to Russia," Rasputin said decisively.
+
+"I scarcely follow you, Holy Father," was the amazed general's reply.
+"Ostrovski is very reliable, and has been entrusted with the most
+delicate affairs. He has always given me the greatest satisfaction."
+
+"I regret if he is under your protection, but that does not alter
+matters. He and Botkine have been acting in unison, and hence Ostrovski
+knows more of this scandal concerning a certain member of the Imperial
+family than is good for him to know. Promote him with increased salary to
+Yokohama, and send him there by way of Marseilles upon some confidential
+mission. But on no account must he return to Russia before going to
+Japan--you understand? He will no doubt wish to travel by way of Siberia,
+but this must be forbidden. If you will write out his appointment, I will
+obtain the Emperor's signature to it to-morrow morning."
+
+"You wish me to write out the order now--eh?" asked Gutchkoff, still much
+puzzled, but eager to get scent of the particular scandal known to
+Botkine.
+
+"Yes, now," replied the monk, pointing to the writing-table, whereupon
+the Police Director sat down and wrote out the order transferring the
+agent Ostrovski to Japan, an order which Rasputin, after pretending to
+read it, handed to me to place in my pocket.
+
+"And now, what about this person Botkine?" asked Gutchkoff. "How do you
+wish me to act towards him?"
+
+"In the way that I will direct to-morrow," replied the monk. "I must have
+time to devise some plan--a plan which will be secret and arouse no
+suspicion," he added grimly, with a sinister smile.
+
+Early next morning I accompanied him to Peterhof, where the Imperial
+Court happened to be. Anna Vyrubova was away in Moscow, but without delay
+he sought the Empress and remained in her boudoir for a full hour, no
+doubt explaining the discovery of Kokovtsov's inquiries in Berlin.
+
+I met the Prime Minister himself in the long corridor guarded by "Araby"
+servants which led to the Emperor's private cabinet, and with him was
+General Gutchkoff, who had evidently also been summoned to audience
+regarding some matters concerning the police administration. Kokovtsov
+had no suspicion of what Rasputin had learned, or that Gutchkoff had
+promised to act as he directed against his trusted agent Ivan Botkine.
+
+The pair strolled along the softly carpeted corridor, chatting affably,
+for they were apparently going to consult His Majesty together. Truly,
+the Court world is a strange life of constant intrigue and
+double-dealing, of lack of morals and of honesty of purpose and of
+patriotism. In our Holy Russia many good men and women have, because of
+their love for their own land, been sent to drag out their lives in the
+dreariness of the Siberian prison camps.
+
+When the monk returned to me he asked for Ostrovski's appointment,
+written on the previous night, which I carried in my pocket. This he took
+at once to the Tsar. His Majesty was at that moment closeted with the
+Prime Minister, Gutchkoff having already seen the Emperor and,
+transacting his business, been dismissed.
+
+Five minutes later Rasputin returned with the Emperor's scribbled
+signature still wet, and in my presence handed it to the Director of
+Political Police. Ostrovski had been transferred to Japan, where he would
+be harmless, even though he might have learned facts from Botkine. But
+what had Rasputin decided should be the fate of the latter? For the sake
+of Alexandra Feodorovna and the whole camarilla Botkine's lips must, I
+knew, be closed. That had been decided. I longed to learn what the
+Empress had said when the monk had revealed the truth to her and pointed
+out her peril.
+
+No doubt Her Majesty would see to it that the affair was hushed up. I
+knew full well that she understood that once Kokovtsov obtained evidence
+too many people would be implicated, and perhaps a public trial might
+result. Both she and Rasputin, no doubt, realised that it would be unwise
+to allow a member of the Okhrana--as Botkine had been--to be arrested,
+for fear of the scandal public revelations would cause. The capital
+teemed with Germans like Stuermer and Fredericks, traitors like
+Protopopoff and Soukhomlinoff, men like Azeff, Guerassimoff and
+Kurtz--one day the bosom friend of Ministers and powerful noblemen, and
+the next cast into the fortress of Peter and Paul--Rogogin, the sycophant
+Raeff--whom Rasputin had made Procurator of the Holy Synod--and the
+drunken "saint" Mitia the Blessed--at last dismissed--spiritualists,
+charlatans, and cranks. Upon such fine society was the Throne of the
+Romanoffs based! Was it any wonder that it was already tottering
+preparatory to its fall?
+
+I left Peterhof with Rasputin at about three o'clock that afternoon, and
+on our return to the Poltavskaya I spoke over the telephone, at the
+monk's orders, to Doctor Badmayev, the expert herbalist who prepared
+those secret drugs with which Madame Vyrubova regularly doped the little
+Tsarevitch, keeping him in a constant state of ill-health and in such a
+condition that he puzzled the most noted physicians in Europe.
+
+Badmayev, a small, ferret-eyed man, his features of Tartar cast, came and
+dined with us, after which Rasputin signed a cheque for twenty-eight
+thousand roubles, a sum to which "the doctor" was entitled under an
+agreement. Well did I know that the sum in question was payment for his
+active assistance in supplying certain drugs of which the monk in turn
+declared that he himself held the formula. The drugs--which he pretended
+to be the secret of the priests of Tibet--were those which he doled out
+in small quantities to his sister-disciples, and which produced
+insensibility to physical pain, drugs which were so baneful and
+pernicious that the monk always warned me against them, and never took
+any himself.
+
+After dinner, at which they both drank deeply of champagne, the monk and
+his friend went out to spend the evening at a low-class variety theatre,
+while I was left alone until midnight.
+
+In consequence I visited some friends in the Ivanovskaya, and returned to
+Rasputin's at about a quarter-past twelve. Twenty minutes later he
+returned in a hopeless state of intoxication; therefore I did not speak
+to him till next morning.
+
+Such was the fellow's vitality that he was up before six o'clock. At
+seven he went out, and returned about nine, when he called me to his den.
+
+"Feodor," he said, "I wish you to leave to-day for Vilna, and go to the
+Palace Hotel there. Remain until a friend of ours named Heckel calls upon
+you."
+
+"Who is Heckel?" I asked, surprised at being sent upon such a long
+journey in that sudden manner.
+
+"A friend of Hardt and myself. Do not be inquisitive--only obey. When
+Heckel calls please give him this letter," and he handed me a rather
+thick letter in an official cartridge envelope of the Imperial Ministry
+of Foreign Affairs. "Heckel will tell you that he is from 'Father
+Gregory.' He is tall, fair, and rather slim--a German, as you may guess
+from his name. Your train leaves at two-forty this afternoon. Be careful
+of that letter and to whom you deliver it in secret. Heckel, after
+finding you at the hotel, will produce an English five-pound note and
+show it to you. That will be his passport. If he does not do so, then do
+not give him the letter."
+
+That afternoon I left for Vilna by the Warsaw express, and after a long
+journey through the endless pines and silver birches duly arrived at the
+hotel indicated, and there awaited my visitor. He arrived next day, a
+fair-haired, slim man, just as Rasputin had described him, evidently an
+_agent-provocateur_ from Berlin. After he had been ushered into my
+bedroom by a waiter, he greeted me warmly, and inquired if I had anything
+to hand him.
+
+To this I made an evasive reply, in pretence of being in ignorance of his
+meaning, whereupon he said in German:
+
+"Ah! I forgot. You wish first to establish my identity," and laughingly
+he produced from his wallet an English five-pound note, which he showed
+to me.
+
+In consequence I handed him the letter from the Ministry, which he placed
+unopened in his pocket and then left, while that same night I returned to
+Petrograd.
+
+Three days later I learned the truth.
+
+Ivan Botkine, the trusted secret agent of the Prime Minister Kokovtsov,
+who had left Berlin on the twenty-second for Petrograd, had been found
+dead in one of the sleeping compartments on the arrival of the train at
+the frontier station of Wirballen. His pockets and valise had been
+rifled, and an inquiry had been opened. Though the doctors disagreed as
+to the exact cause of death, it was apparent that one of the dishes he
+had eaten in the restaurant car an hour before had been poisoned.
+
+Further, I have since established the horrifying fact that the mysterious
+letter from the Ministry which I handed to Heckel in Vilna contained a
+secret poison! That it was used to remove poor Botkine, Rasputin
+afterwards admitted to me. Such were the methods of the camarilla
+who were ruling Russia!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+RASPUTIN IN BERLIN
+
+
+TRULY, our Russia was a country of blood and tears under the last of the
+Romanoffs. Its creed and its motto was "Gallows and Siberia!"
+
+No man's life was safe under a regime run by scoundrels, of whom
+"Grichka," my chief, was the worst.
+
+An unlimited secret fund was placed at the disposal of the Ministry of
+the Interior for purposes of the Secret Police, and when I say that
+Rasputin controlled that Ministry as well as the Emperor himself, it can
+easily be understood that all who were loyal Russians were "suspect," and
+denunciation throve on all sides. The Okhrana recruited its agents from
+all quarters. That is why one was never sure that the stranger who
+denounced Rasputin and his friends was not an _agent-provocateur_.
+
+Every Russian subject of any note, and every foreign traveller, was
+watched, not because of his disloyalty, but because Rasputin and his
+camarilla, including the Empress, feared lest he should discover how they
+were daily betraying Russia and its Tsar.
+
+I have been, at Rasputin's orders, many times in the central bureau of
+the Secret Police in search of the index-card of some person who had
+fallen beneath the monk's displeasure. In these indices and in the
+corresponding files the persons concerned were, I found, never designated
+by their own names, but by code-names that could be telegraphed if
+necessary from city to city. Thus the Deputy Cheidze (since become
+famous) was registered under the name of "drawing-room" (gostini), Lenin
+(also since famous) as "symbol," Miliukoff as "grass," and
+the traitor Soukhomlinoff as "glycerine."
+
+Those were indeed terrible days in Holy Russia--days when the innocent
+were sent to their death, while Rasputin, the religious fraud, laughed
+and drank champagne with his high-born devotees, who believed him, even
+in this twentieth century, to be divine!
+
+I remember that on May 16th, 1914, when the political horizon was
+cloudless and no one dreamed of war, I sat in the visitors' gallery of
+the Duma, having been sent there by Rasputin to listen to the debate and
+report to him.
+
+The labour leader Kerensky, who afterwards became Minister of Justice in
+the Provisional Government, rose and from the tribune proclaimed the
+infamy of the police. He did not mince matters. He said:
+
+"The most notorious jailers of the period of Alexander III. knew how to
+respect in their political enemies the man who thought differently, and
+when they shut him up in the fortress of Schluesselburg they would
+sometimes come to chat with him. And some of those martyrs, those men
+struggling for liberty, have been able to return to us with the glamour
+about them of twenty years' hard labour. But now, the sons of those
+famous jailers do not hesitate to seize young men of seventeen or
+eighteen and make them die slowly, but surely, under the blows of the
+knout, under the strokes of the rod, or by the burns of a red-hot iron.
+Are we not returning to the days when political prisoners were walled up
+alive? And you imagine, gentlemen, that you can claim for this country
+the civilising mission of a European nation!"
+
+He spoke of a man whom I knew well, one of the most sinister persons in
+all Russia, a man who, like Rasputin and Stuermer, accepted German gold.
+The man's name was Evno Azef, upon whom unfortunately the French
+Government bestowed the Legion of Honour.
+
+Before he went to Paris, Azef was a close friend of Rasputin and of
+Stuermer. He was a criminal of the worst type, an expert in crime, though
+he was a recognised agent of the Russian Political Police. And yet so
+clever was he as an _agent-provocateur_ that he actually managed to get
+himself elected as director of the Terrorist organisation of Petrograd,
+and as a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party!
+
+In my presence he one night, when in his cups, boasted to the merry monk
+what he had to his credit as a revolutionary. He organised the murders
+of the Minister of the Interior, Plehve, and of the Grand Duke Sergius.
+It was he who prepared the attempted murders of Admiral Dubassof, the
+Governor-General Guerchelman, and the attempt on Nicholas II. The latter
+was with Rasputin's knowledge and consent! Perhaps Alexandra Feodorovna
+knew of it. Who knows? That she was not so devoted to "Nikki" as she
+pretended is well known to everyone who was at the Imperial Court at the
+time. Happily, however, the plot failed because of circumstances which
+Azef could not control.
+
+The scoundrel also assisted in the drawing up of the plans for the
+military mutinies at Moscow, Viborg, and Kronstadt, while he knew
+beforehand of the preparations for the assassination of General Sakarof,
+and of Governor Bogdanovitch at Ufa, as well as a number of Terrorist
+crimes which succeeded.
+
+One of his crimes in conspiracy with Rasputin I will here relate, because
+it is a mystery which has long puzzled the London police.
+
+On the morning of January 11th, 1909, the London newspapers contained a
+report of a strange discovery. Four days before there had arrived at
+Victoria Station a young French lady, dark-haired and extremely
+good-looking, who took a cab to a small but highly respectable private
+hotel in the vicinity. There she gave the name of Mademoiselle Thomas,
+and her profession as governess. Next morning a tall, thin young
+foreigner called for her, and they went out together, she returning very
+late that night apparently exhausted after a long motor journey. Next day
+she remained in her room all day. On the third day an elderly man called,
+and she went out with him, being absent about a couple of hours. On her
+return she went straight to her room and nothing was seen of her further
+until the next day at noon the chambermaid failed to arouse her by
+knocking. The police were informed, the door was forced, and Mademoiselle
+Thomas was found dead. She was lying upon the floor fully dressed.
+
+The medical evidence at the inquest was that the pretty French governess
+had been dead fully eighteen hours. Upon her or in her small hand-luggage
+there was nothing to establish her identity. That she had taken poison
+was the opinion of the expert medical witness. Yet the poison could not
+be established. Apparently it was a case of suicide, for the laundry
+marks and names of the makers of her clothing had been deliberately
+removed.
+
+One thing, however, was extremely mysterious. Upon the marble top of the
+washhand-stand in the bedroom the police found some scrawled words in a
+character they could not decipher. Experts were brought in, when it was
+found that the writing was in Russian character, and the words were: "The
+holy Starets is----"
+
+This conveyed nothing to the London police, who, of course, knew nothing
+save that a "Starets" in Russia is a "saint."
+
+Therefore the experts at Scotland Yard were, after much patient
+investigation, compelled to dismiss it as one of London's unsolved
+mysteries.
+
+Now for the truth.
+
+One night, a year before, when I had returned with Rasputin from
+Tsarskoe-Selo, we found awaiting us the somewhat dandified man of a
+hundred aliases and as many disguises, the notorious Azef. He greeted us
+both warmly, and being a close friend of Rasputin, the monk took him into
+his cosy little den, where for over an hour they remained closeted
+together.
+
+I was one of the few who knew the secret of Azef's crimes. Indeed, when I
+entered the room while the pair were talking I heard him ask with a
+laugh:
+
+"What if we give him a taste of the necktie of Stolypin--eh?"
+
+"It certainly would be best, my dear Evno," the monk agreed. "That is if
+you think the accusation can be well made."
+
+"Trust me," laughed the great _agent-provocateur_. "A denunciation, the
+discovery of papers--you have those of Buchman in your safe, by the way,
+and they could be used--arrest, trial, and the necktie! It would be quite
+easy, and his mouth would be closed."
+
+"He is growing dangerous," growled Rasputin. "What you say is perfectly
+true."
+
+Then turning to me, he said:
+
+"Feodor, bring those papers which Manuiloff brought me a week ago--the
+papers used for the arrest of Professor Buchman in Warsaw."
+
+I obeyed, well knowing how that file of incriminating correspondence with
+an Anarchist group in Zurich had been forged by Stuermer's secretary
+Manuiloff, and how it had been found among the professor's effects.
+
+"The necktie of Stolypin," was Azef's playful allusion to the ever-ready
+gallows to which he, plotting with Rasputin, Manuiloff, Guerassimof,
+and others, was so constantly sending innocent persons.
+Truly, Russia was a strange country even before the outbreak of war.
+
+The immediate object of Azef's activities, combined with Rasputin's, was
+at Germany's direction to extend the Terrorist action and thus cause
+trouble and unrest in the Empire. By every fresh success he obtained more
+money from Berlin, and at the same time strengthened his privileged
+position in the ranks of the Terrorists, while his worth was increased in
+the eyes of both the Minister of the Interior and of the Emperor. The
+scoundrel's revolutionary career and his police career were inseparable.
+He was a Terrorist to-day, a police official to-morrow, but, like
+Rasputin, a secret agent of Germany always!
+
+Terrible as it may seem, the Okhrana, with the connivance of the
+Wilhelmstrasse, and with the Empress's full knowledge--of this there is
+no doubt, because documentary evidence exists which proves it--caused the
+highest personages in Russia to be murdered or hanged in order to prove
+to those lucky ones who survived how necessary was the organisation for
+their own existence!
+
+A hundred dramas could be written upon the intrigues of Grichka and Azef.
+Some of them were amazing; all were disgraceful. The life of the most
+upright and honest man or woman was not safe if marked down by the pair
+of scoundrels. The attempt upon Admiral Dubassof, in which Count
+Konovnicin met his death; the attempt upon General Guerchelman,
+Governor-General of Moscow; the assassination of General Slepzof at Tver,
+with half a dozen other murders of the same kind, were all the work of
+Azef. Why? Because both Azef and General Guerassimof, chief of the Secret
+Police, were in the toils of Germany. The Wilhelmstrasse paid well, but
+threatened exposures if this or that person were not removed. Hence Azef,
+as one of the heads of the Terrorists, received his orders through
+Rasputin, and, obeying, was paid his blood-money.
+
+Many of the dastardly crimes which Azef, aided by the monk, committed at
+Germany's orders will never be known. Hundreds of innocent persons were
+arrested, and when the police searched their homes the most incriminating
+documents were found concealed--documents which when produced they had
+never before seen. Hundreds of men and women were hurried to Siberia, and
+hundreds of others were sent to rot in jails and fortresses, while upon
+dozens there was placed "the necktie of Stolypin."
+
+"Ah! my dear Gregory," Azef said, after he had lit a fresh cigarette,
+"there will be no security until that man's mouth is closed. I see that
+you agree with me."
+
+"Quite," replied the monk, who, I saw, was rather agitated because of
+something which the police spy had told him.
+
+"Good! Then I will go further. To-day I have proposed to the Council of
+Workmen's Delegates that we should blow up the Central Bureau of the
+Okhrana, with Guerassimof in the centre of it. The killing of Guerassimof
+appealed to them. They hate him--as you know. Really, those people are
+humorous. They think I am their friend, and yet each day the police
+arrest one or two members regularly but quietly, and they disappear no
+one knows whither. I have suspicions of Menchikof, of the Okhrana at
+Moscow. The other day I met him at Princess Kamenskoi's, and what he
+told me set me wondering. He poses as your friend, but I feel convinced
+he is your enemy."
+
+Rasputin's bearded face relaxed into that strange, sardonic grin of his
+as he replied:
+
+"I know Menchikof. He is harmless. The only man we may fear is Burtsef.
+He knows far too much of the police organisation and the deeds of our
+provocating agents."
+
+"I agree. But he lives in Paris, and hence the Okhrana cannot lay hands
+upon him. If only he would return to Russia, then he would not be long at
+liberty. That I assure you."
+
+"He is in Paris. Could we not send him a message that his daughter
+Vera--who married young Tchernof last year--has been taken suddenly ill,
+and thus summon him at once to Vilna? Once on Russian soil he could be
+arrested."
+
+Azef smiled. "Our friend Burtsef knows a little too much of our methods
+to fall into such a trap. He would recognise my hand in it in an instant.
+No, some other means must be found. Meanwhile we must deal with the
+person under discussion. We were agreed that he must be suppressed at all
+hazards, eh?"
+
+"Exactly. And we must suppress Burtsef afterwards."
+
+Paris, Lausanne, Geneva, Zurich and Nice swarmed with Russian secret
+agents, who, at orders from Azef and Rasputin, kept constant vigil upon
+the doings of everyone. The directors of the foreign service of our
+political police were Ratchkovsky in Paris, and Rataef in London. The
+latter posed as a Russian journalist, and usually spent his afternoons
+over cups of coffee in the cosmopolitan Cafe Royal in Regent Street.
+
+All this I knew, and much more. I knew that Ivan Manuiloff, who was now
+secretary to Stuermer, had begun his lucrative career as the agent and
+catspaw of Ratchkovsky in Paris. But he intrigued against his chief, and
+was then transferred to Rome. Of that man and his dastardly doings I
+will tell more later. Suffice it to say that the Emperor so deeply
+believed in him that one day he gave him a gold cigarette-case with his
+initials in diamonds "as a mark of his esteem"!
+
+Having listened attentively to the conversation between the two
+scoundrels, I at last came to the conclusion that they were conspiring
+against some mysterious person named Krivochein.
+
+After the pair had consumed a bottle of champagne, Azef rose and, shaking
+his friend's dirty paw, said:
+
+"I hope to have everything arranged when we meet. I would not yet mention
+the matter to the Empress."
+
+"Of course I shall not," remarked Rasputin, with that crafty grin of his.
+"She would only worry over it--and just now she is greatly troubled over
+the Tsarevitch. He has had another attack."
+
+The monk did not mention the fact that the cause of the attack was one of
+Badmayev's secret drugs which Anna Vyrubova had dissolved in his milk!
+
+After Azef had left, Rasputin flung himself into his easy chair, and as
+he lit a cigarette remarked to me:
+
+"Ah, Feodor! What a man! There is nothing he is unable to accomplish."
+
+"He is very daring," I remarked.
+
+"No, it is not daring--it is deep cunning. He has the police at his back;
+I have Alexandra Feodorovna--so we win always. But," he added, with a
+snarl, "we have enemies, and those must be dealt with--dealt with
+drastically. I hear they are setting about more scandals in Petrograd
+concerning me. Have you heard them?" he asked.
+
+"Gossip is rife on every hand, and all sorts of wild stories are being
+circulated," I said.
+
+"Bah! Let the fools say what they will of Gregory Rasputin," he laughed.
+"It only makes him the more popular. It is time, however, that I
+performed some more miracles among the poor," he added reflectively. "Let
+us arrange some, Feodor. Do not forget it."
+
+The miracles were arranged a fortnight later. With the assistance of a
+clever German conjurer named Brockhaus, from Riga, who with others helped
+the mock saint on the occasions when he imposed upon the credulity of the
+mujiks, he pretended to "heal" a child of lameness, while a female
+assistant of Brockhaus, having posed as a blind peasant, was restored to
+sight.
+
+The miracles took place out at Ligovo, a village outside Petrograd, and
+like wildfire the news was spread that the Holy Father had again taken
+compassion upon the people. Hundreds of men and women now flocked round
+him to kiss the edge of his ragged robe, and as he passed in the streets
+everyone crossed themselves. By such means did Rasputin retain the favour
+of the people and of the Empress herself.
+
+One night he received a telegram in cipher, which he gave me to decode.
+It had been despatched from Paris and read:
+
+     "The appointment is at Savignyplatz, 17, Charlottenburg. Do not
+     fail. Please inform A. [Alexandra Feodorovna] and obtain
+     instructions.--EVNO."
+
+At once Rasputin became active. He went to Peterhof, where the Court was
+at that moment, and carried out Azef's desire. He was with the Empress
+and Madame Vyrubova for a couple of hours ere he rejoined me, and we took
+the evening train back to the capital.
+
+That night he called upon Stuermer, who had with him his sycophant and
+ex-policeman Manuiloff, and they held counsel together. Then, next
+afternoon, we both left Petrograd for Berlin.
+
+We had no difficulty in discovering the house in the Savignyplatz. It was
+a good-sized one on the corner of the Kantstrasse, and the old woman who
+opened the door at once ushered us into a pretty drawing-room, where we
+were greeted by a rather tall, dark-haired and refined young lady, who
+welcomed us in Russian, and whose name Rasputin had told me was
+Mademoiselle Paula Kereicha.
+
+"You must be very tired after your long journey, Father," she said,
+bowing her head and crossing herself as the monk mumbled a blessing upon
+her.
+
+"No; travelling is very easy between Petrograd and Berlin," he replied
+affably; and then he introduced me.
+
+I could see that somehow she resented my intrusion there. She glanced at
+Rasputin inquiringly.
+
+"Oh, no," laughed the monk. "I quite understand, mademoiselle; you need
+have no fear." Then lowering his voice to a whisper, he said: "I know
+full well that living here as secret agent of the Okhrana you have to
+exercise every caution."
+
+Paula Kereicha--who I afterwards found was a second-rate variety actress
+who sometimes took engagements in order to blind people to her own
+calling, that of police-spy--smiled and admitted that she had to be very
+careful.
+
+"It is not the Germans that I fear," she said. "They know me well at the
+Wilhelmstrasse, and I am never interfered with. Indeed, they assist me
+when necessary. No. It is the Terrorists who would do me harm if they
+could. There is a dangerous group here--as you know."
+
+"I know well," said the monk; "only last week Tchapline and Vilieff were
+given Stolypin's necktie owing to your denunciations. They came to Russia
+from Berlin, and were arrested immediately they set foot across the
+frontier."
+
+"No," she protested. "Azef was here. It was he who put papers into their
+baggage, and then telegraphed to the police at Wirballen. Neither of the
+men was dangerous as far as I could see, but our friend Evno believed
+them to be; hence he deemed them better out of the way."
+
+I could see that the young woman had some scruples regarding the dirty
+work for which she received money from the Ministry of the Interior in
+Petrograd. And surely hers was a highly dangerous profession.
+
+Apparently it was not desired that Rasputin's arrival in Berlin should be
+known, for we were shown to our rooms by the stout old Russian woman, and
+I heard the handsome Paula speaking on the telephone in a guarded
+manner.
+
+"And you will call at half-past nine to-night, eh?" I heard her ask, and
+presently she rang off.
+
+We ate our dinner together, the monk being very gracious towards his
+mysterious hostess; and almost punctually at half-past nine the door of
+the drawing-room opened, and there entered a rather shabbily dressed man,
+whom I at once recognised as Count von Wedel, the inseparable companion
+of the Kaiser, and titular head of the German Secret Service. With him
+was no less a person than the German Foreign Minister, Kiderlen-Waechter.
+Our visitors were the two Men Behind the Throne of Imperial Germany.
+Standing with them was that man of kaleidoscopic make-up, the great Azef
+himself.
+
+That meeting was indeed a dramatic one. Rasputin, taking bribes on every
+side from officials in Russia who desired advancement, and from the
+Germans to betray Russia into the hands of the Wilhelmstrasse, sat that
+evening in the elegant little room listening to the conversation, with
+all the craft and cunning of the Russian mujik. He made but few remarks,
+but sat with his hands upon his knees, his deep-set, fiery eyes glancing
+everywhere about him, his big bejewelled cross scintillating beneath the
+electric light of the pretty Paula's elegant, tastily furnished little
+room.
+
+Von Wedel, though dressed so shabbily, was the chief spokesman.
+Kiderlen-Waechter, who had so cleverly pulled the strings of Germany's
+diplomacy in the Near East, and had now been recalled to Berlin and
+placed at the helm of the Fatherland's double-dealing with the Powers,
+spoke little. He seemed to be learning much of the Kaiser's duplicity.
+
+"The Emperor William, I can tell you frankly, Father, is displeased," von
+Wedel said to Rasputin reprovingly. "Only by an ace has the whole of our
+arrangements with your Empress, and with yourself as our agent, been
+suppressed from Downing Street. And that by steps taken by our friend
+here, Monsieur Azef. But we are not yet safe. I tell you quite frankly
+that though you are a good servant of ours, yet your habit of taking
+intoxicants is dangerous. You boast too much! If you are to succeed you
+must assume an attitude of extreme humility combined with poverty. Be a
+second St. Francis of Assisi," added the Count, with humour. "You can act
+any part. Imitate a real saint."
+
+"It surely is not through a fault of mine that any secret has leaked
+out," the monk protested.
+
+"But it is," the Count declared severely. "I am here to-night at the
+Emperor's orders to tell you from him that, though he appreciates all
+your efforts on his behalf, he disapproves of your drunkenness and your
+boastful tongue."
+
+"I am not boastful!" the monk declared. "Have you brought me here to
+Berlin to reprimand me? If so, I will return at once."
+
+And he rose arrogantly from his chair, and crossed his hands over his
+breast piously in that attitude he assumed when unusually angry.
+
+Von Wedel saw that he was going too far.
+
+"It is not a matter of reproof, but of precaution," he said quickly.
+"Happily the truth has been suppressed, though a certain agent of Downing
+Street--a man known by the nickname of 'Mac'--very nearly ascertained the
+whole facts. Fortunately for us all he did not. But his suspicions are
+aroused, together with those of Krivochein."
+
+"Cannot this man Mac--an Englishman, I suppose--be suppressed?" asked
+Rasputin. "If he is in Russia I can crush him as a fly upon the
+window-pane."
+
+"Ah! but he is not in Russia," replied the Count. "He is a very elusive
+person, and one who tricks us every time. 'Mac the Spy,' as they call him
+at Whitehall, is the first secret agent in Europe--next, of course, to
+our dear Steinhauer."
+
+"I disagree," interrupted the Foreign Secretary. "The man Mac is
+marvellous. He was in Constantinople and in Bucharest recently, and he
+learned secrets of our Embassy and Legation which I believed to be
+sacred. He even got hold of our diplomatic telegraph code a week after it
+had been changed. No, the English Mac is the most astute secret agent in
+Europe, depend upon it!"
+
+Paula Kereicha sat listening to the conversation, but without making any
+remark. I noticed that Azef seemed very uneasy at her presence, and
+presently sent her from the room to ask for a telephone call. The instant
+she had gone he exclaimed in a low voice:
+
+"It is a pity to have spoken before Paula! She knows too much. One day,
+when it suits her, she may reveal something unpleasant concerning us."
+
+"But you made the appointment here, at her house!" Kiderlen-Waechter
+protested.
+
+"Of course, because it is the safest meeting-place, but I did not know
+that matters were to be freely discussed before her."
+
+"Then you do not trust the woman?" remarked Rasputin. "You are like
+myself, I never trust women," and he grinned. "Shall we drop our
+conversation when she returns?"
+
+Azef reflected for a few moments.
+
+"No," he said. "She knows most of the details of the affair. There is no
+reason why she should not know the rest. Besides, I may require her to
+assist me."
+
+In the discussion which ensued I gathered that Rasputin and Azef had
+resolved, with the connivance and at the instigation of the German
+Foreign Office, to assassinate a certain well-known British member of
+Parliament who had been in Russia and had learned, through the British
+secret agent Mac, the betrayal of Russia into the hands of the
+Wilhelmstrasse. It was believed that this Englishman--whom Rasputin had
+nicknamed "Krivochein," so that in correspondence his identity should not
+be revealed--would place certain facts before the British Government to
+the detriment of the plans of the pro-German party in Russia.
+
+Of the actual identity of the unfortunate member of Parliament whom Azef
+and Rasputin had marked down as their victim I could not learn. No doubt
+Paula knew who "Krivochein" was. And it was certain also that both von
+Wedel and the German Foreign Secretary were privy to the plot.
+
+Apparently the Empress had been informed of the danger, and knew of the
+steps the conspirators were taking. Indeed, Rasputin declared:
+
+"Alexandra Feodorovna is very anxious as to the future. She has had a
+violent quarrel with Nicholas regarding his refusal to dismiss
+Sheglovitof."
+
+"He must be dismissed," declared von Wedel. "The Emperor William insists
+upon it. Each hour he remains in office he becomes more dangerous."
+
+"I am already engineering disagreements in the Duma," the monk replied.
+"If he does not fall by them, then he will go naturally, for he is not a
+puppet hypnotised by the wishes of Tsarskoe-Selo, as are so many of our
+Ministers. The Tsar, who so quickly takes offence nowadays, prefers
+flunkeys to Ministers whose personality is too marked. Besides, we have
+the Woman [the Empress] ever on our side. No, Sheglovitof's hour has
+come."
+
+The meeting lasted nearly three hours, until at last Azef and the two
+German officials left, and Rasputin went to his room, where he consumed
+half a bottle of brandy. Meanwhile I sat chatting with Mademoiselle Paula
+until it was time to retire.
+
+Next day, in consequence of a telephone message, I left with Rasputin for
+Paris, where we put up at the Grand Hotel, being visited on the day
+following our arrival by Azef, who, dressed differently, I would
+certainly have passed in the street unrecognised. The two scoundrels
+retired to Rasputin's room, where they remained for half an hour, and
+then we all three went forth into the sunshine of the boulevard.
+
+"It is about his time to pass," the notorious spy remarked to the monk,
+who, by the way, wore an ordinary suit of tweeds and a soft felt hat.
+"Let us sit here--at the Grand Cafe."
+
+In consequence we took seats at one of the little tables on the
+_terrasse_ and ordered "bocks."
+
+Presently, as we watched the stream of passers-by, Azef raised the
+newspaper he had been pretending to read, so concealing his face, and
+whispered:
+
+"Here he is! That is our friend Krivochein!"
+
+I looked and saw a well-dressed, quiet-looking English gentleman passing
+along with his wife, who had apparently been shopping. Little did he
+dream that the eyes of the two most evil men in Europe were upon him.
+
+"He leaves to-night on his return to London," remarked Azef, when five
+minutes later we rose and returned to the hotel.
+
+That same afternoon Rasputin, who declared that he had a bad headache,
+sent me to an English chemist's in the Avenue de l'Opera for a bottle of
+tabloids of aspirin. I was rather surprised, for he never took drugs.
+When I gave him the little bottle he drew out the plug of cotton-wool and
+extracted a tabloid, which he put upon his dressing-table, afterwards
+replacing the wool.
+
+About six o'clock a lady was announced, and when she was shown up to our
+sitting-room I found to my surprise that it was Paula Kereicha.
+
+Rasputin was out with Azef, so Paula declared that she would wait till
+their return.
+
+"I am staying at the Hotel Chatham, and have to go to London to-morrow,"
+she told me. "Krivochein has left the Chatham with his wife, and I am to
+follow."
+
+"The Father and Azef have gone round to the Chatham," I said. "They are
+evidently hoping to find you there."
+
+"Ah! Then I will return and see if they are there," she said, and,
+rising, she left.
+
+I did not see her again. She went to London next day, according to Azef's
+instructions, and as a French governess took a room in that quiet hotel
+near Victoria Station--the room wherein she was afterwards found dead.
+
+At the time I had no knowledge of the tragedy, but later on I learned
+from Rasputin's own lips, while in one of his drunken, boastful moods,
+how he had introduced into the bottle of aspirin a single tabloid of one
+of Badmayev's secret poisons, made up to resemble exactly the other
+tabloids. With Azef he had gone to the Hotel Chatham on purpose to
+extract from her dressing-case her own bottle of aspirin--which she had
+purchased on the previous day from the same chemist in the Avenue de
+l'Opera--and replace it by the one containing the fatal dose.
+
+The latter she had swallowed in ignorance because of a headache, death
+ensuing in a few seconds, and the post-mortem revealed nothing.
+
+"Ah! my dear Feodor, that girl knew far too much! Besides, we discovered
+that, though she had been sent by our friend Azef to assist two of our
+friends to bring 'Krivochein's' career to a sudden end, she had actually
+warned him, so that he has succeeded in escaping to America to avoid us!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SCANDAL AND BLACKMAIL
+
+
+AS the power of the monk Rasputin increased, so also my own social
+position became advanced, until as the "saint's" confidential secretary,
+and therefore as one who had his ear, I became on friendly terms with
+half the nobility of Petrograd.
+
+The pious fraud declared to true believers, "If you do not heed me, then
+God will abandon you."
+
+Leading as he was, freely and openly, a life of shameless debauchery,
+wholesale blackmail and political intrigue, it is marvellous how his
+power became so unlimited. To those who disbelieved in his doctrine or
+in his divinity, he simply smiled evilly, and said: "If you fail to do my
+bidding you will be punished by my friends."
+
+Such warning was sufficient. Everyone knew that Rasputin's power was
+already, in 1912, greater than that of the Tsar Nicholas himself. Day
+after day ambitious men called at the house in the Gorokhovaya, to which
+we had now moved, all of them anxious for ministerial and clerical
+appointments, which he obtained for them at prices fixed by himself. The
+highest in the land bowed before the rascal, while any man who dared to
+belittle him, or attempt to thwart his evil designs, was at once removed
+from office. Through Madame Vyrubova, who received her share of the
+spoils and acted upon the Empress, Rasputin reigned as Tsar, the Emperor
+doing little but sign his name to documents placed before him.
+
+Thus Russia was compelled to witness a regular procession of officials
+whom the "man of God" appointed, in accordance with value received. Even
+Goremykin was compelled to bow before the mystic humbug. Rasputin for
+five years caused to be appointed or dismissed all the bishops, and woe
+betide any person who attempted to interfere with his power.
+
+The Archbishop Theophanus, full of remorse at having lent a helping hand
+to the scoundrel, tried to overthrow him by publicly denouncing his evil
+practices, while the Bishop Hermogenes, who knew of the monk's past,
+attempted to reveal it. In an instant the vengeance of Rasputin fell upon
+them, Theophanus being sent to Tadriz, and Hermogenes confined to a
+monastery. Helidor was hunted by the police and sought asylum abroad;
+while a man named Grinevitch, who had also known Rasputin long ago at
+Pokrovsky, was invited to dinner by the monk one night, and next morning
+was found dead in his bed; while another was arrested by the police on a
+false charge of conspiracy, and sent to prison for ten years, though
+perfectly innocent.
+
+Rasputin's overbearing insolence knew no bounds. Now that he was the
+power behind the Throne, he compelled all to bow to him, the educated as
+well as the peasantry. On entering a house, whether that of prince or
+peasant, he would invariably kiss the young and pretty women, while he
+would turn his back upon and refuse even to speak with those who were
+older.
+
+Our new house was larger and more luxurious than the old one. But it also
+had the false telephone in the study, which was supposed by the "saint's"
+dupes to be a private wire to the palace of Tsarskoe-Selo! The house had
+been furnished entirely at the expense of the Empress, with valuable
+Eastern carpets, fine furniture, tasteful hangings of silk, beautiful
+pictures, autographed portraits of their Majesties, and, of course, ikons
+of all sorts and sizes to impress the pious.
+
+An example of the rogue's impudence occurred on Easter Day in 1912. We
+were breakfasting with Madame Vyrubova's sister at her house just off the
+Nevski. With us was Boris Stuermer and two minor officials of the Court,
+and we were awaiting the coming of the Tsaritza's favourite lady in
+waiting.
+
+At last she arrived from Tsarskoe-Selo bearing a parcel for Grichka,
+which she gave him merrily, saying:
+
+"The Empress has made this for you with her own hands. She spent part of
+last night in finishing it for you, so that you should have it as an
+Easter present."
+
+The "saint" cut the string and withdrew a blue silk coat of the kind he
+was in the habit of wearing, in the Russian style, over loose trousers
+and high boots of patent leather.
+
+"Alix wishes you to wear it to-day," Madame Vyrubova went on, "after you
+have taken Holy Communion."
+
+Rasputin, with a disappointed look, cast it and its paper upon the floor,
+and said:
+
+"Now let us have breakfast," and promptly began to eat with his fingers,
+as he always did, in order to show his contempt for the more refined
+manners of those about him.
+
+A few weeks after this incident there occurred the Ganskau affair, which
+was a most disgraceful transaction, and which was very carefully hushed
+up. Though there were many rumours in Petrograd concerning it, I am able
+to place the whole of the astounding facts on record here for the first
+time.
+
+Rasputin, tiring of his lascivious pleasures, also became bored by those
+who called in order to enlist his influence in their cause for monetary
+consideration. Hence he surrounded himself with a trio of expert
+swindlers. They consisted of a certain adventurous prince named
+Gorianoff, a man named Striaptchef--who had been his companion in his
+early horse-stealing days in his native Pokrovsky--and a notorious woman
+named Sabler. These precious persons constituted a sort of bodyguard, and
+they first interviewed any petitioner, fixed the amount of the gift
+proposed to the "holy man" for the exercise of his influence, and carried
+out the "deal."
+
+If a wealthy man desired a Government appointment; if an under-secretary
+desired a portfolio; if a wife desired her husband's advancement or his
+appointment to an office at Court; if a father desired a lucrative job
+for his profligate son; or if a rich man, who was being watched by the
+police because of some crime he had committed, wished to escape
+scot-free, then they interviewed the elegant Prince Gorianoff at his
+house in the Zacharievskaya. This individual, whom the police of Europe
+know as a Continental swindler, would quickly gauge the petitioner's
+means, and screw from him every rouble possible before putting the matter
+before the caster out of devils.
+
+One day, as I sat alone at lunch with Rasputin, the prince called, and
+sitting down at the table unceremoniously declared:
+
+"I have done a very good stroke of business this morning, my dear
+Gregory. You have probably heard of Ganskau of Tver."
+
+"The great banker, eh?"
+
+"The same. He is one of the wealthiest men in Russia. He wants
+something, and he can afford to pay, though he seems very close-fisted at
+present."
+
+"What does he want?" growled the monk.
+
+The scoundrel who bore the title of prince made a grimace, and said:
+
+"He wants to put a suggestion before you. He refuses to tell me what it
+is--except that it is very urgent and brooks no delay. I told him that he
+would have to pay five thousand roubles if he desired to have an
+interview--and he has paid it. Here is the money!" And he drew from his
+pocket a bundle of banknotes.
+
+"But, my dear Peter," exclaimed the pious fraud, "I have no time to
+barter with these people. I cannot see him."
+
+"Take my advice, Gregory, and listen to what he has to say," replied the
+adventurer, who had lived all his life on his wits in London, Paris and
+Rome--and had lived well too. "If I am not mistaken he will tell you a
+strange thing, and if you get it down in writing--in writing,
+remember--that letter will be worth a very large sum of money in the near
+future. As I have said--he wants something urgently--and he must be made
+to pay."
+
+"Very well," Rasputin replied grudgingly. "I will see him--at four
+o'clock this afternoon. Feodor," he added, turning to me, "make a note
+that I see this banker man."
+
+At four o'clock punctually a fine car drew up, and a stout, overdressed,
+full-bearded man alighted and was shown into the room where I awaited him
+with the prince.
+
+"Ah!" cried the latter, welcoming him warmly. "You had my message over
+the telephone. I have, after great difficulty, induced the holy Father to
+consent to see you. He is due at Tsarskoe-Selo, but he has just
+telephoned to the Empress that he is delayed. And the delay is in order
+to hear you."
+
+"I am sure I am most grateful, Prince," declared the banker, who seemed
+very pale and much agitated. His wealth was proverbial in Russia, and
+even in banking circles in Paris and London. His brother was one of the
+secretaries of the Russian Embassy in Paris.
+
+With due ceremony, after the banker had removed his light
+overcoat, I conducted him into the monk's presence.
+
+As Ganskau bowed towards the mysterious influence behind the Imperial
+Throne, I saw the quick, inquisitive hawk's glance which Rasputin gave
+him. Then I turned and, closing the door, left the pair together, and
+returned to where the prince was waiting. Gorianoff was a clever and
+unscrupulous scoundrel of exquisite manners and most plausible tongue. It
+was for that reason that the holy Father employed him.
+
+As he leaned back in a padded arm-chair, smoking lazily while he awaited
+his victim's reappearance, he laughed merrily and whispered to me that
+the rich man from Tver would, "if properly handled," prove a gold mine.
+
+"Mind, Feodor--be careful to impress upon the Father to obtain something
+incriminating from the banker in writing. He is hard pressed, I know, and
+in order to save himself he will commit any folly."
+
+"Men who are pushed into a corner seldom pause to think," I remarked.
+
+"If the police are upon them, as I know they are in this case, then no
+time is afforded for reflection."
+
+By the prince's manner I knew that he felt confident of making big
+profits. The great Ganskau, the Rothschild of Russia, desired Gregory's
+aid, and Gregory would assist him--at a price. While we were talking
+Madame Vyrubova rang on the telephone to inquire if Rasputin had left for
+Tsarskoe-Selo.
+
+I replied in the negative, whereupon she said: "Tell him not to come
+to-night. The Emperor has quarrelled with Alix, and it will be best for
+him to be absent. The boy [meaning the little Tsarevitch] will be taken
+ill in the night, and then he can come to-morrow and heal him."
+
+I understood. The woman Vyrubova, so trusted by the Tsaritza, was about
+to administer another dose of that baneful drug to the poor invalid
+boy--a drug which would produce partial paralysis, combined with symptoms
+which puzzled every physician called to see him.
+
+It was not until nearly half an hour later that Rasputin opened the door
+of his room, and, crossing himself piously, laid his hands upon his
+breast and dismissed his petitioner.
+
+"Your desire shall be granted," he said in final farewell. "But you must
+write me the reason you desire my assistance. I always insist upon that
+in every case."
+
+"But--well, it is not nice to confess," declared the desperate man,
+pausing on the threshold of the room.
+
+"Probably not. But you do confess to me, and surely you can trust me, a
+servant of Heaven, with your secret? If not, please do not rely upon
+Gregory Rasputin," he added proudly.
+
+For a second the victim hesitated. Then he said in a low, hard voice: "I
+will do as you wish--well knowing that you will keep the truth a secret."
+
+Rasputin, his hands still crossed upon his breast, bowed stiffly, and the
+banker, recognising us standing at the end of the passage, walked towards
+us.
+
+As soon as he had left the house, Rasputin called us, and throwing
+himself into a chair became unduly hilarious.
+
+"Really, Peter, you are extremely clever!" he declared. "Where you find
+these people I do not know. You said you had done a good stroke of
+business, but I did not believe you. Yet now I see that the banker's
+millions of roubles are entirely at our disposal. We must be
+diplomatic--that is all!"
+
+"Why does he require your influence?" inquired the prince.
+
+"In order to extricate himself from a very dangerous position. At any
+moment he may be arrested for murder!"
+
+"For murder!" Gorianoff echoed. "Is he guilty of murder?"
+
+"Yes. He has confessed the truth to me as a father confessor. Now he has
+promised to put his confession down in black and white."
+
+In an instant I saw the trend of Rasputin's evil thoughts. By the written
+confession he would, through his princely friend, be able to extort money
+without limit.
+
+"Of what is he in fear?" asked the prince eagerly.
+
+"Of arrest for the murder of a young French girl, Elise Allain, who had
+been singing at the Bouffes in Moscow," Rasputin replied. "He has just
+told me how he committed the crime three months ago, in order to rid
+himself of her, and escaped to Brussels believing that the police would
+never be able to establish his guilt. On his return to Tver three days
+ago, however, he found that the police had been making active inquiries,
+having discovered in one of the dead girl's trunks that had been left at
+the station cloak-room in Warsaw, certain letters from him. Indeed, he
+has received a visit from the Chief of Police at Tver, who closely
+questioned him."
+
+"Ah! Then he may be arrested at any moment--eh?"
+
+"That is what he anticipates," said the monk. "He has gone to his hotel
+to write his confession, and will return here in an hour with a banker's
+draft for one hundred thousand roubles."
+
+"Did I not say that I had been doing some good business, Gregory?" asked
+his friend.
+
+"Yes--and it will prove better business later--you will see."
+
+At Rasputin's orders I went round to Malinovsky, Assistant Director of
+Police, who at the monk's request telephoned to Tver to inquire what
+suspicions there were against the banker Ganskau. When Malinovsky
+returned to where I was sitting, he told me that the reply of the Chief
+of Police of Tver was to the effect that there was no doubt that Ganskau
+was guilty of a very brutal murder, committed in most mysterious
+circumstances. The banker's wife, with whom he lived on very disagreeable
+terms, had discovered a letter from the girl Elise, and duly handed it
+to the police out of revenge. This led them to find the box at Warsaw
+wherein were other letters, one of which forbade her to come to Russia,
+and threatening her with violence if she disobeyed.
+
+I returned at once to the Gorokhovaya, where the monk and the prince sat
+with a bottle of champagne between them, and gave them the message.
+
+A quarter of an hour later the banker returned excitedly, and was ushered
+in to Rasputin, who saw him alone. They remained together for about ten
+minutes, and then the victim departed.
+
+At once the monk came to us, waving in one hand Ganskau's confession of
+guilt, and in the other a draft on the Azov Bank for one hundred thousand
+roubles.
+
+"I suppose we had better pretend to do something--eh, Peter?" asked the
+monk, with an evil grin.
+
+"Of course," was the reply.
+
+Then I sat down, and at the "holy man's" dictation wrote to the Minister
+of the Interior as follows:
+
+     "There is a charge of murder against Nicholas Ganskau, banker, of
+     Tver. I wish to see all documents concerning the crime. Orders
+     must be given not to arrest the assassin for one month, and that
+     due notice be given me before any action is taken."
+
+To this the monk scrawled his illiterate signature.
+
+From that moment the unfortunate banker was irretrievably in Rasputin's
+hands, and I saw much of his dealings with him. Pretending to leave
+everything with his friend Prince Gorianoff, he refused to see the guilty
+man again. In the meantime the prince, whom I accompanied as the monk's
+secretary, went to Tver three weeks after the first transaction, and we
+saw the victim in secret. Gorianoff told him that, although the monk had
+been able to prevent his arrest, the police were not satisfied, and
+pressure was being placed upon them by one of his enemies in high places.
+
+This, of course, greatly alarmed him.
+
+"All is unfortunately due to your wife!" the prince remarked. "It is a
+pity you have not made peace with her. It was she who took one of the
+girl's letters to the police."
+
+The banker started up as though electrified.
+
+"My wife!" he gasped. "Is it her doing?"
+
+"Most certainly," was the prince's cool reply. "Feodor knows it. He had
+it from the Chief of Police of this city himself."
+
+I confirmed my companion's statement, while the banker, terror and
+despair written upon his pale features, stood staring like one who saw
+death before him.
+
+"My wife left me a fortnight ago!" he stammered. "That is why. She
+expected me to be arrested. What can I do? How can you help me? Who is
+this enemy in a high position who is determined upon my arrest?"
+
+"The holy Father alone knows; I do not," declared the prince very
+seriously. "It is somebody at Court--somebody who is a friend of his and
+who let the fact drop in the course of conversation. I regret it, but I
+may as well tell you that your arrest is imminent."
+
+"But what can I do to avoid the scandal?" cried the murderer in despair.
+
+"Well--the only way is to propitiate your unknown enemy," replied the
+prince insinuatingly.
+
+"I gave the Father a hundred thousand roubles," he remarked.
+
+"True; and the Father used his influence so that the inquiries were
+dropped. He had no knowledge of the fact that you had such a bitter and
+relentless enemy in the higher Court circle."
+
+"Nor had I. I wonder who it can be--except, perhaps, Boyadko, with whom I
+once had some financial dealings over which we quarrelled."
+
+As a matter of fact, the unknown enemy only existed in Rasputin's fertile
+imagination.
+
+"Well, as I have said, the Father may find means of propitiating him--if
+the payment is a liberal one," said Gorianoff. "I suggest that you return
+with us to Petrograd at once, and I will endeavour to accomplish
+something."
+
+Eagerly he acted upon the adventurer's advice. During the journey the
+banker was nervous lest at any moment the police might lay hands upon
+him. At each station the sight of a grey uniform caused him to hold his
+breath. Thus to work upon his nerves was part of the prince's game, for
+he well knew that the more terrified Ganskau became, the greater amount
+of money he would be prepared to pay.
+
+Back in Petrograd he begged of Rasputin to receive him, and the monk,
+after two refusals on the plea that he was too busy, at last consented
+ungraciously.
+
+The result of that interview was that Nicholas Ganskau disgorged a
+further hundred thousand roubles for the bribing of an enemy who did not
+exist!
+
+After the banker had left, Rasputin, full of satisfaction as he held the
+draft for the amount in his dirty paw, dictated to me another letter
+addressed to the Minister of the Interior, which read:
+
+     "His Majesty the Emperor, having full knowledge of the charge of
+     murder made against Nicholas Ganskau of Tver, orders that the
+     inquiries concerning the case be abandoned and that the person
+     suspected be not further molested."
+
+This was duly signed by the monk and delivered by me at the Ministry an
+hour later.
+
+Such orders Rasputin frequently gave in the name of His Majesty, who,
+even if he knew of them, never questioned them.
+
+This, however, did not end the affair, for twelve months afterwards
+Ganskau, who, scot-free, had taken up his residence in the Avenue
+Villiers, in Paris, where he was leading a very gay life, received an
+unexpected visit from Prince Gorianoff, who, making pretence that he had
+severed his friendship with Rasputin, hinted that as the monk held in his
+possession the written confession of his crime, it might be worth while
+to obtain and destroy it.
+
+This suggestion Ganskau at once welcomed, thanking the prince for his
+kindly intervention.
+
+Then the latter made a remark which in itself showed how expert a
+blackmailer he was.
+
+"You see, as the girl Elise was a French subject, if the French police
+ever get hold of the truth it would go very badly with you," he declared.
+
+The banker's face went pale as death.
+
+"I never thought of that!" he gasped. "Yes, I must get that confession at
+all hazards," he cried.
+
+"I am prepared to assist you," said the scoundrel coolly. "Of course to
+obtain it from such a man as Rasputin presents many difficulties. He will
+never part with it willingly."
+
+"Then how shall we get it?"
+
+"It must be stolen."
+
+The banker remained silent for a few moments.
+
+"You see," went on the prince, "one can never tell into whose hands may
+fall that collection of confessions which the Father has extracted from
+those who are guilty."
+
+"And you think you can obtain it for me?" asked the banker.
+
+"I am still friendly with many of Rasputin's friends. It is merely a
+matter of payment--another hundred thousand roubles, and surely it is
+worth it."
+
+The banker, seeing himself in great danger should either Rasputin or his
+visitor turn against him, at length consented, and before Gorianoff left
+he had in his pocket a draft upon the Credit Lyonnais for the sum
+mentioned. The assassin had at first made it a condition that the
+confession should be handed to him before he paid, but the prince pointed
+out that the money was required for bribery, and would have to be paid
+before the confession could be extracted from Rasputin's safe.
+
+Needless to say, the banker never received back his written confession of
+his crime, and so constant was the strain of his guilty conscience and
+his hourly dread of arrest and capital punishment, that a year later he
+shot himself at an hotel in Plymouth.
+
+Another illustration of the monk's greed and unscrupulousness was the
+Violle affair.
+
+Monsieur Felix Violle, a Frenchman who had become a naturalised Russian,
+and who carried on business as a wholesale furrier in the Nevski in
+Petrograd, had a very pretty young wife. One day, at one of the weekly
+reunions of the sister-disciples, this young woman was brought by Madame
+Vyrubova's sister, she having expressed her desire to enter Rasputin's
+cult. There were present on that occasion about thirty other women,
+mostly young and good-looking, and nearly all of the highest society in
+Petrograd. The youngest present was about seventeen, the daughter of a
+certain countess who was one of Rasputin's most attached devotees.
+
+After Madame Violle had been initiated into the secrets of the erotic
+sect, the whole party sat down to tea, when a photograph was taken by one
+of the ladies, which showed Madame Violle seated by the "holy Father."
+
+Rasputin, from that day, took a great deal of interest in the furrier's
+wife. He introduced her to Anna Vyrubova, who presented her to the
+Empress. Hence, from being a tradesman's wife, Olga Violle, within a
+fortnight, had entered the vicious Court circle which revolved around
+Alexandra Feodorovna, and which was rapidly conspiring to betray Russia
+into the hands of the Germans.
+
+Madame Violle told her husband nothing of her social advancement. The
+furrier was in a large way of business, a man of means who liked to see
+his wife well dressed; therefore she was able to cut an elegant figure at
+Court. She accounted for her absences from home by the fact that she
+frequently visited a married sister living about twenty miles outside
+Petrograd.
+
+Under the evil hypnotic influence of Rasputin, the smart little woman,
+who often called at the house and whom I sometimes met at the palace, was
+quickly transformed from a steady tradesman's wife into a giddy,
+pleasure-loving and intriguing degenerate, perhaps even more vicious than
+the rest. Indeed, it was this very fact which caused the Empress to look
+upon her with favour. Thus she soon had the run of the private
+apartments, and became upon friendly terms with both Stuermer and
+Fredericks.
+
+This went on for some months, and even at the Imperial Court, where
+nobody was over-squeamish, the conduct of little Madame Violle--who came
+from nowhere and whose past was quite obscure except to Rasputin, Madame
+Vyrubova, her sister and myself--was looked upon somewhat askance.
+
+Violle, who was most devoted to his extremely pretty wife, one day had a
+sudden shock. By some means a copy of the photograph of the
+sister-disciples went astray in the post. A photographer obtained
+possession of it and promptly made some picture post-cards, which were
+quickly upon the market, much to Rasputin's chagrin. Somebody,
+recognising Madame Violle in the picture, sent one anonymously to her
+husband. The result was a terrible domestic scene.
+
+Madame Olga came to Rasputin in great distress, and in my presence,
+falling upon her knees before him, in tears, kissed his unwashed hands
+and begged him to advise her.
+
+"Your precious husband has made a fool of himself," the monk remarked
+grimly. "Let him take warning lest Gregory Rasputin lift his hand against
+him. Return home, and tell him that from me."
+
+That was all the advice he would give her. He was full of anger that the
+woman who had taken the picture should have been so negligent as to allow
+a copy to fall into the hands of others. Always elusive, he hated to be
+photographed, as he feared that it might constitute evidence against him.
+
+The pretty woman, still much agitated, went out, and took train to
+Tsarskoe-Selo, where she had audience of Her Majesty, who, in turn, urged
+her to defy her husband.
+
+Meanwhile the latter was going about Petrograd in a state of fury at
+discovering that his wife was one of the monk's followers. But he was
+not the first furious husband who had had cause to hate the hypnotic
+peasant. The man Striaptchef and the woman Sabler, who constituted
+Rasputin's bodyguard, assisted by Prince Gorianoff, quickly heard of the
+furrier's anger and told the monk. Therefore it was not with any degree
+of surprise that, when a ring came at the door late that same night, I
+found myself face to face with the wronged husband.
+
+"I wish to see the Father," he said quite coolly.
+
+"I regret that he is out," was my prompt reply.
+
+"You lie!" he shouted. "He is at home. This house has been watched ever
+since six o'clock, when he returned. I will see him, and you dare not
+stop me."
+
+Then, ere I was aware of it, he seized me by the throat, hurled me back
+into the entrance-hall, and before I could prevent him marched straight
+to Rasputin's room.
+
+I dashed after him, hearing the monk's shouts for assistance, and on
+entering found the "holy man" lying on the floor and the infuriated
+Violle lashing him with a short whip he carried. The scene was a dramatic
+one. The scoundrel was shrieking with pain, and in endeavouring to avoid
+the blows succeeded in rising, but as he did so the furrier administered
+another sound whack, which sent the Empress's pet "saint" skipping across
+the room howling.
+
+"You dog of a mock monk!" cried the furrier. "Take that!--and that!--_and
+that!_"
+
+So beside himself with anger was he that I believe he would have beaten
+Rasputin to death had not Striaptchef dashed in, and together we
+succeeded in dragging the angry man off and turning him out of the house.
+
+As soon as the "saint" had recovered from the _fracas_, he gave vent to a
+volley of fearful oaths, cursing the pretty woman who had been the cause
+of the assault.
+
+"She shall be kicked out. I will see that she goes to the palace no
+more," he declared. "If a woman cannot manage her husband then she is
+dangerous. And Olga Violle has proved herself to be dangerous. I will
+see that Alix dismisses her to-morrow. And all on account of that
+thrice-accursed picture-making. To think that I--the Saviour of Russia,
+sent to these people by the Almighty--should be whipped like a dog!"
+
+He strode up and down foaming with fury.
+
+"The skin-dealer shall suffer!" he cried. "I'll make him pay dearly for
+this!"
+
+Then, turning to me, he ordered me to go at once to Manuiloff, Stuermer's
+secretary, adding: "Bring him to me. Tell him that it is a matter of
+greatest urgency."
+
+I had great difficulty in finding the man he had indicated, and who was
+one of Russia's "dark forces." He was not at his house, but by bribing
+the doorkeeper I learned that he would be found in a very questionable
+gambling-house in the vicinity. There I discovered him and drove him to
+the Gorokhovaya.
+
+"Listen," the monk said as I ushered him in. "There is a furrier in the
+Nevski named Violle. Both he and his wife are dangerous revolutionists
+and must be arrested at once. You understand--eh?"
+
+Manuiloff, the catspaw of both Stuermer and Rasputin, and who was well
+paid to do any dirty work allotted to him, did not quite understand.
+
+"You denounce him--eh?" he asked. "There are reasons, of course."
+
+"Of course there are reasons, you fool, or I should not bring you here at
+this hour to tell you of the conspiracy against the Throne. I make the
+allegation; you must furnish the proofs. Do you now understand?" asked
+the "saint."
+
+"Ah, I see! You want some documents introduced into the furrier's house
+incriminating both him and his wife?"
+
+"Exactly. And at once. They must both be arrested before noon to-morrow,"
+Rasputin said. "I shall leave all the details to you, well knowing that
+they will be in good hands, my dear Manuiloff," laughed Rasputin grimly.
+"One thing is important. There must be no loophole for either of them to
+escape. The Empress wills it so. Both must be sent to Schluesselburg. Tell
+His Excellency so from me. We want no trial or attempt at scandal. The
+pair are dangerous--dangerous to us. Now do you understand?"
+
+Manuiloff, who had forged incriminating documents many times, and who had
+a dozen underlings who assisted him in these nefarious deeds, understood
+perfectly. He was paid to act as his two chiefs directed, and dozens of
+innocent persons were rotting in prison at that moment because they had
+fallen beneath Rasputin's displeasure.
+
+So it was that by noon next day both Violle and his pretty wife--who had
+only the day before been a close friend of the Tsaritza--were on their
+way to Schluesselburg as dangerous to the State.
+
+Truly, the monk had neither scruples nor honesty, neither compunction nor
+pity; for the woman who was his favourite he had turned upon and sent to
+that grim island fortress, where in one of those terrible oubliettes
+below the level of the lake her death took place eight months later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RASPUTIN THE ACTUAL TSAR
+
+
+THE tragi-comedy of Tsarskoe-Selo was being played with increasing vigour
+just prior to the war. Berlin, through Rasputin, piped the tune to which
+the Imperial Court was dancing--the Dance of Death!
+
+One night, after Rasputin had dined with Madame Vyrubova and myself,
+General Soukhomlinoff, Minister of War, entered, swaggering in the
+uniform of the Grodno Hussars.
+
+This man, who, as I write, is in a convict prison as a traitor, had only
+a week before assured the Emperor that the army was ready "to the last
+button" for a possible war, and the troops devoted to him. I happen to
+know how many thousand roubles passed into his banking account from the
+Deutsche Bank in Berlin as price of that lie!
+
+Poor weak Nicholas! On the day following, Protopopoff, the wily schemer
+and spy of Germany, who was admitted to all the secrets of the Allies,
+went to the Emperor and echoed what Rasputin had declared to His Majesty,
+namely, that God was with Russia and that the Holy Spirit approved of the
+righteous work accomplished under the guidance of Stuermer and
+Soukhomlinoff. Truly the camarilla were supporting each other, and I, an
+onlooker, stood amazed and astounded. All four were half-mad with wild
+dreams of the prosperity which war would bring to them, for the bribes
+promised by Berlin were heavy, and Hardt and other secret messengers were
+constantly passing between the two capitals bearing confidential orders
+from the Wilhelmstrasse, of which the War Minister's assurance to the
+Tsar had been one.
+
+But Soukhomlinoff, whose wife was declared to be the most _chic_ and
+extravagant woman in all Petrograd, strode up and down the room that
+night in a fury of rage.
+
+"Gregory!" he cried. "An untoward incident has happened. Your enemy
+Vorontsof Dachkof has been at work against you this afternoon."
+
+"Curse him! How?" growled the monk, for the Lieutenant-General of the
+Caucasus had been a personal friend of Alexander III.
+
+"I was at audience with Nicholas after luncheon, and the count was there.
+After he had presented his report he became familiar, and said: 'Now I
+must talk to thee. Dost thou know that, with thy Rasputin fellows, thou
+art going to thy doom, that thou art gambling away thy throne and the
+life of thy child?'"
+
+"What?" gasped the monk, starting up. "Did he openly say that?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Then the count shall be disgraced!" declared Rasputin. "He has long
+been my enemy; but I will suffer this no longer."
+
+"Well, when the count spoke, Nicholas huddled himself up on a settee and
+sobbed. 'Oh! why did God confide to me this heavy task!'"
+
+"The fool!" laughed Rasputin. "To-morrow he shall see me playing with the
+Tsarevitch in the Park, and Nicholas shall be with us."
+
+And indeed Rasputin carried out his plan, and the count saw them
+together.
+
+The monk was not blind to the fact that he was surrounded by enemies, all
+of whom were jealous of his power and sought his downfall. By bribery,
+blackmail, and the unscrupulous use of the secret police, which was under
+Protopopoff as Minister of the Interior, the camarilla were waxing fat,
+and woe betide any who dared utter a warning to the Emperor.
+
+Monsieur Gutchkoff had denounced, before the Duma, the scandal of the
+sexually-perverted peasant's presence at Court and prophesied the direct
+disaster. Kokovtsov had loyally warned his master of the effect upon the
+country which the low intrigues of his courtiers was producing. Then,
+when Goremykin urged the Tsar to prorogue the Duma, General Polivanof had
+the courage to sign an address to His Majesty urging him not to do so, as
+it would be a highly dangerous measure. Rodzianko, too, regardless of
+consequences, took to Tsarskoe-Selo a full report of the accusations made
+in the Duma, and urged His Majesty to put an end to the outrageous
+scandals.
+
+The monk had noted all this, and had already marked down all his enemies
+for destruction. He well knew what aversion the Tsar had to anyone who
+spoke what was unwelcome. Weak and vacillating, His Majesty hated to be
+told the plain truth, and for that reason he was so constantly kept in
+the dark. Even his loyal Ministers knew that by being outspoken they
+would be seeking dismissal. Indeed, with Rasputin's clever intriguing,
+Kokovtsov, Sazonov, Krivochein and Polivanof all paid for their
+sincerity by the loss of their offices and the displeasure of their
+Imperial master. Again, it was the monk who had contrived to dismiss
+Monsieur Trepof, for I actually wrote out the order, which Nicholas
+signed, dismissing him! And, in addition, Rodzianko, whom the Emperor
+nicknamed "the Archdeacon" because of his deep, impressive voice, lost
+the sympathy of his sovereign because he had prophesied evil.
+
+And now yet another enemy had arisen in the person of Count Vorontsof
+Dachkof.
+
+"The count shall pay for this, and dearly!" repeated Rasputin, as he sat
+with his brows knit, stroking his unkempt beard.
+
+"At least he can be dismissed, just as you sent into disgrace Prince
+Orlof, the fidus Achates of the Emperor," remarked Anna Vyrubova, who was
+handsomely dressed and wearing some fine diamonds.
+
+Rasputin gave vent to an evil laugh.
+
+"And Witte also," he said. Then, with his unbounded egotism he rose, and
+added: "Yes, Anna, I am Tsar, though Nicholas bears the title!"
+
+Only on the previous night the Tsar, accompanied by Soukhomlinoff and
+Rasputin, had dined at the mess of the officers of the Guard, and all
+three, His Majesty included, had become highly hilarious, and later on
+hopelessly drunk.
+
+"True!" exclaimed the Minister of War, who had so misled Russia and the
+Tsar into a belief that all was prepared for hostilities against Germany.
+"You are the most powerful person in the land to-day, Gregory. That is
+why you must not only suppress Vorontsof Dachkof, but also Yakowleff--who
+is his friend, remember."
+
+"Ah, Yakowleff! I had quite forgotten, General! How foolish of me!" cried
+the monk. "The concession for the gambling casino at Otchakov has been
+granted to him, but we must have it. It will be a second Monte Carlo, and
+a mine of wealth for us."
+
+"I quite agree, my dear Gregory. And it lies entirely with you whether we
+stand in Yakowleff's place or not," exclaimed the woman who was the evil
+genius of the Tsaritza.
+
+The fact was that a rich financier, Ivan Yakowleff, who had offices in
+Petrograd and in London, for certain personal services rendered to the
+Tsar--the buying off of an unwelcome female entanglement, it is said--had
+been granted a concession to establish public gaming-rooms at Otchakov,
+on the Black Sea, not far from Odessa. The financier, who was elderly,
+had recently married a young and rather pretty wife, and being a friend
+of Count Vorontsof Dachkof, was in the happiest circumstances, well
+knowing that a huge fortune awaited him.
+
+"At the moment Yakowleff is in London, I hear, forming a syndicate to
+take over the concession," the general remarked.
+
+Rasputin smiled evilly, and after a pause said:
+
+"Anybody who puts money into the venture will never see that money again.
+I will take care of that."
+
+"Good!" laughed His Excellency the Minister, flicking some dust from the
+sleeve of his uniform. "We must have that concession for ourselves. But
+ought not we to know what is in progress in London--eh? Shall we get
+Protopopoff to send instructions to his agents in England?"
+
+"No. Something might leak out. I do not trust the Okhrana in London,"
+replied the wary woman, Vyrubova. "Have you forgotten the Meadows affair,
+and how they betrayed me and very nearly caused a scandal by their
+bungling? No, if we are to watch Yakowleff, let us do it ourselves. Why
+should you not go, Feodor?" she suggested, suddenly turning to me.
+
+"I? To London!" I exclaimed, in no way averse to the journey, for I had
+been in England on three occasions previously.
+
+"Yes," said Rasputin. "You shall go. Start to-morrow. Telegraph to Madame
+Huguet. She will help you, for she is not suspected, and all believe her
+to be French. Besides, she is pretty, and therefore useful."
+
+"As a decoy, you mean?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Of what other use is a woman?" laughed the scoundrel, whose
+unscrupulousness where the fair sex were concerned was notorious. He
+rose, and, unlocking a drawer, took out a book in which were registered
+many addresses of those who were in his pay, and hence under his
+thraldom.
+
+I searched the pages eagerly and found the address, together with notes
+of certain payments. Madame, I saw, lived in a flat in Harrington
+Gardens, South Kensington.
+
+There and then I received instructions to leave next day by the through
+express to Ostend, seek the lady, and then watch the movements of the
+Russian, who was busily forming the syndicate for the new Monte Carlo.
+
+"If we are to strike against him we cannot know too much of his doings.
+Besides, when we do strike we must not blunder--eh, General?" laughed the
+monk, after which he opened a bottle of champagne, of which we all drank.
+
+A week later I was in London, and one afternoon called upon Madame
+Huguet, who was expecting me. She was a vivacious, dark-haired young
+Frenchwoman, who had been one of the Father's sister-disciples in
+Petrograd, and whom he had sent to London upon some secret mission, the
+purpose of which was not quite clear to me. She had lived for some years
+in London before, and was well known in certain go-ahead circles of
+society. Seated in her cosy, well furnished drawing-room, with its silken
+curtains and bright chintzes in the English style, I told her exactly
+what Rasputin and Anna had instructed me to say.
+
+"The Father wishes you to lose no time in becoming acquainted with the
+financier Yakowleff," I said. "He has offices in Old Broad Street, and he
+lives in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, when in London."
+
+"He is there now," she said. "I saw something about him in the papers
+three days ago--something concerning a concession for a gaming casino."
+
+"Oh!" I cried. "Then it is in the papers--eh?"
+
+She obtained the copy of the newspaper, and I saw it was announced that
+an "Establishment" was about to be constructed at Otchakov, which was to
+be a formidable rival to Monte Carlo, and that Monsieur Yakowleff, of
+Petrograd, was the originator of the scheme.
+
+Fortunately Yakowleff did not know me by sight; therefore, while Madame
+Huguet set to work to scrape acquaintance with him, I spent my days
+watching his movements when he came to his City office, and noting his
+constant and busy peregrinations to and fro. Certainly his scheme was
+attracting around him many influential and wealthy men, to whom the
+prospect of huge profits proved alluring.
+
+He was short, stout, rather Hebrew in appearance, unscrupulous no doubt,
+or he would not have stooped to do such dirty work as he did for
+Nicholas; nevertheless, he seemed highly popular in financial circles. He
+had left his wife in Petrograd; therefore the life he was leading was, I
+found, a pretty gay one. Each day he lunched at the best restaurants with
+his business friends, and discussed the great Otchakov scheme, and each
+night he took one of his lady friends out to dinner, the theatre, and the
+Savoy, Ritz or Carlton afterwards.
+
+Within ten days of my arrival in London I found that his guest at dinner
+at the Ritz one night was the sprightly young Frenchwoman, Julie Huguet!
+
+Next day she called me by telephone to Harrington Gardens, and said:
+
+"I discovered a good deal last night. The syndicate is already formed.
+One hundred thousand pounds has been subscribed, and next week Yakowleff
+is leaving for Paris, and thence back to Petrograd."
+
+Within half an hour I had telegraphed the news to Box 296, Poste
+Restante, Petrograd, which was the one used by Rasputin.
+
+In reply I received from the monk a message which read:
+
+"Obtain names of subscribers."
+
+This I succeeded in doing after some considerable trouble, and they were
+the names of some of the shrewdest speculators in the City, none of them
+over-scrupulous, no doubt. To Rasputin I wired that I had the list, and
+asked for instructions, to which I received the reply:
+
+     "Excellent! Return without delay.--GREGORY."
+
+On my way back, during those many hours in the Nord Express between
+Ostend and Petrograd, I reviewed the whole affair, and saw the sinister
+working of the monk's mind. That Count Vorontsof Dachkof was in danger I
+knew full well. The monk never allowed any person to express open enmity
+without retaliating quietly and patiently, but with a crushing blow.
+
+I wondered what was being planned between the Ministers of War and
+Interior. No doubt the Empress had been informed of what the count had
+told the Emperor, and she would at once conspire with the holy Father to
+cast him into social oblivion--or worse!
+
+That the cupidity of Rasputin knew no bounds I was well aware. He
+intended to obtain that most lucrative gambling concession for himself,
+for Russians are born gamblers, especially the better classes, and the
+establishment of a casino on the Black Sea, with French hotels and
+restaurants, pretty villas, and an opera house in imitation of Monte
+Carlo, would in summer attract those thousands of rich Russians who in
+winter went to the Riviera to gamble.
+
+It was a chance which Rasputin would never allow to slip. Of that I was
+quite certain.
+
+The evening I returned to Petrograd the monk had left me a message to go
+to Tsarskoe-Selo; therefore I took my green pass, which admitted me past
+the many guards of the innermost holy-of-holies, the Imperial apartments,
+where I knew I should find the real ruler of Russia.
+
+He had been spending the evening with the Empress, her daughter Olga, and
+Anna, and when I sent word to him he joined me in a small ante-room, and,
+closing the door, eagerly questioned me.
+
+"When does Yakowleff return from Paris?" he asked when I had read over to
+him the list of those adventurous London financiers who had put their
+money into the Otchakov scheme.
+
+"Next Thursday he leaves," I said. "Madame has gone to Paris on pretence
+of shopping, but in reality to keep watch. 'Axanda, Poste Restante,
+Avenue de l'Opera,' will find her. She arranged it with me before we
+parted."
+
+"Then this money-bag has really formed an influential syndicate in London
+to exploit our country--eh?" asked the monk grimly. "I have been speaking
+to the Empress about it, and she declares that the whole circumstance of
+Nicholas granting a concession, and for such service, is scandalous."
+
+Scandalous! Surely Alexandra Feodorovna knew that her own actions had
+caused her name to be execrated through the length and breadth of Russia.
+Helidor and the "Blessed Mitia" had both attempted to reveal what they
+knew. Helidor and Mitia had many powerful friends, so they were severely
+left alone by the police; yet others who but opened their mouths and
+criticised had been sent to prison without trial, while those who had
+gained undue knowledge and might transmit it to England or America were
+sent to those dreaded oubliettes of Schluesselburg--worse even than the
+Bastille, and not one has ever returned across the lake alive.
+
+Rasputin was at that moment occupied by two matters--first, the fierce
+antagonism of Vorontsof Dachkof; and secondly, his avariciousness
+concerning the concession for gambling at that pretty little town east of
+Odessa.
+
+So wide was the monk's influence that, hearing at that moment that the
+King of the Hellenes had granted to another British syndicate a
+concession to open public gaming-tables in Corfu, Rasputin had already
+been to Stuermer, the President of the Council, and contrived to have
+diplomatic pressure brought through Prince Demidoff, Russian Minister at
+Athens, to bear upon the King to cancel the concession as opposed to
+public morals! This view Rasputin contrived to have supported by the
+Wilhelmstrasse, because the Kaiser had his spring palace in the vicinity,
+and, with his mock piety, he discountenanced any Temple of Fortune. The
+result was that the Corfu casino was prohibited.
+
+Thus the Otchakov scheme was the only one in Europe. San Sebastian was
+declared by the monk to be only on a par with Ostend, and Otchakov was to
+be the great rival of Monte Carlo, with more varied and added
+attractions.
+
+In that room, while he was hearing me through, Protopopoff, who had been
+making a report to the Emperor, joined us, and listened to what I had to
+say.
+
+"I was looking at Yakowleff's _dossier_ to-day, as you wished," remarked
+the Minister to the monk. "He seems a very honest, clean-living man for a
+financier. There are no suspicions of disloyalty, or even of anything."
+
+"Then they must be made," declared Rasputin. "I intend to hold that
+concession. He would never have had it had it not been for Dachkof. But
+the latter is already out of favour. The Emperor has promised me to
+dismiss him to-morrow. His Majesty prefers cheerful people, not men who
+are pessimists," he laughed.
+
+Indeed, next day the count, who was one of the most loyal and devoted
+servants of the Romanoffs, and who had risked everything in an attempt to
+open the Emperor's eyes, was actually dismissed. Such was the power of
+Rasputin.
+
+But the plot against Yakowleff to dispossess him of the concession for
+Otchakov was a much more deeply-laid and evil one. The financier had
+returned to Petrograd, flushed with his success with his moneyed friends
+in London. Already news had gone round that a wonderful casino was to be
+built to eclipse Monte Carlo, and he had given an interview to the
+_Novoye Vremya_ concerning it.
+
+One afternoon, while in the handsome room set apart for Rasputin's use
+at Tsarskoe-Selo, I was sitting writing at his dictation, when there
+suddenly entered the Emperor, who had just come in from one of his
+frequent solitary walks in the park.
+
+His Majesty flung himself wearily in a chair, and began to discuss a
+diplomatic matter concerning Austria, and to ask the Father's advice, for
+he now scarcely ever acted upon his own initiative.
+
+Rasputin reflected for a few moments as he stood gazing out of the
+window, and then, having given his opinion as to the proper course to
+pursue, he added:
+
+"There is another matter which should have thy attention--a matter which
+is being hidden very carefully from thee."
+
+"And pray what is that, Father?" inquired the Emperor.
+
+"It is the secret and traitorous dealings which one Yakowleff is having
+with British agents with a view to betraying Russia into the hands of the
+English," declared the sinister monk.
+
+"I do not follow."
+
+"To this man Yakowleff thou gavest the concession for improvements at
+Otchakov. On pretence of obtaining financial assistance he has been to
+London, and there, according to what my friends tell me, has been in
+consultation with certain British agents, whose intention it is to obtain
+our military and naval secrets."
+
+"Then you denounce Yakowleff as a traitor--eh?" snapped the Emperor.
+
+"I certainly do. If thou doubtest me, order Protopopoff to make a police
+search at his house in the Vosnesensky. Something will certainly be found
+there," he said, with insidious cunning, well knowing that Protopopoff's
+_agents-provocateurs_ had already taken steps to secure the financier's
+undoing.
+
+"I have here the names of two Englishwomen who are in the British Secret
+Service, and who were recently in Petrograd with Yakowleff." And he
+produced a piece of paper upon which he had scrawled the two names in
+his illiterate calligraphy. "The women are back in London, but he was
+with them a fortnight ago."
+
+"Are you quite certain of all this?" asked Nicholas dubiously. "I always
+believed Yakowleff to be my friend. Indeed, he has already shown his
+loyalty to me."
+
+"And in return thou gavest him the valuable concession for Otchakov,"
+growled the monk.
+
+"If you assure me, Father, that what you have said is the truth, and not
+mere hearsay, I will call Protopopoff, and he shall make full inquiry."
+
+"It is a pity that the Otchakov scheme should be given into the hands of
+thy enemy," the monk declared, and thus the matter dropped.
+
+In Petrograd late that night, after the usual evening assembly of the
+sister-disciples, when all the women had departed and I was again alone
+with the monk, Protopopoff arrived, and said jubilantly:
+
+"Your words to Nicholas have borne fruit regarding Yakowleff. The Emperor
+spoke to me on the telephone, and, acting on his instructions, I ordered
+a police search, when some documents in cipher were found in a drawer in
+his writing-table."
+
+"And you arrested him?"
+
+"No. He seems to have somehow got wind of what was in progress, for he
+left Petrograd yesterday for Helsingfors, and has escaped!"
+
+"Escaped!" shrieked Rasputin, springing to his feet in dismay.
+
+"Yes. Gone back to London, I believe."
+
+The monk knit his brows and stood stroking his unkempt beard. He was
+thinking out some further devilish plot.
+
+"Feodor," he said at last, turning to me, "write down what I say."
+
+I crossed to the table, and when I was ready he dictated the following:
+
+     "In consequence of his traitorous dealings with emissaries of a
+     foreign Power, I, Nicholas, refuse to grant Ivan Yakowleff his
+     application for a concession for improvements at Otchakov, and
+     hereby grant the privilege unreservedly to Alexander Klouieff, of
+     48 Kurlandskaya, Petrograd. Further, I order the arrest of Ivan
+     Yakowleff and the confiscation of all his property."
+
+Alexander Klouieff! The fellow was an ex-agent of secret police, a man
+ready to do any dirty work, even murder, for Rasputin, if paid for it--a
+low-bred criminal of the worst possible type! So the concession was to be
+given to him, and he, of course, would in due course, in exchange for
+payment, hand it over to the monk, who would share the huge profits with
+his friends.
+
+"Nicholas shall sign that to-morrow," Rasputin remarked with confidence.
+"As soon as he has done so I will see that copies be sent to each of the
+men in London who have subscribed, and they will no doubt prosecute
+Yakowleff for fraud. In any case, he is ruined and cast out, so he no
+longer stands in our path."
+
+"Excellent!" said Protopopoff. "Does Klouieff know?"
+
+"Of course not. I shall pay him something for the use of his name before
+he knows exactly what has transpired," was the crafty reply of the
+"blessed Gregory"--as so many termed him.
+
+Two days later I went as usual to the palace with my master, and he took
+me with him along to the Emperor's room, in case any writing was to be
+done. The monk's first words were of the escape of Yakowleff.
+
+"The traitor has gone back to his English pay-masters!" said the Starets.
+"I have written here the order for his arrest and the confiscation of his
+property."
+
+And he placed before the Emperor the document I had written. To
+Rasputin's dismay, however, His Majesty seemed disinclined to append his
+signature. To me, Nicholas, who was wearing an old grey tweed suit,
+seemed very doubtful regarding the whole transaction.
+
+"Who is this person Alexander Klouieff?" he demanded. "I must know
+something more of him."
+
+"He is a man of considerable wealth--upright, honourable, and devoted to
+thee," Rasputin assured him. "Canst thou not place thy trust in those I
+recommend? If not, I say no more."
+
+"Of course, Father; but the concession was granted--while this order
+makes it appear that it was only applied for."
+
+"Surely it is not wise that thou shouldst be known to have granted favour
+unto a traitor?" was the monk's clever reply.
+
+Still Nicholas hesitated, at which Rasputin grew furious, declaring that
+he had no time to waste in idle discussion.
+
+Dropping the familiar form of speech he was in the habit of using to the
+Emperor, he stood erect and said:
+
+"You know the message which your dead father gave you at the seance last
+night! If you refuse to sign this decree, then I will abandon Russia
+to-day and leave you, the Empress and the lad to your fate. Remember, I
+am God's messenger and your divine guide!"
+
+The Tsar stood terror-stricken and in fear lest the real ruler of Russia
+should once again depart from Petrograd and refuse to return. Further
+refusal to sign was useless; therefore he bit his lip in chagrin and
+appended his signature to the document, which not only deprived the
+unfortunate Yakowleff of his concession, but also denounced him as a
+traitor and a swindler.
+
+The result was that not only did Rasputin obtain possession of the
+concession for Otchakov, but he sold it a month later for a huge sum to a
+syndicate of bankers in Vienna, who still hold it. The monk, after paying
+a dole to the ex-agent of police, divided up the spoils with Protopopoff,
+Stuermer and Soukhomlinoff, and, in addition, he bought a very valuable
+diamond necklace for Anna Vyrubova.
+
+As for poor Yakowleff, he was, as Rasputin had plotted, prosecuted in
+London for fraud, and sentenced at the Old Bailey to a term of
+imprisonment.
+
+As the months went on, in the first half of 1914, I noticed that the
+acquaintanceship between Rasputin and his well-paid chemist-friend,
+Badmayev, became closer. Badmayev held the formula of the poisonous
+concoction which at intervals Anna Vyrubova secretly introduced into the
+food of the Tsarevitch, causing the poor lad those mysterious illnesses
+which were puzzling the physicians of Europe.
+
+That some fresh plot of a diabolical nature was in progress I felt
+confident, but of its actual motive I could ascertain nothing. Yet it
+turned out to be a conspiracy--no doubt inspired and suggested by
+Potsdam--of a peculiarly devilish character.
+
+It was on that fateful day that the "Germanisation" of Russia became
+complete. Thanks to the traitorous assurances of Soukhomlinoff, Minister
+of War, Russia, alas! found herself suddenly plunged into hostilities.
+Petrograd, of course, went wild with excitement. Our loyal Russians, who
+believed in official declarations and in their Tsar, were ready to fly at
+the Teutons, little dreaming that already, before a single shot was
+fired, Germany held all the honours of the game, and had the Russian bear
+shackled hand and foot.
+
+At four o'clock in the afternoon Rasputin called me, and handing me an
+envelope which seemed to contain some small object--a lady's silver
+powder-puff case I afterwards knew it to be--said:
+
+"Feodor, I want you to go to the booking-office of the Finnish station at
+the departure of the train for Helsingfors at five-thirty. There you will
+meet a fair-haired young man who knows you by sight. He will say the word
+'Anak,' and when he does, hand him this in secret. He will quite
+understand."
+
+This order I carried out. I had not been at the crowded station five
+minutes when a young man, carrying a small handbag, elbowed his way
+through the excited crowd and uttered in an undertone the word "Anak." I
+greeted him, and surreptitiously handed him the little packet, for which
+he thanked me and disappeared on to the platform.
+
+My curiosity being aroused I waited until after the departure of the
+train, when I watched the mysterious young man return from the platform,
+hurry out of the station, and jump into a droshky and drive off.
+
+When I returned and reported my meeting with the young man, Rasputin
+seemed much gratified, and even telephoned to Stuermer, who was at that
+moment at the palace, having been called to the War Council which the
+Emperor--who had again consulted his dead father's spirit at a further
+seance on the previous night--was now holding.
+
+It appeared that a dinner had a week before been arranged by Prince
+Galitzine, to which the Grand Dukes Nicholas Nicholaievitch, Constantin
+Constantinovitch, and Michael Alexandrovitch, together with Generals
+Arapoff, Daniloff, Brusiloff, and Rennenkampf, had been invited. At first
+it was proposed to cancel the engagement owing to the critical position
+of affairs, but on the suggestion of the Grand Duke Nicholas it was not
+abandoned, for, as he pointed out, it would bring together the loyal
+leaders of the army on the eve of great events, and that, after dinner,
+views might be exchanged in confidence for the national benefit.
+
+Now earlier that same day Rasputin had given me a note to deliver to the
+Grand Duke Michael, whom I had failed to find, but was told that he was
+to dine at Prince Galitzine's. So about half-past six o'clock I took it
+to the prince's house, when, to my surprise, as I passed into the great
+hall I saw the same fair-haired young man to whom I had delivered that
+envelope in secret an hour before. He was one of the prince's servants,
+but he had not seen me!
+
+A sudden suspicion seized me. I asked to see the prince, and when shown
+up to his room I delivered the note for the Grand Duke.
+
+Then, having seen that the door was closed, I asked permission to say
+something in strictest confidence, and told him of the mysterious
+envelope I had delivered to his servant.
+
+He heard me through, gave me his hand in promise that he would not
+betray my confidence, thanked me, and dismissed me.
+
+Next day the prince called me to him in secret, and told me that in the
+possession of the young man was found a lady's silver powder-puff box
+filled with what looked and smelt like toilet-powder. This, on being
+examined, was discovered to be a most subtle and dangerous poison--one
+evidently prepared by that diabolical poisoner, Badmayev.
+
+The young man had been forced by his master to swallow some, and had died
+in great agony. Thus it was proved that Rasputin and the camarilla had,
+on the very night of the outbreak of war, plotted to sweep off at one
+blow our most famous Russian generals, and leave our country practically
+without any military leaders of experience and at the mercy of the Huns!
+
+The vile plot would no doubt have succeeded, and the deaths put down to
+ptomaine poisoning, as so many have been, had I not so fortunately
+recognised the young valet as he crossed the hall of Prince Galitzine's
+house.
+
+Thus it will be seen that Rasputin and his friends hesitated at nothing
+in their frantic endeavours to gain their own sordid ends and to secure
+victory for Germany.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF MADAME SVETCHINE
+
+
+"SISTER! thou who hast chosen to become the bride of Heaven, listen unto
+me, and repeat these words after me!" exclaimed the monk Rasputin,
+holding over the kneeling countess the big bejewelled cross which the
+Empress had given him, and in which were set some of the finest jewels of
+the Romanoffs.
+
+"I will, O Father," replied Paula Yakimovitch, a pretty young woman,
+whose husband was Governor of Yakutsk, far off in Siberia, and who had
+begged him to leave her in Petrograd.
+
+"Then repeat these words," said the bearded saint, fixing his weird,
+hypnotic eyes upon her. "Thou art my holy Father--"
+
+"Thou art my holy Father----" exclaimed the Governor's wife in obedience.
+
+"To thee I bow, and to thee I acknowledge that thou art sent by Almighty
+God to save our holy Russia."
+
+She repeated the words amid the silence of that afternoon assembly of the
+sister-disciples at the Starets' house, a gathering which included Madame
+Vyrubova and her sister, Madame Soukhomlinoff; Madame Katacheff, wife of
+the Governor-General of Finland; pretty little Madame Makotine, to whose
+salon everyone scrambled; and old Countess Chapadier, bedecked, as
+always, with diamonds.
+
+"I hereby swear in my belief that God has sent to our Russia his divine
+saviour in the human form of Gregory Rasputin, and that the sin I commit
+in my belief is the sin which is easiest forgiven, and that by prayer and
+fasting my sins will be remitted, even as I am admitted to the sect of
+the righteous and holy."
+
+These blasphemous words the young woman repeated after the unwashed
+saint, who, standing upon a sort of dais in the big upstairs salon, still
+held up the jewelled cross suspended from his neck in front of him.
+
+"Salvation is in contriteness," the monk went on, for that was what the
+sly scoundrel had invented. "Contriteness can only come after we have
+sinned. Let us therefore sin, my sisters, in order to gain salvation! By
+sinning with me," he added, having reached the apogee of his influence,
+"salvation is all the more certain to come to you for this reason--that I
+am filled with the Holy Spirit!"
+
+"God be thanked! God be thanked!" fell from the lips of those thirty or
+so bamboozled and hysterical women, who, seated on forms as
+school-children might sit, had assembled to assist at the admission of
+Countess Yakimovitch to the secret and disgraceful cult of the
+blasphemous charlatan.
+
+The date was September the 7th, 1914.
+
+Russia had been at war with Germany for a month, and the Press of the
+Allies was full of cheerful optimism regarding what one of your London
+journalists had called "the Russian steam-roller." We in holy Russia
+believed in "the mills of God," and the nation as a whole was confident
+that it could resist the Teuton invasion.
+
+The neophyte, beneath the extraordinary hypnotism of the "saint," felt
+the dirty fingers upon her brow, as, in a strange jargon of religious
+phrases and open blasphemy, he pronounced a kind of benediction upon her,
+adjuring her carefully to preserve the secrets of the sect "from your own
+mother and father, sister, brother, husband and child." Then he added:
+"In me, Gregory Rasputin, you see the One sent by Heaven as the Healer
+and Deliverer of Russia from the hands of the oppressor. To me the
+Emperor, but an earthly king, hath delegated his imperial powers. I am
+the saviour of Russia. Believe in me and in my teachings and ye shall
+have life, health and prosperity--with the life beyond the grave.
+Disobey, and thou shalt be eternally damned, together with all thy
+family. I, Gregory Rasputin, who hath been sent to thee as saviour," he
+added, "take unto me as sister Paula Vladimirovna to be my disciple!"
+
+"May God forbid!" cried a woman's voice from among those assembled. "Let
+us end this blasphemy!"
+
+The effect was almost electrical. Rasputin started, and gazed at the rows
+of elegantly-dressed women, his disciples, and the few good-looking young
+women whom he had invited to be present.
+
+"Yes," went on a young and pretty woman seated at the back of the little
+audience. "I repeat those words!"
+
+Startled myself at the boldness of the young lady, I saw that she was
+dark, extremely good-looking, and refined. Rasputin had met her a week
+before at the salon of old Countess Lazareff, and she having expressed a
+desire to know more of the secret cult of which so many curious rumours
+were rife in Petrograd society, he had allowed Madame Trevetski, the wife
+of the ex-Commander-in-Chief in the Caucasus, to bring her that
+afternoon.
+
+Now, it must be said that no lady was admitted to those weekly reunions
+of the sister-disciples unless she first had the full approval of the
+Starets. She must be good-looking and possessed of either wealth or
+influence, but in preference wealth. And it was certain that no woman was
+ever invited unless it was Rasputin's intention to admit her to the
+secrets of his "religion."
+
+Yet here was open defiance! This lady, whose name was Madame Anastasia
+Svetchine, was the wife of Colonel Svetchine, who was on the Staff of the
+Etat-Major at Vilna, and who was already at the battle front. Before
+Rasputin had allowed her to be brought to his house it had fallen to my
+lot to make some inquiries concerning her, and I had found that she was
+of good family, that her husband was possessed of fair means, and that
+besides their house in Vilna they had a comfortable residence in the
+Kirotshnaya, in Petrograd. She moved in that rather gay, go-ahead set of
+which, prior to the war, the reckless Madame Soukhomlinoff was the
+centre, and she had recently become quite a notable figure in Petrograd
+society.
+
+Rasputin, furious at her interruption, roared:
+
+"Silence, woman! Go out of the room at once!"
+
+But Madame Svetchine, springing to her feet, cried: "It is monstrous!
+Disgraceful! Blasphemous! It is true what Purichkevitch has said in the
+Duma--that you are the evil force in Russia! Though a woman, I will have
+none of your mock piety and disgraceful licentiousness!"
+
+"Ah! I see, madame, that you are an enemy--eh?" he said in a slow,
+deliberate way. "And let me tell you, when Gregory Rasputin has an enemy,
+he does not rest until that enemy is swept from his path. If you defy me,
+you defy your God!"
+
+"I defy you!" cried the woman shrilly, making a dramatic scene. "But I
+fear my God, and Him alone."
+
+"Oh! be silent, I beg!" cried Countess Lazareff in French, wringing her
+hands, she having introduced her, while all were horrified that the holy
+Father should be thus openly denounced before his "sisters."
+
+"What is that woman saying?" the monk shouted across to me, for he did
+not know French, and was suspicious that the words contained yet another
+insult until I translated them to him.
+
+"I refuse to be silent!" declared the colonel's young wife. "I will
+describe to all whom I meet what has taken place here to-day--the mockery
+of it all. It is shameful how any woman in her senses, refined and
+educated, should fall beneath the fascination of such a brute!"
+
+This was greeted with wild exclamations of surprise and indignation.
+Indeed, so furious became the "sisters" at such open insult that I was,
+at Rasputin's orders, compelled to conduct her out.
+
+In the hall the young lady, who was certainly very pretty, became quite
+quiet again, and turning to me said:
+
+"Monsieur Rajevski, I came here on purpose to denounce that infernal
+charlatan who is your employer. I am not without friends--and influential
+ones. I have spoken my mind fearlessly and openly. No doubt I have made
+an enemy of Grichka, but for that I care nothing, so long as I have
+exposed him."
+
+Little did the unfortunate young lady know of Rasputin's low cunning and
+diabolical unscrupulousness when she had uttered those words. I made no
+reply, for I feared that she would live to regret having created that
+scene in the monk's holy-of-holies.
+
+Late that evening, having been out, I returned to find the "saint" seated
+with the Minister Maklakoff, the man whom the newspaper _Utro Rossy_
+described as "The love-sick Panther." Both were in an advanced state of
+intoxication, and when I entered, Rasputin, in a thick voice, exclaimed:
+
+"Ah! my dear Feodor, I have just been describing the scene to-day with
+that woman Anastasia Svetchine--the little spitfire! But a pretty woman,
+Feodor--very pretty woman, eh? It's a pity"--he sighed--"a great pity!"
+
+"Why?" asked the long-moustached Minister, who had just come from an
+official reception, and was in his hussar uniform, with gold braid and
+many decorations. "Are you not better rid of her, my friend? Women of her
+sort are usually dangerous."
+
+"I know she is dangerous," growled the holy Father, taking a deep gulp of
+champagne. "That is why I intend that she shall pay dearly for her
+defiance."
+
+"Is she worth troubling about?" I queried. "You have so many affairs to
+attend to just now."
+
+"Gregory Rasputin always attends to his enemies first, Feodor," he
+replied huskily.
+
+The eyes of "The love-sick Panther" twinkled through his rimless
+pince-nez. Well he knew the bitter revenge which the Starets wreaked upon
+any who dared to challenge his divinity.
+
+Maklakoff was at the time the Tsar's favourite Minister, and it was quite
+usual after a Cabinet Council for the Emperor to ask him and
+Soukhomlinoff to remain behind, as both were voted "really jolly
+fellows." Then Their Majesties would unite with the children and a few
+intimates, including the Father and Anna of course, and they would have a
+little fun. Maklakoff was famed for his power of mimicry. He could
+imitate the barking of dogs, and frequently announced his presence to the
+Imperial family by barking in the corridors of Tsarskoe-Selo, while his
+most famous imitation was that of a panther. And this of a Cabinet
+Minister in days of war!
+
+"O Nicholas Alexievitch, _do_ let us see you as a panther!" the Emperor
+would often say.
+
+Then the Minister of State would coil himself up beneath a sofa and roar
+like a panther. Then, crawling slowly out on all fours, he would suddenly
+take a leap and land in an arm-chair or upon a sofa, greatly to the
+delight of the Imperial family, while the Grand Duchesses and the
+Tsarevitch would go wild with glee.
+
+When, by the way, Maklakoff was dismissed in 1915, as a result of the
+anti-German riots in Moscow, the paper _Utro Rossy_ was fined three
+thousand roubles for publishing an article headed "The Leap of the
+Love-sick Panther."
+
+Maklakoff was a bosom friend of Rasputin, a dissolute evil-liver after
+the monk's own heart, and more than once had, in my presence, mentioned
+the names of certain good-looking women in various classes of society who
+might be invited to become disciples of the sadic Anti-Christ.
+
+Within a week of the scene created by Madame Svetchine, Rasputin had
+already commenced to seek his revenge in a deep and cunning way. He had
+heard from several persons that Madame Anastasia was going about
+Petrograd openly denouncing him, and that she had been in communication
+with Monsieur Miliukoff of the Cadets, and also Count Bobrinski. For the
+time being Rasputin was devoting his days to the reorganisation of his
+"disciples." His traitorous interference in politics had already borne
+fruit in favour of Germany.
+
+The events that were happening at that very moment mercilessly showed up
+the faults of our Russian administration, which was Germanic by origin in
+its traditions and its sentiments. Indeed, at that moment, when the enemy
+at the gates was knocking over the fortresses of Poland like ant-hills,
+intrigues for place and honour were rife everywhere, and Maklakoff was
+playing the "panther" to amuse the ladies of Tsarskoe-Selo!
+
+Rasputin one day called to him one of his half-dozen sycophants of the
+secret police, whom the Minister Protopopoff had placed at his disposal
+for purposes of personal protection, but in reality to act as his spies
+and _agents-provocateurs_.
+
+To this fellow, Depp by name, he had given instructions that the
+_dossiers_ of both Colonel Svetchine and his wife should be brought to
+him. Next day they arrived, and for half an hour Depp sat reading over to
+him the various police reports from Vilna and those of Petrograd.
+
+The monk, leaning back in his arm-chair, stroked his unkempt beard, his
+eyes fixed out of the window, brooding over his devilish scheme.
+
+An hour later, after he had dispatched Depp to make certain inquiries in
+Petrograd concerning the doings of the colonel's young wife, he said to
+me:
+
+"Feodor, I must see Soukhomlinoff to-night. Telephone to him at the
+Ministry. If he is not there, you will find him at the palace. If so,
+tell him to call here at once when he returns to Petrograd."
+
+I found the Minister of War was at Tsarskoe-Selo, and spoke to him there,
+giving him Rasputin's message, and receiving a reply that he would be
+with us at ten o'clock that night.
+
+I had to keep an appointment, at Rasputin's orders, with Protopopoff--to
+deliver a letter and receive a reply; therefore I was not present when
+His Excellency the General arrived. What the pair arranged I had no idea,
+for when I returned to the Gorokhovaya the general was just stepping into
+his big car with its brilliant headlights.
+
+"Good night, Feodor!" he shouted to me merrily, for he was of a genial
+nature, and next moment the powerful car drove away.
+
+Events marched rapidly during the next fortnight. I had gone with
+Rasputin to the General Headquarters of the Army at the Polish front, a
+journey which the intriguer had been sent upon by those at Court whose
+mouthpiece he was--to discuss a peace necessary for the Empire, he
+declared.
+
+Truth to tell, I knew that three days before the secret messenger Hardt
+had arrived from Berlin by way of Sweden, bearing a dispatch with
+elaborate instructions to the Starets.
+
+The Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch received us on the evening of our
+arrival at Headquarters, and, of course, the monk was full of one of
+those fantastic tales which succeeded so well with many, either the
+ignorant or credulous, or those to whose personal advantage it was to
+pretend to believe him.
+
+The Grand Duke received the Starets politely but stiffly, for he well
+knew the power he wielded in the Empire, and that his will was law.
+
+"Ah, Highness!" exclaimed the monk, "war is indeed a calamity. Alas! that
+Russia hath offended God by entering upon it. But thou, in thy wisdom,
+must put an end to it. The Holy Virgin appeared to me in a dream, and
+told me we must conclude peace. I come to inform thee of her will."
+
+"When didst thou see the Virgin?" asked the Grand Duke.
+
+"Three days ago."
+
+"Now that's odd," he replied. "I, too, saw her, but it was only two days
+ago, and she said to me: 'Gregory is coming to see thee. He will advise
+peace. Don't listen to him, but expel him like the scoundrel he is. If he
+goes on troubling and intriguing have him thrashed.'"
+
+The monk went livid.
+
+"And further," continued Nicholas Nicholaievitch, "if you remain here,
+you infernal charlatan and blackmailer, that is what I shall do. So you
+can return to Alexandra Feodorovna and tell her what I say. My soldiers
+are fighting for Russia, and they will continue to do so, however many
+visions you may have--and however much German gold you may grab with your
+filthy paws. Get out!"
+
+Rasputin stood speechless for a moment. Then, with an imprecation upon
+his lips, he turned and retired.
+
+Three days later we were back in Petrograd, but the monk, who never
+forgot, at once set about plotting the Grand Duke's retirement.
+
+One morning, among the monk's correspondence, I found a letter for
+Rasputin, which had been brought by hand from the Ministry of War, marked
+"Strictly private." On opening it, I read the following, which bore as
+signature the initials of Soukhomlinoff:
+
+     "In a further reference to the suspicions against Colonel
+     Svetchine, inquiries made fully confirm your view. The political
+     police who made domiciliary visits to his house in Petrograd and
+     his apartments in Vilna found nothing of importance. In Vilna,
+     however, it has been discovered that, immediately prior to the
+     war, he had established friendly relations with Elise Isembourg,
+     who was an agent of Germany and a friend of Miassoyedeff. At my
+     instructions we have allowed the Colonel leave, and he returned
+     to Vilna to meet the woman, who had, at our orders, written to
+     him. She, acting upon our instructions, offered him a sum of
+     money to betray certain plans of the defences of Grodno, agents
+     of secret police being concealed during the interview. At first
+     he stoutly refused, but next day he met her again and succumbed
+     to the temptation, so at the present moment he is preparing the
+     information she seeks."
+
+I read this over to the monk, who at once rubbed his hands together in
+satisfaction.
+
+"Ah! all goes well, my dear Feodor!" he exclaimed. "That woman will be
+sorry she denounced me, I assure you."
+
+I could discern the motive of the conspiracy, but as yet had no idea of
+its true depth.
+
+It was not until a week later, when one night the Minister of War called
+upon the monk, and in my presence they discussed the Svetchine affair.
+
+"You did well, General," declared Rasputin, with an evil smile. "What has
+really happened in Vilna?"
+
+"Well, the woman Isembourg, though she was a spy of Germany, is now on
+our side in the contra-espionage service," was his reply. "From the first
+she assured me that the colonel was extremely honest and patriotic.
+Though before the war she had several times tried to induce him to give
+her military information, yet he always declined and endeavoured to avoid
+her."
+
+"Well, that difficulty can be overcome, surely?" asked the monk.
+
+General Soukhomlinoff, a traitor himself, laughed lightly as he replied:
+
+"Of course. There were other means. Elise, three days ago, handed over to
+me a typewritten document revealing the secrets of the defences of
+Grodno, which she reported had been given to her by Colonel Svetchine in
+return for a promise of ten thousand roubles when she could obtain the
+money from a secret source in Petrograd."
+
+"Then he is a traitor!" exclaimed the monk eagerly.
+
+The general winked, and replied: "Elise Isembourg declares that he is,
+and that he gave her the document."
+
+"He, of course, denies it?"
+
+"He knows nothing as yet," said His Excellency. "I have issued orders for
+his arrest to-day, and have given instructions for the court martial to
+be held here, in Petrograd."
+
+The evil monk laughed gleefully.
+
+"Ah! I see," he remarked. "And probably the colonel has never yet seen
+this typewritten document?"
+
+"Probably," replied the Minister of War, with a mysterious smile. "There
+have been such cases. I have fixed the court martial for next Thursday,
+and I assure you it will be difficult for the colonel to prove his
+innocence!"
+
+From that conversation I gathered the diabolical nature of Rasputin's
+plot against a perfectly innocent man, as revenge for his wife's insults.
+
+Next day we were called to the palace, for the Empress was sorely worried
+over the health of the Tsarevitch, and she implored the holy Father to
+pray for him, little dreaming that the ever-recurring attacks were due to
+the subtle poison administered in secret by her most trusted favourite,
+Madame Vyrubova. For several days we remained at the palace, while
+Rasputin performed one of his "miracles," namely, the restoration of the
+lad to his normal condition.
+
+What if the Empress had known that the "miracles" in which she so
+fervently believed were merely performed by the administration of certain
+antidotes to the poison already given!
+
+While at the palace on that occasion I witnessed some strange doings at a
+spiritualistic seance to which Bossant, the notorious French medium, had
+been commanded. The Emperor, Empress and their intimates were present,
+including Rasputin and myself, and when the circle was formed and the
+seance in full swing the Tsar consulted the spirit of his dead father as
+to how he should act in the conduct of the war against Germany.
+
+The reply, of course, arranged by the Empress and her friends, was
+something as follows:
+
+     "Thou hast done well, my son, and thou art worthy the throne of
+     the Romanoffs. Continue to defend our beloved land. Trust in the
+     counsels of those about thee, of thy wife, of thy Ministers,
+     especially Stuermer, Protopopoff and Soukhomlinoff, as well as the
+     advice which the holy Father is ever giving thee. All have been
+     sent to thee as good and faithful guides. My blessing is upon
+     thee, O my son!"
+
+Such was the "message" so cleverly given to the credulous monarch by the
+traitors and intriguers about him. And alas! he believed truly and
+absolutely, ignorant of the fact that some thousands of roubles had gone
+into the medium's pocket as price of his connivance.
+
+On returning to Petrograd late on Thursday night I found among the monk's
+correspondence a letter from Madame Svetchine, a long, regretful letter,
+in which she expressed the greatest sorrow for the words she had uttered
+at the assembly of the sister-disciples, and begged to be forgiven.
+Further, she announced her intention of calling upon the Father "upon a
+serious and urgent matter."
+
+I told him this, whereat he growled:
+
+"Ah! the woman is coming to her senses. Yes. If she comes I will see her.
+She is pretty, Feodor--pretty--yes, very pretty."
+
+I drew a long breath. The unfortunate woman knew, no doubt, the serious
+charge against her husband, but never dreamed that Rasputin was the cause
+of that false accusation.
+
+Just before I ascended to my room to retire--the hour being about one
+o'clock in the morning--the telephone bell rang, and I answered it.
+
+One of the officials at the War Office was, I found, at the other end.
+
+"His Excellency the Minister has an urgent message to transmit to the
+Father," said the voice.
+
+"Very well," I said, stating who I was.
+
+"Then listen, please. The message he has written reads: 'Colonel
+Ivan Svetchine has been tried by court martial, which sat until half an
+hour ago. He has been condemned on a charge of dealing with the enemy and
+revealing military secrets to Germany, and ordered to be executed for
+treason. The execution is fixed to take place in the Peter and Paul
+Fortress at dawn on Saturday.'"
+
+I replaced the telephone receiver with a heavy heart. Yet another
+innocent man was to die as victim of Rasputin's overweening vanity and
+evil influence in every quarter.
+
+When I entered and told the monk, who was already in bed in a
+half-drunken state, he merely turned over and continued snoring.
+
+On Friday night, when, as usual, we had returned from Tsarskoe-Selo in
+one of the Imperial motor-cars, I was told that a lady was waiting to see
+the Starets, but she would give no name. She was persistent that she must
+see him, and had already waited nearly three hours.
+
+When I entered the waiting-room, a small chamber at the end of a
+corridor, I found it to be the wife of the condemned man. She was dressed
+in dead black, her beautiful face tear-stained and deathly pale.
+
+"Ah! Monsieur Rajevski!" she cried, rushing towards me. "You know
+me--Madame Svetchine--eh?"
+
+"Yes, madame," I said. "I remember you."
+
+"You will let me see him--won't you?" she cried in great distress, as she
+gripped my hand nervously. "He has, I hope, forgiven me; surely he----"
+
+"I gave him your letter," I said.
+
+"Yes--and what did he say?" she gasped in eagerness.
+
+"Well, the truth is that he said nothing," I replied, adding: "He was
+much occupied with other things."
+
+"Ah! I must see him!" cried the frantic woman. "I was wrong to speak as I
+did. The Father is the great power in Russia. I must throw myself upon
+his mercy."
+
+I promised to take her to him, and left her to inform Rasputin of the
+arrival of his expected visitor.
+
+With an evil glint in those terrible eyes of his, he rubbed his hands
+together.
+
+"Good, Feodor!" he said, striding across the room. "I will see the woman.
+Oh, yes, if she wishes to see me I will not deny her that pleasure," he
+added with biting sarcasm. Truly, he was weird and horrible in the hour
+of his triumph.
+
+A few moments later I ushered the pale, wan woman in black into his
+presence.
+
+"Holy Father!" she cried wildly, "forgive me--say that you forgive the
+unconsidered words of a weak and unworthy woman."
+
+"Forgive--why?" he asked, standing erect and fingering his bejewelled
+cross. "I do not understand why I am honoured by this visit, madame."
+
+"Ah! Of course you do not know. Pardon, I have forgotten to explain. My
+husband----" And she broke into tears. "My dear husband----"
+
+"Well, what of your husband?" asked Rasputin. "He is at the front. Has he
+been wounded--or----"
+
+"No, no--not that!" she cried. "They have made a false charge against
+him. Some woman named Isembourg, whom he knew in Vilna before the war,
+has made an allegation against him of traitorous dealings with the
+enemy. She has given over to the Ministry of War some documents
+containing the plans of the defences of Grodno, which she declares he has
+sold to her! But it is lies--all lies. I know it!"
+
+"Really, this is quite a romantic story, madame," said Rasputin, quite
+unmoved. "Why should this woman make such charges?"
+
+"How can I tell? Ah! but you do not know the worst!" she went on. "The
+court martial actually accepted this woman's statements--statements that
+were lies--all of them! My husband is devoted to me, and I love him--ah,
+so dearly! He is all in all to me. And----"
+
+"But the woman--Isembourg, I believe you say--she is a friend of his,
+eh?" interrupted the monk, his hands crossed over his breast in that
+pious attitude he always assumed when listening.
+
+"She says she was his friend before the war--before we married, indeed.
+Perhaps she was," answered the condemned man's wife. "But she is
+undoubtedly an _agent-provocateuse_ of police set to tempt men to their
+downfall."
+
+"Of that I have no knowledge," was Rasputin's cold reply.
+
+"But you will help me, holy Father! Do--for the sake of a man who is
+innocent--for the sake--the sake of his unborn child! Ah! you will show
+mercy, won't you?" she begged.
+
+"I do not follow you," was the monk's reply, in pretence of ignorance.
+
+In a frenzy of despair the wretched wife flung herself upon her knees
+before the scoundrel, and cried:
+
+"My husband! There is yet time to save him! He--he is to be
+shot--to-morrow--as soon as it is light! You--and you alone--can induce
+the Emperor to order a revision of the sentence or a new trial. You
+will--you are all-powerful and divine!"
+
+"Pardon, madame, that is not your true estimate of Gregory Rasputin," he
+said, with biting sarcasm. "Only a short time ago I was a charlatan and a
+fraud! No; your opinion cannot have altered in so short a time."
+
+"But you--if you are sent by God to Russia--will never allow an innocent
+man to be murdered in this fashion--condemned upon the word of a
+notorious woman."
+
+"The affair does not concern me, I assure you," he laughed. "If your
+husband has been condemned to death he must have had a fair and impartial
+trial by his brother officers. I am not a military man, and know nothing
+of such matters. If he has been found to be a traitor," added the unholy
+spy of Germany, "then the sentence is just."
+
+"But he is no traitor. He is as patriotic as you are yourself, Father! He
+has ever been so," cried the despairing woman.
+
+"I have no means of knowing that," he replied in a hard voice, gazing at
+her with those strange, wide-open eyes, and endeavouring to put that
+spell upon her that few women could resist. "Nevertheless, I will forgive
+you, and, further, I will exercise my influence to save your husband's
+life if you will consent to enter the circle of our holy disciples."
+
+The desperate young woman held her breath for a few seconds, staring at
+him wildly as upon her knees she still knelt, clutching the "saint's"
+dirty hands.
+
+"No," she replied. "That I will never do."
+
+Rasputin saw that his plot had failed. Here at least was one woman over
+whom he was powerless, one who regarded him as a fraud. In an instant he
+flew into a sudden rage.
+
+"Enough!" he cried, throwing her off. "You refuse to accept my
+condition--therefore your husband shall die!"
+
+The wretched woman, her countenance pale as death, tried to speak. Her
+lips moved, but no sound came from them. Next moment, by dint of supreme
+effort, she struggled to her feet and rose stiffly. Then, a moment
+later, her hands clenched and despair in her splendid eyes, she turned
+and staggered out.
+
+Four hours later Colonel Svetchine boldly faced a firing-party in the
+yard of the fortress. There was a word of command, and next second the
+gallant soldier fell forward on his face--dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+TRAITOROUS WORK
+
+
+THE true story of the tragic death of a Russian civil servant named Ivan
+Naglovski, and of the mysterious explosion which destroyed the great
+munition works at Okhta and killed over four hundred and fifty persons
+and injured seven hundred, has never been told.
+
+There have been sinister whisperings in Russia, but I am here able to
+unfold the amazing truth for the first time.
+
+I had accompanied Rasputin to the Verkhotursky Monastery at Perm; the
+house in the Gorokhovaya was closed, its wooden shutters were fastened,
+and the Empress was desolate without her "holy Father." Stuermer, the
+Prime Minister, was with the Emperor, daily plotting and striving for the
+betrayal of our nation to the Germans, and "Satan in a silk hat"--as one
+of the Grand Dukes had nicknamed the Minister of the Interior,
+Protopopoff--had gone on a mission to London, ostensibly in Russian
+interests, but really as a spy of Germany. The latter was, of course, not
+known at the time, for the British Government sent him on a tour of
+munition and other centres, showed him what they were preparing, and
+feted him in London as the representative of their ally. We now know
+that, on his return to Petrograd, he at once became violently
+anti-British, and made a full report of all he knew to the
+Wilhelmstrasse!
+
+The purpose of the monk's pilgrimage to Perm was to form a branch of his
+believers in that city. He had left Petrograd dressed as a pilgrim, with
+hair-shirt and staff complete, and as such he posed to everybody. The
+world, however, did not know that the rooms allotted to him in the
+monastery by the rascally bishop, whom he had himself appointed, were the
+acme of luxury, and that in them he held drunken orgies every night.
+
+After we had been there three weeks an Imperial courier brought him a
+letter from Peterhof. It was night, and the monk was in an advanced state
+of intoxication with his companions, three other mock-pious rascals like
+himself.
+
+When I handed him the letter he glanced at the Imperial cipher on the
+envelope, and, grinning, exclaimed:
+
+"It is from the Empress. Read out what the woman says."
+
+I hesitated, suggesting that it would be better if I read it to him in
+private.
+
+"Bah!" he laughed. "There is nothing private in it. Read it, Feodor."
+
+So, thus ordered, I obeyed. The letter was written in Russian, but with
+mistakes in grammar and orthography, for the Empress had never learned to
+write Russian correctly. These are the words I read for the delectation
+of the dissolute quartette:
+
+     "HOLY FATHER,--Why have you not written? Why this long dead
+     silence when my poor heart is hourly yearning for news of you and
+     for your words of comfort?
+
+     "I am, alas! weak, but I love you, for you are all in all to me.
+     Oh! if I could but hold your dear hand and lay my head upon your
+     shoulder! Ah! can I ever forget that feeling of perfect peace and
+     blank forgetfulness that I experience when you are near me.
+
+     "Now that you have gone, life is only one grey sea of despair.
+     There was a Court last night, but I did not attend. Instead Anna
+     [Madame Vyrubova] and I read your sweet letters together, and we
+     kissed your picture.
+
+     "As I have so often told you, dear Father, I want to be a good
+     daughter of Christ. But oh! it is so difficult. Help me, dear
+     Father. Pray for me. Pray always for Alexis [the Tsarevitch].
+     Come back to us at once. Nikki [the Tsar] says we cannot endure
+     life without you, for there are so many pitfalls before us. For
+     myself, I am longing for your return--longing--always longing!
+     Without our weekly meetings all is gloom----"
+
+Here I broke off. What followed ought, I saw, not to be read aloud to
+that trio, who might at any moment turn to be enemies of the Starets.
+
+"Yes," he said, smiling in gratification. "The woman evidently misses me.
+It places a woman in her proper position to discard her for a while," he
+added with a drunken laugh. "What else does she say?"
+
+"Only that they are due to go to Yalta, but that Her Majesty awaits your
+return," I replied.
+
+"Then let her wait. I am very comfortable here. Perm is pleasant as a
+change."
+
+I knew well that he was enjoying himself hugely and had already formed a
+great circle of hysterical women who believed in his divinity and
+practised the rites of his disgraceful "religion."
+
+The final words of that amazing letter, which in itself showed the terms
+upon which Alexandra Feodorovna was with the convicted horse-stealer from
+Pokrovsky, were as follows:
+
+     "Here, O dear Father, we have only the everlasting toll of war!
+     Germany is winning--as she will surely win. She must. You will
+     see to that! But we must all of us maintain a brave face towards
+     our Russian public. In you alone I have faith. May God bring you
+     back to us very soon. Alexis is asking for you daily. We are due
+     to go to Yalta, but shall not move before we meet here. I embrace
+     you, and so do Nikki and Anna.--Your devoted daughter, ALIX."
+
+The unkempt quartette, treating the Empress's expressions of affection as
+a huge joke, filled their glasses with champagne and drank heavily again,
+while Rasputin began to regale his "saintly" companions with stories of
+the intimate life of the pro-German Empress.
+
+Truly, it was a gay, dissolute life that the verminous rascal was leading
+at the Verkhotursky Monastery, and many were the women over whom he
+exercised his weird, uncanny fascination.
+
+"Believe in me and you will receive God's blessing," was his constant
+blasphemous declaration to every woman whose looks were even passable.
+"Doubt me and you will be damned."
+
+By Russia's millions in the provinces he was looked upon as the holy man
+sent by God to the Tsar. Did not the "saint" eat at the Emperor's table,
+and did he not prompt His Majesty in fighting the Germans? None ever
+dreamed that the unkempt miracle-worker, whose fascination for women was
+so astounding, was the secret ambassador of the Assassin of Potsdam.
+
+Two of those companions of his nightly drinking bouts at Perm were named
+Rouchine and Yepantchine, brawny fellows whose evil life was almost as
+notorious as Rasputin's. Rouchine had been a conjurer before he adopted a
+"holy" life, and by reason of his knowledge of magic and illusions he
+frequently assisted the Starets in performing those "miracles" that so
+astounded the mujiks who witnessed them with open mouths.
+
+Whenever things grew a little dull, or Rasputin believed that his
+divinity was being doubted, he would calmly announce:
+
+"I have had a vision. Last night the Holy Virgin appeared unto me and
+declared that I must again perform a miracle so that the world should be
+made aware that God, through me, is protecting our dear nation Russia."
+
+Instantly the news would spread from mouth to mouth--Rasputin's name
+being forbidden to be mentioned in the newspapers--that the Starets was
+about to perform a miracle, and thousands would assemble in some open
+place, where one of Rouchine's conjuring tricks would be performed.
+
+By this time so deeply had Rasputin corrupted the Russian Church in its
+centres of power and administration that half the highest ecclesiastical
+dignitaries were of his creation, his fellow-thief in Pokrovsky having
+been appointed to a bishopric.
+
+Very naturally, Rasputin had made many enemies. His overbearing vanity,
+his relentlessness in dealing with any who stood in his path, and the
+exposure of his use of _agents-provocateurs_ in securing the conviction
+and imprisonment of anyone who displeased him, had aroused against him a
+fierce hatred in certain quarters both in Petrograd and Moscow. Many of
+those who had sworn to be avenged were wronged husbands and fathers, a
+number of whom it had been my duty to endeavour to pacify even at
+personal risk to myself as the rascal's secretary.
+
+It was while at Perm that Rasputin received news that a man named Ivan
+Naglovski had been in Pokrovsky busily inquiring into his past, and
+interviewing his sister-disciples who were living there. Further, it was
+reported that he had been in communication with the monk Helidor, a man
+named Golenkovski, whose young wife was a "disciple" in Petrograd, and
+with Marie Novitski, who was preaching loudly against the erotic doctrine
+of the new "religion."
+
+It was plain that Ivan Naglovski was a secret enemy.
+
+Acting upon the monk's instructions I returned to Petrograd, and at the
+headquarters of the Secret Police made application that Naglovski's
+movements should be watched. Three days later I was assured that a small
+league of patriotic men and women had been formed, with Naglovski at
+their head, determined to unveil and unmask the traitorous rascal who was
+my employer.
+
+I was compelled to return to Perm and inform Rasputin of the result of my
+investigations. Before doing so I went, at Rasputin's instructions by
+telegraph, to Peterhof and was admitted by Madame Vyrubova to the
+Empress's presence.
+
+The handsome woman was resting in a gorgeous negligee gown prior to
+dressing for dinner, but she was quickly eager and interested when I
+explained that I had come from the monk and was returning to Perm at
+midnight.
+
+"When will the Holy Father's pilgrimage end?" she inquired with a sigh.
+"He has been away weeks, and never replies to my letters."
+
+"His time is no doubt fully occupied with constant devotion," remarked
+Anna Vyrubova in excuse.
+
+"The Father is much occupied, Your Majesty," I said.
+
+"Tell him for me that I am daily longing for his return," she said. "But
+wait. I will write to him and you shall convey the letter," at which
+order I bowed.
+
+"The Father is much troubled and perturbed," I remarked.
+
+"About what?" asked Her Majesty.
+
+"He has enemies. Some men and women have leagued themselves with the
+object of doing him harm."
+
+"Harm!" she echoed. "What harm can come to him when, being sent to us by
+God, he is immune from any harm that can befall us who are merely human?
+I do not understand."
+
+Her words were in themselves sufficient to reveal how completely and
+implicitly the Empress of Russia believed in the pretended divinity of
+the blasphemous ex-convict.
+
+"All I know, Your Majesty, is that the holy Father is unduly perturbed."
+
+"Ah! surely he can have no apprehension?" she said. "Tell him from me
+that as Christ had enemies so, of course, he has. But his enemies cannot
+do him injury." Then rising and going across to a beautiful buhl
+escritoire, she added: "I will write to him. I sent him another letter by
+messenger only yesterday--eight letters, and not a line of response!"
+
+For ten minutes or so, while the Empress sat writing, I chatted with
+Madame Vyrubova, and gave to her news of the monk.
+
+"Tell him to return as quickly as possible," the woman said in a low,
+confidential voice. "If there really is a plot on foot against him he is
+safer in Petrograd than in Perm. Besides, being on the spot, he will be
+able to combat his enemies with a swift and relentless hand."
+
+As Her Majesty was writing the telephone rang. Next moment it was plain
+that she was speaking with the Emperor, who was away at the headquarters
+of the army in Poland.
+
+Having listened to something he told her, she said:
+
+"The holy Father's secretary is here with me. The Father still remains at
+Perm. I am writing him urgently asking him to return to us. I wish you
+also to send a messenger to him to induce him to come back to Petrograd.
+You will be back here next Friday, and is it not wise to hold another
+seance next day, eh?"
+
+Then she listened eagerly.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed. "I am glad you agree with me, Nikki. Yes, let us try
+and get the Father back by Saturday at latest. Good-bye."
+
+And having rung off, she calmly finished the letter and secured it with
+the well-known big seal of black wax.
+
+"Remember," she said as she gave it to me, "the Father must be here next
+Saturday for the seance, which the Emperor will attend. He wishes again
+to consult the spirit of his father Alexander. Urge the Father to return
+at once."
+
+I promised to do her bidding, and, retiring, at once left the palace, and
+at midnight was on my way back to the far-off town on the Kama.
+
+On the evening of the following day I drove up to the monastery and there
+found Rasputin at dinner with the ex-conjurer Rouchine. When I entered
+the cosy little room in which the pair were seated, Rasputin had removed
+his long robe and was seated in his shirt-sleeves like the peasant he
+was. I handed him the letter from the German-born Empress, whereupon he
+said:
+
+"Oh! read it to me, Feodor. The woman's handwriting is always a puzzle to
+me."
+
+I knew how illiterate he was and the reason of his excuse.
+
+I tore open the envelope and quickly scanned the scribbled lines.
+
+"No," I replied, "not now, Gregory; later."
+
+"But I insist!" cried the Starets fiercely.
+
+"And I refuse!" was my determined reply. "I have reasons."
+
+Those last three words were not lost upon him, for Grichka was nothing if
+not the very acme of shrewdness. Not an adventurer or _escroc_ in Europe
+could compare with him in elusiveness.
+
+"Well, Feodor, if you have reasons, then I know that they are sound
+ones," he said. Then, turning to the "holy" conjurer, he grinned and
+said: "Feodor is a most excellent secretary. So discreet--too discreet, I
+often think."
+
+"One cannot be too discreet in the present international crisis," I
+remarked. "Enemy eyes and ears are open everywhere. One can never be too
+careful. Russia is full of the spies of Germany."
+
+"Quite true, Feodor--quite true!" exclaimed Rasputin, smiling within
+himself. "Don't you agree, friend Rouchine?"
+
+"Entirely," replied his accomplice, who, though he was well paid to
+assist in working "miracles" before the peasants, never dreamed that the
+Starets, who handed him money with such lavish hand, was the chief agent
+of Germany in Russia.
+
+Indeed, Rouchine's only son had been killed in the advance on Warsaw,
+hence he held the Hun in abhorrence, and I am certain that had he known
+Rasputin was the Kaiser's personal agent matters would have gone very
+differently, and in all probability the enemy plots so cleverly connived
+at by Alexandra Feodorovna would have been exposed in those early days of
+the war.
+
+The Russian nation even to-day still reveres its Tsar. They know that he
+was weak but meant well, and he was Russian at heart and intent upon
+stemming the Teutonic tide which flowed across his border. But for "the
+German," Alexandra Feodorovna, not one in all our Russian millions has a
+word except an execration or a curse, and as accursed by Russia, as is
+all her breed, she will go down in history for the detestation of
+generations of those who will live between the Baltic and the Pacific.
+
+Rasputin grew indignant because I crushed the woman's letter into my
+pocket without reading it aloud, but I knew well how to treat him,
+therefore I began to explain all that I had learnt from the Secret Police
+concerning the activities of Ivan Naglovski.
+
+Both men listened with rapt attention.
+
+"Then the fellow really intends evil?" asked the monk, as he laid down a
+chicken-bone, for he always ate with his fingers.
+
+"I fear he does," was my reply. "But Her Majesty wonders why you should
+trouble. She says that you, being sent as Russia's saviour, are immune
+from bodily harm."
+
+"Ah! but remember when that young fellow shot at you and grazed two of
+your fingers at Minsk," remarked the conjurer with a grin.
+
+"Yes, quite so. I don't like this fellow Naglovski and his friends. I
+will see Kurloff."
+
+Now, Kurloff was another treacherous bureaucrat, a creature of
+Rasputin's, who sat in Protopopoff's Ministry of the Interior, and who
+later on collected the gangs of the "Black Hundred," those hired
+assassins whom he clothed in police uniforms and had instructed in
+machine-gun practice--those renegades who played such a sinister part in
+the first Revolution.
+
+I then gave the monk the urgent message from the Empress.
+
+"Very well," he replied, "I will be back by Saturday; not because I obey
+the woman, but became I must see Kurloff, and I must take active steps
+against this Ivan Naglovski and his accursed friends."
+
+Half-an-hour later, when alone in the bare little room allotted to me, I
+took out the Empress's letter to the Starets and re-read it. It was as
+follows:
+
+     "HOLY FATHER,--It is with deepest concern that from your trusted
+     Feodor I hear of the plot against you. That you can be harmed I
+     do not believe. You, sent by God as Russia's guide to the bright
+     future of civilisation which Germany will bring to her, cannot be
+     harmed by mere mortal. But if there are any who dare dispute your
+     divine right, then, with our dear Stuermer, take at once drastic
+     steps to crush them.
+
+     "We cannot afford to allow evil tongues to speak of us; neither
+     can we afford the vulgar scandal that some would seek to create.
+     If you, O Father, feel apprehensive, then act boldly in the
+     knowledge that you have your devoted daughter ever at your side
+     and ever ready and eager to place her power as Empress in your
+     dear hands. Therefore strike your enemies swiftly and without
+     fear. Lips prepared to utter scandal must be, at all costs,
+     silenced.
+
+     "Our friend Protopopoff has returned from England and tells me
+     that Lloyd George and his friends are exerting every effort to
+     win the war. Those British are brave, but, oh! if they knew all
+     that we know--eh? They are in ignorance, and will remain so until
+     Germany conquers Russia and spreads the blessing of civilisation
+     among the people.
+
+     "Nikki is returning. A seance is to be held on Saturday. You must
+     be back in time. He is sending a messenger to you to urge you to
+     return to us to give us comfort in these long dark days. Anna and
+     the girls all kiss your dear hand.--Your devoted daughter,  ALIX."
+
+On the following day a middle-aged, fair-haired, rather well-dressed man,
+who gave the name of Nicholas Chevitch, from Okhta, a suburb of
+Petrograd, was brought to me by the monk who acted as janitor, and
+explained that he had private business with Rasputin.
+
+I left him and, ascending to the monk's room, found him extremely anxious
+to meet his visitor.
+
+"I will see him at once, Feodor. I have some secret business with him.
+Here is the key of a small locked box in your room. Open it and take out
+ten one-thousand rouble notes and bring them to me after you have brought
+in Chevitch."
+
+This I did. Having admitted the visitor to Rasputin's presence, I opened
+the small iron box which the Starets always carried in his supposed
+"pilgrimages," and took out the money, leaving in it a sum of about
+twelve thousand roubles.
+
+The ten thousand I carried to Rasputin, but as I opened the door I heard
+the fair-haired man say:
+
+"All is prepared. The wire is laid across the river. We tested it five
+days ago and it works excellently."
+
+"Good! Ah, here is my secretary Feodor!" the monk exclaimed. "He has the
+ten thousand roubles for you, and there will be a further ten thousand on
+the day your plan matures."
+
+I wondered to what plan the Starets was referring. But being compelled to
+retire I remained in ignorance. The man Chevitch stayed with the monk for
+over an hour, and then left to return to the capital.
+
+Later on I referred to the visit of the stranger, whereupon Rasputin
+laughed grimly, saying:
+
+"You will hear some news in a day or two, my dear Feodor. Petrograd will
+be startled."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Never mind," he replied. "Wait!"
+
+We arrived back in Petrograd on the following Friday morning, but
+although the Empress sent a messenger to the Gorokhovaya urging the monk
+to go to Peterhof at once, as she desired to consult him, he disregarded
+her command and did not even vouchsafe a reply. Indeed, Rasputin treated
+the poor half-demented Empress with such scant courtesy that I often
+stood aghast.
+
+"The woman is an idiot!" he would often exclaim to me petulantly when she
+was unusually persistent in her demands.
+
+Next evening, however, we went to the palace, whither another French
+medium, a man named Fournier, had been summoned, having, of course, been
+administered palm-oil to the tune of some thousands of roubles to give a
+"message from the dead" in the terms required by the wire-pullers in
+Potsdam.
+
+I was not present at the seance, but later that night, when Rasputin was
+sitting alone with me over a bottle of champagne which an "Araby" flunkey
+had brought him, he revealed that the "message" from the Tsar's dead
+father had been precise and much to the point.
+
+"Nicholas, I speak unto thee," the spirit had said. "Though thou art
+brave and thine armies are brave, yet thine enemies will still encompass
+thee. Loss will follow upon loss. The great advance will soon become a
+retreat, and the hordes of William will dash forward and Poland will
+become German. Yet do not be afraid. Trust in the good counsel of thy
+wife Alexandra Feodorovna and in thy Father Rasputin, whom Heaven hath
+sent to thee. Believe no evil word of him, and let his enemies be swept
+from his path. Such is my message to thee, O my son!"
+
+As Rasputin repeated those words with mock solemnity, he laughed grimly.
+
+The pity of it was that Nicholas, Tsar of All the Russias, believed in
+those paid-for messages, uttered by those presented to him as mediums and
+able to call up the spirit of his lamented father.
+
+"Poor idiot!" Rasputin remarked, first glancing to see that the door was
+closed. "He must have something to occupy his shallow brain. That is why
+the Empress arranges the sittings. But Feodor," he added, "I must see
+this enemy of mine, Ivan Naglovski. He is not a person to be disregarded,
+and it seems from what you told me he has a number of important friends.
+We will discuss the matter to-morrow."
+
+He afterwards dismissed me with a wave of his dirty hand, and I retired
+to bed in a room at the farther end of the long softly carpeted corridor.
+
+At noon next day we had news of a terrible disaster. Precisely at
+half-past eleven the city of Petrograd had been shaken to its foundations
+by a terrific explosion, followed by half a dozen others, which shattered
+windows and blew down signs and chimneys in all parts of the city. At
+first everyone stood aghast as explosion followed explosion. Then it
+transpired that the great munition works at Okhta, across the Neva,
+opposite the Smolny Monastery, had suddenly blown up, and that hundreds
+of workers had been killed and maimed and the whole of the
+newly-constructed plant wrecked beyond repair.
+
+I was just entering Rasputin's room at the palace when a flunkey told me
+the news.
+
+When a moment later I informed the Starets he smiled evilly, remarking:
+
+"Ah! Then that further ten thousand roubles is due to Nicholas Chevitch.
+If he calls when we return to Petrograd this afternoon, you must pay him,
+Feodor. He has done his work well. Russia will be crippled for munitions
+for some time to come."
+
+On our return to Petrograd we found the city in the greatest state of
+excitement. The succession of explosions had caused the people to suspect
+that the disaster was not due to an accident, as the authorities were
+fondly declaring, but the wilful act of the enemy. Rasputin heard the
+rumour and piously declared his sympathy with the poor victims.
+
+Yet we had not been back at the Gorokhovaya an hour when the man Chevitch
+called, and at the monk's orders I handed him the balance of his
+blood-money.
+
+That same evening Hardt, the secret messenger from Berlin, arrived,
+having travelled by way of Aboe, in Finland.
+
+"I have a very urgent despatch for the Father," he said when he was
+ushered in to me, and he handed me a letter upon strong but flimsy paper,
+so that it could be the more easily concealed in transit.
+
+At once I took him up to the monk, who was washing his hands in his
+bedroom.
+
+"Ah, dear friend Hardt!" exclaimed the Starets, greeting him warmly. "And
+you are straight from Berlin! Well, how goes it, eh?"
+
+"Excellently well," was the reply of the messenger from the Secret
+Service Department in the Koeniggraetzerstrasse. "Germany relies upon you
+to assist us, as we know you are doing. Count von Wedell has sent you a
+letter, which I have handed to your friend Feodor."
+
+"Read it, Feodor," said the monk. "There are no secrets in it that may be
+hidden from our dear friend Hardt."
+
+He spoke the truth. Hardt was the confidential messenger who passed
+between the Emperor William and Alexandra Feodorovna, and nowadays he was
+travelling to and fro to Germany always, notwithstanding that Russia was
+at war with her neighbour.
+
+At Rasputin's bidding I tore open the letter, but found it to be written
+in cipher.
+
+Therefore I sat down at the little desk and at once commenced to decode
+it. It was in the German spy-cipher, the same used all over the world by
+German secret agents--the most simple yet at the same time the most
+marvellous and complicated code that the world has ever known.
+
+The keys to the code were in twelve sentences that one committed to
+memory. Hence no code-book need ever be carried. The cipher message, in
+its introduction, told its recipient the number of the sentences being
+used--a most ingenious mode of correspondence.
+
+With the paper before me I discovered that in sentence number eight I
+would find the key. The sentence in question, a proverb something like
+"Faint heart never won fair lady," I wrote down, and then at once began
+to decipher the cryptic message from Berlin.
+
+And I read out the following:
+
+     "MEMORANDUM NO. 43,286.
+
+     "From No. 70 to the Holy Father.
+
+     "If the blowing up of the Okhta Munition Works is successful,
+     endeavour to get your friend C. [Chevitch] to do similar work at
+     the new explosive factory at Olonetz, where a sub-inspector named
+     Lemeneff is one of our friends. Tell this to C. and let them get
+     into touch with each other.
+
+     "We approve of C.'s suggestion to destroy the battleship
+     _Cheliabinsk_, and it is suggested that this be carried out at
+     the same price paid for Okhta.
+
+     "From what we are informed you are in some danger from a man
+     named Naglovski, who has shown himself far too curious concerning
+     you of late. Steps should be taken against him.--Greetings,    W."
+
+The initial, I knew, stood for von Wedell, one of the directors at the
+Koeniggraetzerstrasse.
+
+Rasputin heard me through, and, taking the cipher message, applied a
+match to it, after which Hardt, having swallowed a glass of vodka, left
+us.
+
+But the monk, as a result of that message, was at once aroused to evil
+activity, and by means of a clever ruse invited Ivan Naglovski to dinner
+next day. He accepted, hoping, of course, to discover more concerning the
+monk, and quite unconscious that Rasputin knew of his hostile intentions.
+To dinner there were invited the Prime Minister, Boris Stuermer, and a
+sycophant of his named Sikstel. Stuermer was in uniform and Sikstel in
+civilian attire. Naglovski, I found, was a youngish man, who, when I
+introduced him, appeared highly honoured to meet at Rasputin's table the
+Prime Minister of Russia, while the monk went out of his way to
+ingratiate himself with his enemy. Naglovski and his friends had been
+preparing a plot either to expose or assassinate the monk, hence the head
+of the conspiracy was congratulating himself that the plot was
+unsuspected by anybody.
+
+The dinner passed off quite merrily until, of a sudden, Stuermer,
+addressing his fellow-guest, said:
+
+"News has been conveyed to the holy Father that you and your friends have
+formed a plot against him. Is that true?"
+
+Naglovski started and turned pale. For a moment he was taken entirely off
+his guard.
+
+"Ah!" went on Stuermer in his deep, thick voice, Rasputin having risen to
+go to the sideboard, "I see it is true. Now, what can you gain by
+endeavouring to belittle the efforts of our dear Father for the salvation
+of Russia? Think. Are you patriots? No. Well," he went on, "the reason
+the Father has invited you here to-night is to come to terms with you.
+For a list of your friends--a secret list that will be afterwards
+destroyed--the Starets will pay you twenty thousand roubles, and,
+further, I will give you a diplomatic appointment in one of the embassies
+abroad--wherever you desire."
+
+"What!" cried the young man. "You ask me to betray my friends to that
+blasphemous rascal!" and he pointed his finger at Rasputin, who moved
+aside. "Never! I refuse! And, further, I tell you," he shouted, rising as
+he spoke, "I intend to expose the mock-saint and his conjuring tricks;
+the criminal miracle-worker who, according to secret information I have
+just received, was the actual instigator of the terrible disaster at
+Okhta. This is what my friends, when I reveal to them the truth, will
+expose."
+
+As Ivan Naglovski uttered his biting condemnation Rasputin had crept up
+behind him, and drawing his revolver suddenly cried in a loud voice:
+
+"Enough! You don't leave this house alive. Gregory Rasputin knows how to
+crush his enemies, never fear. All your friends will share your fate.
+Take that!"
+
+And he fired, the bullet striking the unfortunate man in the back, where
+it entered a vital spot.
+
+Two hours later the body of Ivan Naglovski was discovered on some waste
+ground out at Kushelevka, on the other side of the city. Though the
+Director of Secret Police guessed what had occurred, he pretended that it
+was a complete and unfathomable mystery--and a mystery it has ever
+remained until this present exposure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+POISON PLOTS THAT FAILED
+
+
+BY the spring of 1916 Rasputin, though constantly revealing himself as a
+blasphemous blackguard, had become the greatest power in Russia.
+
+His name was whispered by the awe-stricken people. All Russia, from the
+Empress down to the most illiterate mujik, accepted him as divine and
+swallowed any lie he might utter.
+
+The weekly meetings of the "sister-disciples" were becoming more popular
+than ever in Petrograd society, and there were many converts to the new
+"religion."
+
+One evening a reunion for recruiting purposes was held by the old
+Baroness Guerbel at her big house in the Potemkinskaya. The
+yellow-toothed, loud-speaking old lady had been persistent in her appeals
+to Rasputin to hold one of his meetings at her house, and he had, with
+ill-grace, acceded. On fully a dozen occasions the baroness, who was a
+close friend of old Countess Ignatieff, had interviewed me and
+endeavoured to enlist my services on her behalf. At last the monk had
+said to me:
+
+"Well, Feodor, if the old hag is so very persistent, I suppose I had
+better spend an evening at her house and inspect her lady friends."
+
+Thus it had been arranged, the "saint" little dreaming of the outcome of
+that fateful reunion.
+
+It seems that Baroness Guerbel had arranged it because she wished to
+introduce to Rasputin a certain Madame Yatchevski--the wife of an officer
+who was very rich--who saw that, by Rasputin's influence, she could
+aspire to a position at Court.
+
+Olga Yatchevski proved to be a pretty, fair-haired little woman of
+girlish figure and sweet expression, and from the moment of their
+introduction the unkempt monk, after crossing himself and uttering a
+benediction, became greatly interested in her, the result being that she
+became an "aspirant," and her initiation into the secrets of the cult was
+arranged to take place on the following Wednesday.
+
+The meeting ended, the dozen or so neurotic women, all of them of the
+highest society in the capital, each bent and kissed the unwashed hand of
+Russia's "saviour," as was their habit, and when they had gone the monk
+sat down and drank half a bottle of brandy served to him by his ugly old
+hostess.
+
+Next night I happened to be out at the theatre when Rasputin, who was
+alone, emerged to walk round to a professional blackmailer named Ivan
+Scheseleff, who lived in the Rozhsky Prospekt. Suddenly he was set upon
+by three Cossacks--afterwards found to have been men hired by Madame
+Yatchevski's husband--who, hustling the "saint" into a narrow side
+street, gagged him, stripped him of the silk blouse embroidered by the
+Tsaritza's own hands, his wide velvet breeches, and his beautiful boots
+of patent leather.
+
+Then they drew a knout and administered to the rascal a sound drubbing,
+afterwards binding him with rope and shutting him up in a neighbouring
+stableyard, attired only in his underwear!
+
+His clothes they packed up in a cardboard box and delivered to
+Yatchevski, who, having sealed it, sent it by special messenger to
+Tsarskoe-Selo, where it was delivered into the Empress's own hands.
+
+Alexandra Feodorovna, on having it opened and discovering the insult to
+her "holy Father," waxed furious. Meanwhile, Rasputin had been
+discovered, and was at home foaming at the mouth at the indignity. He,
+"the saviour of Russia," had been thrashed and degraded!
+
+At two o'clock that morning he took a car to the palace, and I
+accompanied him. He had an interview with Her Majesty, who was attired in
+a rich dressing-gown of pale-blue silk, and the pair resolved upon a
+rigid inquiry regarding the affair.
+
+"It is monstrous that you, our dear Father, should have such enemies
+about you! We will crush them!" she declared angrily. "I will see Nikki
+about it in the morning. To send me your clothes is a personal insult to
+myself. It is abominable! These people shall suffer!"
+
+That night we remained at the palace, and next morning Protopopoff was
+called from Petrograd and informed by the Empress of what had occurred.
+Later the Minister came to the room wherein I was writing at the monk's
+dictation, and promised that the whole of the machinery of the Secret
+Police should be set in motion to discover the perpetrators of the
+outrage.
+
+Rasputin knew that many of the husbands of his devotees were enraged
+against him; therefore he could not, at the moment, suggest any
+particular person who had plotted the affair, and probably the police
+would have failed to obtain any information had not Captain Yatchevski
+himself boasted in the Officers' Club of how he had had the Tsaritza's
+pet "saint" stripped and thrashed.
+
+In Petrograd the very walls had ears; therefore within three hours the
+"saint" knew the identity of the instigator of the outrage, and gave his
+name to the Empress.
+
+"We will make an example of him," she said. "Otherwise it may be
+repeated. I leave it to you, dear Father, to take what reprisals you
+wish. In any course you adopt you will have the full authority of both
+Nikki and myself."
+
+For nearly a week Rasputin was undecided as to how he should wreak
+vengeance upon the unfortunate Yatchevski, whose wife had by this time
+become one of the monk's most devoted "sisters."
+
+On two or three occasions he went to the Minister of War and chatted with
+the traitor, General Soukhomlinoff.
+
+Once he remarked to me, after a meeting of the "disciples" at our house
+in the Gorokhovaya:
+
+"That captain shall pay--and pay dearly--for his insult! Think!--only
+think of it, Feodor--of sending my clothes to Her Majesty! What must she
+have thought! To me it seems that she doubts whether I can take care of
+myself. And am I not inspired, divine!--sent as the saviour of Russia,
+and immune from the attacks of mankind!"
+
+His subtle mujik mind clearly saw the bad impression which must be
+produced upon the woman who was so completely beneath the thraldom of his
+hypnotic eyes. If he could be beaten as a charlatan, then such action of
+his enemies must naturally create a doubt in her mind. Hence he was
+scheming to exhibit his power.
+
+The worst feature of the position was that from the Officers' Club the
+incident had leaked out all over Petrograd, until it had become common
+talk in the cafes. The story of Grichka sitting upon a dung-heap was on
+the lips of everybody, while a well-known member of the Duma remarked:
+
+"A pity he was not buried in it, never to see the light of day again!"
+
+Yatchevski was, of course, unconscious of the knowledge held by the monk.
+He was at the Ministry of War, head of one of its many departments, a
+loyal patriotic Russian, who, like our millions, believed that
+Soukhomlinoff was "out to win." He was ignorant of the irresistible power
+which the dirty "saint" could wield.
+
+One day, to Captain Yatchevski's delight, he found himself raised in rank
+and appointed military commandant of the town of Kaluga, south of Moscow,
+with permission to take his wife to reside there. Naturally he was
+gratified to receive so influential an appointment. Though possessed of
+much money, he had hitherto not progressed very far in his official
+career, and this favour shown him by the Tsar, who had made the
+appointment, pleased him immensely.
+
+His wife, of course, felt otherwise. She would be separated from her gay
+friends, the "sisters" of the monk's "religion." Besides, she saw that by
+entering Rasputin's cult there was a prospect of becoming on terms of
+personal friendship with the Empress.
+
+Anyhow, a week later Olga Yatchevski, having bidden farewell to the monk,
+was forced to depart with her husband to the important town of Kaluga,
+and for a fortnight I heard nothing.
+
+One morning, however, the monk received a certain General Nicholas
+Ganetski, of the Imperial General Staff, when, without much preamble, the
+officer remarked:
+
+"The warning you gave us concerning Yatchevski has proved quite true. He
+has been in communication with a German agent in Riga named Kloess."
+
+"Ah! I was quite certain of it, General," remarked the "holy" man, with a
+sinister grin. "I discovered it quite by accident. Well, what have you
+done?"
+
+"He and his wife are both under preventive arrest, pending an Imperial
+order. The papers we seized are conclusive. Among them was the enemy spy
+code. The whole case is quite clear, and there can be no defence."
+
+"Then there will be a court-martial?"
+
+"Of course. I have ordered it to be held on the seventeenth, in Moscow."
+
+"They are both clever agents of Germany," the monk remarked. "Be careful
+that they do not slip through your fingers."
+
+"No fear of that, Father," replied the general. "Possession of the German
+code is in itself sufficient to secure them conviction and sentence."
+
+The latter was indeed pronounced ten days later. The little fair-haired
+woman, who was so devoted to Rasputin, and who frantically appealed to
+him in vain to save her, was sentenced to imprisonment for life at
+Yakutsk, in Eastern Siberia, while her husband, condemned for treason,
+was next day shot in a barrack square behind the Kremlin in Moscow.
+
+Truly, Gregory the Monk swept with drastic and relentless hand any enemy
+who crossed his path.
+
+It was about a week after I heard of the execution of the Governor of
+Kaluga that I happened to be at Tsarskoe-Selo again with my evil-faced
+master, being busy writing in the luxurious little room allotted to him.
+
+Madame Vyrubova had been with us, discussing the condition of health of
+the heir to the throne, when, after she had left, there entered quite
+unexpectedly the Emperor himself.
+
+"Gregory," he said, standing by the window, attired in the rather faded
+navy serge suit he sometimes wore when busy in his private cabinet, "I
+have been told to-day that the Holy Synod are once again agitating
+against you. From what Stuermer has said an hour ago it appears that the
+Church has become jealous of your friendship with my wife and myself. I
+really cannot understand this. Why should it be so? As our divine guide
+in the war against our relentless enemies, we look to you to lead us
+along the path of victory. Alexandra Feodorovna has been telling me
+to-day some strange tales of subtle intrigue, and how the Church is
+uniting to endeavour to destroy your popularity with the people and your
+position here at our Court."
+
+"Thou hast it in thy power to judge me by my works," was the monk's grave
+reply, crossing himself piously and repeating a benediction beneath his
+breath. "Gregory is but the servant of the Almighty God, sent unto thee
+to guide and direct thee and thy nation against those who seek to destroy
+and dismember the Empire. Cannot I have the names of those of the Church
+who are seeking my downfall? Surely it is but just to myself if thou
+wouldst furnish them to me? Personally, I entertain no hope."
+
+"No hope!" cried the Tsar, starting. "What do you mean, Father? Explain."
+
+"No hope of victory for Russia, surrounded as she is on all sides by
+those who are conspiring to do thee evil. Against thee the Church is ever
+plotting. As Starets--I know!"
+
+"And the Procurator?"
+
+"He is thy friend."
+
+"And the Bishop Teofan? Surely he is not a traitor?"
+
+"No. For years I have known him. Trust Teofan, but make an end of the
+ecclesiastical camarilla which is against thee."
+
+"How can I? I do not know them?" was the Emperor's reply.
+
+"I tell thee plainly that if matters are allowed to proceed, the Church,
+suborned by German gold as it is, will contrive to defeat our arms. Hence
+it behoves thee to act--and act immediately!"
+
+The Tsar, his hands in the pockets of his jacket, stood silent.
+
+"Because by divine grace I possess the power of healing, thy Church is
+jealous of me," Rasputin went on. "The Holy Synod is seeking my
+overthrow! Always have I acted for the benefit of mankind. But the
+Russian Church seeks to drive me forth. Therefore, I must bow to the
+inevitable--and I will depart!"
+
+"Ah, no, Gregory! We cannot spare you, our dear Father," declared the
+Emperor. "This ecclesiastical interference we will tolerate no longer.
+You must help me. I give carte blanche to you to dismiss those of the
+Church who are disloyal and your enemies and mine, and replace them by
+those who are our friends, and in whom I can place my trust."
+
+"In the sweeping clean of the Church thou wilt find many surprises,"
+replied the monk, elated at the success of his clever reasoning.
+
+"No doubt. I know that the Empress and myself are surrounded by enemies.
+Plots are everywhere. Is not Protopopoff continuous in his declaration
+that the Church is against me? I know it--alas! too well. And I leave its
+reformation entirely to you, dear Father."
+
+Reformation! Within twelve hours Rasputin, who dictated to me over fifty
+letters, and had, in the name of the Emperor, dismissed most of the
+higher Church dignitaries in various parts of Russia, the new Procurator
+of the Holy Synod having been appointed by him only a few weeks before.
+
+Bishop Teofan, who had commenced life as a gardener, who had been
+convicted as a criminal by the court of Tobolsk, and whose sister was a
+"disciple" at Pokrovsky, held a long conference with the "saint" lasting
+well into the night. Truly, they were the most precious pair of unholy
+scoundrels in all Europe, both being in the immediate entourage of Their
+Majesties, and both pretending to lead "holy" lives, though they were
+gloriously drunk each evening.
+
+Nevertheless, within forty-eight hours of Rasputin's conversation with
+the Tsar, the Church of Russia had been swept clean of all its loyal
+adherents, and in their places--even in the bishoprics of Kazan, Tver and
+Odessa--were appointed alcoholic rascals of the same calibre as Rasputin
+himself.
+
+Is it, then, any wonder that Holy Russia has fallen?
+
+Indeed, the new bishop of Kazan was, three days after his appointment,
+found one night riotously drunk in one of the principal streets in the
+city, and, as he was wearing ordinary clothes, was arrested by the
+police, who did not recognise him, so that the precious prelate spent the
+night in a cell! Such was our dear Russia in the midst of her valiant
+struggle against the Hun!
+
+My dissolute master, possessed as he was of superhuman cunning, held the
+Empire in the hollow of his hand. He could make or break the most
+powerful statesman within a single day. In that small fireproof safe of
+his, concealed beneath the floor of the wine-cellar at the
+Gorokhovaya--that safe in which were preserved so many amorous letters
+from neurotic women whom the monk intended later on to blackmail--was
+also much documentary evidence of the "saint's" vile plots,
+correspondence which, later on, fell into the hands of the revolutionary
+party, who revealed only a portion of it after Rasputin's tragic end.
+
+Possessed of inordinate greed, the monk had a mania for amassing wealth,
+yet what really became of his money was to me always a mystery. Though he
+would have a balance of a million or so roubles at his bank to-day, yet
+the day after to-morrow his pass-book showed payments of mysterious sums,
+which would deplete his funds until often he had perhaps but a single
+thousand roubles.
+
+Into what channel went all that money which he received for bribery, for
+creating appointments, and for suggesting that young men of good family
+should be given sinecures, I was never able to discover.
+
+Personally, I believe he paid certain persons whose wives were
+"disciples" hush-money. But his power was such that I could never see why
+he should do so. Yet the mujik mind always works in a mysterious way.
+
+The true facts concerning the desperate conspiracy against Generals
+Brusiloff and Korniloff have never been told, though several French
+writers have attempted to reveal them, and the revolutionists themselves
+have endeavoured to delve into the mystery. As secretary to the Starets,
+I am able to disclose the actual and most amazing truth.
+
+It will be remembered by my readers that General Brusiloff, early in
+June, 1916, had his four armies well in hand, and made a superhuman
+effort to defeat the Central Powers between the Pripet and the Roumanian
+frontier. He was a fearless and brilliant tactician, and within two
+months had succeeded in capturing 7,757 officers and 350,845 men, with
+805 guns--and remember that this was in face of all the obstacles that
+the Minister of War, who was working with Rasputin as Germany's friend,
+had placed in his way.
+
+Brusiloff had done splendidly. No Russian general has eclipsed him in
+this war. He performed miracles of strategy, and Berlin had very
+naturally become genuinely alarmed. All their negotiations with Stuermer,
+Protopopoff, Rasputin and others of the "Black Force" had apparently been
+of no avail. They had staked millions of roubles, but without much
+result. Our armies were advancing, and the combined German and Austrian
+forces were daily being entrapped into the marshes or forced back.
+
+Even Rasputin realised the seriousness of the position, and more than
+once referred to it.
+
+Early one morning, before I was up, Hardt, the secret messenger from
+Berlin, arrived.
+
+After greeting me, he informed me that he had an urgent secret despatch
+for the Father--to be delivered only into his own hands. Therefore I at
+once conducted the travel-worn messenger to Rasputin's bedroom, where he
+delivered a crumpled letter from the belt which he wore next his skin.
+
+"Read it to me, Feodor," said the "saint," sitting up in bed and rubbing
+his eyes after a drunken sleep.
+
+Opening it, I found it to be in a code in what was known as "Sentence
+number seven"--words which, truth to tell, spelt an ancient Russian
+proverb, which translated into English means: "Actions befit men; words
+befit women."
+
+Taking a pencil, I sat down, and after ten minutes or so, during which
+time the monk chatted with Hardt, I succeeded in deciphering the message,
+which ran as follows:
+
+     "T. F. 6,823--88.
+
+     "Memorandum from 'No. 70.'                _Secret and Private._
+
+     "Further to the memorandum F. G. 2,734--22, it is deemed of
+     greatest and most immediate importance that the Pripet offensive
+     should at once cease. You will recollect that in your reply you
+     made a promise that the offensive was to be turned into a defeat
+     within fourteen days. But this has not been done, and a certain
+     Personage [the Kaiser] is greatly dissatisfied.
+
+     "The advance must not continue, and we send you further secret
+     instructions, herewith enclosed. Lose no time in carrying them
+     out.
+
+     "We hope you have not overlooked the instructions contained in F.
+     G. 2,734--22, especially regarding the destruction of the
+     munition factories at Vologda and Bologoye. It is a pity you have
+     allowed K. [Kartzoff, who blew up the explosive works at Viborg,
+     where four hundred lives were lost] to be shot. He was extremely
+     useful. The woman Raevesky, who was his assistant, was not in
+     love with him, as you reported. She would have assisted him
+     further if allowed her liberty. We wonder you were not more
+     correctly informed. Payment of 500,000 roubles will be made to
+     your bank on the 18th from Melnitzzki and Company of Nijni
+     Novgorod.                                                 S."
+
+Enclosed was a sheet of pale yellow paper, upon which had been typed in
+Russian the following:
+
+     "_Secret Instructions._--(1) You are to double the promised
+     payment to Nicholas Meder and Irene Feischer for the blowing up
+     of the works at Vologda and Bologoye, on condition that the
+     affair is carried out within fourteen days of the receipt of
+     this. If not, arrange with your friend P. [Protopopoff] to have
+     both arrested with incriminating papers upon them. They may
+     become dangerous to us unless implicated.
+
+     "(2) As you have failed to carry out the plans against Generals
+     Brusiloff and Korniloff, then you must adopt other means against
+     both generals, and thus ensure a lull upon the frontier. We note
+     that the attempt made by Brusiloff's body-servant, Ivan Sawvitch,
+     has unfortunately failed.
+
+     "The bearer of this will hand you a small packet. It contains two
+     tubes of white powder. Peter Tchernine, who has succeeded
+     Sawvitch as the general's servant, is to be trusted. You will
+     send the tube marked No. 1 to him in secret at General
+     Headquarters, with orders to mix the contents with the powdered
+     sugar which the general is in the habit of taking with stewed
+     fruit. The slightest trace of the powder will result in death
+     from a cause which it will be impossible for the doctors to
+     identify.
+
+     "(3) A young dancer at the Bouffes named Nada Tsourikoff, living
+     in the Garnovskaya, will call upon you for the tube marked No. 2.
+     She is a close friend of General Korniloff, and is about to join
+     him at headquarters at our orders. She has already her
+     instructions as to the use of the tube. The two deaths will be
+     entirely different, therefore doctors will never suspect.
+
+     "At all hazards the offensive must be ended. Greetings.
+                                                                 "S."
+
+After I had read the instructions Hardt produced a box of Swedish safety
+matches, which he emptied upon the table, and among them we saw two tiny
+tubes of glass hermetically sealed, one containing a white chalk-like
+powder and numbered "1," while the other was half filled with pale green
+powder and marked "2." These he handed to the monk, saying:
+
+"I will use your telephone, if I may? I have to ask the young woman Nada
+Tsourikoff to call here to see you."
+
+The monk having granted permission, Hardt, passing into the study, was
+soon speaking with the popular young dancer of the Bouffes.
+
+"You will call here at noon, eh?" he asked, to which she gave a response
+in the affirmative.
+
+Punctually at twelve I was informed that a young lady, who refused her
+name, desired to have an urgent interview with the Starets, and on going
+to the waiting-room, wherein so many of the fair sex sat daily in
+patience for the Father to receive them, I found a tall, willowy,
+dark-haired and exceedingly handsome girl, who, after inquiring if I were
+Feodor Rajevski, told me that her name was Tsourikoff and that she had
+been sent to see the Father.
+
+Without delay I introduced her to the "holy" man, who stood with his
+hands crossed over his breast in his most pious attitude.
+
+"My daughter, you have, I believe, been sent to me by our mutual friend,"
+he said. "You wish for something? Here it is," and he produced a small
+oblong cardboard box such as jewellers use for men's scarf-pins. Opening
+it, he showed her the tiny tube reposing in pink cotton wool. "It is a
+little present for somebody, eh?" he asked with a sinister laugh.
+
+"Perhaps," replied the girl as she took it and placed it carefully in the
+black silk vanity-bag she was carrying.
+
+"You have already received instructions through another channel?"
+inquired Rasputin.
+
+"I have, O Father," was her reply.
+
+"Then be extremely careful of it. Let not a grain of it touch you," he
+said. "I am ordered to tell you that."
+
+She promised to exercise the greatest care.
+
+"And when you have fulfilled your mission come to me again," he said,
+fixing her with his sinister, hypnotic eyes, beneath the cold intense
+gaze of which I saw that she was trembling. "Remember that!--perform what
+is expected of you fearlessly, but with complete discretion, and
+instantly on your return to Petrograd call here and report to me."
+
+The girl promised, and then, kissing the dirty paw which the monk held
+out to her, she withdrew.
+
+"Good-looking--extremely good-looking, Feodor," the monk remarked as soon
+as she had gone. "She might be very useful to me in the near future."
+Then after a pause he added: "Ring up His Excellency the Minister of War
+and ask where Brusiloff is at the present moment."
+
+I did so, and after a short wait found myself talking to General
+Soukhomlinoff, who told me that the Russian commander was that day at
+headquarters at Minsk.
+
+When I told the monk, he said: "You must go there at once, Feodor, and
+carry the little tube to the Cossack Peter Tchernine, who is now
+Brusiloff's body-servant."
+
+"I!" I gasped, startled at the suggestion that I should be chosen to
+convey death to our gallant commander.
+
+"Yes. And pray why not? Someone whom I can trust must act as messenger.
+And I trust you above all men, Feodor."
+
+For a moment I hesitated.
+
+Then I thanked him for his expression of confidence, but he at once
+noticed the reluctance which I had endeavoured to conceal.
+
+"Surely, Feodor, you are not hesitating to perform this service for the
+Fatherland? Think of all the sacrifices we are making to bring the
+benefit of German civilisation into Russia," added the pious scoundrel.
+
+"I will go--certainly I will go," I said. "But I cannot leave to-day. I
+shall require papers from the Ministry ere I can travel."
+
+"His Excellency the General will order them to be furnished to you," he
+said. "I will see to it at once."
+
+And five minutes later he went out to seek the Minister.
+
+I was horrified at my position, compelled as I was to convey the means of
+death to the hands of the German spy Tchernine, who had been placed as
+servant to the Russian commander. I saw that I must leave Petrograd for
+Minsk that night; therefore I set about preparing for my adventurous
+journey. Indeed, shortly before midnight I left the Gorokhovaya with the
+box of Swedish matches in my inner pocket.
+
+The journey from Petrograd due south to Polotzk, where I had to change,
+proved an interminable one and occupied nearly two days, so congested was
+the line by military traffic and ambulance trains. At last on arrival
+there I joined a troop-train with reinforcements going to Minsk, where I
+duly alighted, to discover that General Brusiloff's headquarters were out
+at a village called Gorodok, about five miles distant, in the direction
+of Vilna. The evening was bitterly cold, and as I drove along I became
+filled with ineffable disgust of Rasputin and the disgraceful camarilla
+who were slowly but surely hurling the nation to its doom.
+
+Had I refused to undertake that devilish mission, the monk would have
+instantly suspected me of double dealing, and sooner or later I should
+have met with an untimely end, as, alas! so many others had done. So
+completely had he placed me beneath his thumb that I was compelled to act
+as he dictated, in order to save my own life, for, as I have already
+explained, the "holy" man held the lives of those who displeased him very
+cheaply.
+
+At headquarters, which proved to be a veritable hive of military
+activity, I posed to a sergeant as Tchernine's brother, and begged that I
+might see him. It was nearly dark as I stood with the man, who had
+roughly demanded my business there.
+
+"I fear you will not be able to see him," he replied. "The Emperor has
+just arrived on a visit to headquarters, and he is with the general, and
+your brother is in attendance upon them."
+
+Tchernine, a spy of Germany, was actually in attendance upon the Emperor,
+and hence could listen to the conversation between His Majesty and the
+army commander!
+
+"But I have come all the way from Petrograd," I whined. "I have a message
+to give my brother from his wife, whom I fear is dying."
+
+This moved the honest sergeant, who, calling one of his men, told him to
+go to Tchernine and tell him he was wanted immediately.
+
+"Only for a few moments," I said. "I will not keep him from his duty more
+than two or three minutes--just to give him the message."
+
+I waited alone in a small, bare hut for nearly half an hour, when the man
+returned with Brusiloff's servant.
+
+"Ah, dear brother Peter!" I cried, rushing forward and embracing him ere
+he could express astonishment. "So I have found you at last--at last!"
+
+As I expected, the man who had accompanied him, not wishing to be
+present at the meeting, turned and left us alone.
+
+The instant he had gone I pressed the box of matches into his hand,
+whispering:
+
+"Take this. It has been sent to you from our friends in Berlin. Inside is
+a tube of white powder, which you will mix with the powdered sugar which
+General Brusiloff takes with fruit. It is highly dangerous, so be very
+careful how you handle it. Death will occur quickly, but the doctors will
+never discover the reason. It has already been used with effect by our
+friends among the Allies."
+
+"I understand," was the spy's grim reply. "Tell our friends that I will
+put it into the sugar to-night, and both His Majesty and the general
+shall have some. How fortunate, eh?" he grinned.
+
+I held my breath. It had never crossed my mind that Nicholas was to dine
+with the general.
+
+"No," I said. "Keep it till to-morrow, so that the general has it alone.
+It is intended for him. Those are the instructions."
+
+"I shall not," was his reply as he placed the box in his pocket. "If one
+has it, so shall the other. The German advance will be made all the more
+easy by the removal of both of them. I----"
+
+Footsteps sounded outside, and the sergeant appeared an instant later;
+hence we were compelled to separate after exchanging farewells as good
+brothers would.
+
+Back to Minsk I drove rapidly, and two hours later was in an ambulance
+train on my way to Petrograd, full of wonder as to what was happening at
+Gorodok.
+
+Peter Tchernine, spy of Germany, had no doubt mixed the contents of that
+tiny tube with the powdered sugar served to the general and his Imperial
+guest.
+
+Standing alone at the end of a long ambulance carriage, I leaned out of
+the window, breathing the fresh air of the open plain. We were running
+beside a lake, the water of which came up close to the rails. Here was my
+opportunity.
+
+I took a tin matchbox from my pocket and flung it as far as I could into
+the water.
+
+Then I returned to my seat, my heart lighter, for at last I had saved the
+life of our dear general, and also that of His Majesty, for, truth to
+tell, what I had given Peter Tchernine was only a little tube of French
+chalk made up to resemble that brought so secretly from Berlin.
+
+On reporting to Rasputin next day, he rubbed his hands with delight. I,
+of course, did not tell him of the Emperor's peril.
+
+Next day he, however, came to me in a state of high indignation.
+
+"The fool Tchernine has blundered, just as Sawvitch did!" he cried.
+"Brusiloff still lives and is continuing the offensive. Did he not
+promise to use the tube?"
+
+"He certainly did," I assured the monk. "He was filled with satisfaction
+that he would be able thus to help the Fatherland."
+
+"In any case he has failed!" said the "holy" man. "Not only that, but the
+plot against Korniloff has also failed. What shall I reply to Berlin?
+What will they say?"
+
+"Has the girl Nada Tsourikoff failed us, then?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Yes," he replied in a hard, deep tone. "The little fool apparently had
+no courage. It failed her at the last moment--or----"
+
+"Or what?"
+
+"Or somebody knew the truth and threatened exposure."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because she was found dead yesterday morning at the Grand Hotel at
+Dvinsk, having broken the tube and taken some of its contents in her tea.
+A pity, too, Feodor, for she might have been so very useful." Then he
+added: "Bah! it is always the same with women, their courage fails them
+at the last moment! No. It is men--men like yourself, Feodor--that we
+want. The failure at Minsk is, however, very strange. We must inquire
+into Tchernine's actions and report fully to the Koeniggraetzerstrasse.
+Otherwise I shall once again be blamed. Surely I did my best--and so did
+you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+RASPUTIN AND THE KAISER
+
+
+THE secret visit of Rasputin to Berlin and his second audience with the
+Kaiser were stoutly denied at the time, but as I accompanied the "saint"
+upon his adventurous journey I am in a position to know the exact facts.
+
+He, dressed as a Dutch pastor, and calling himself Pastor van Meuwen, and
+I, calling myself Koster, arrived at a small quiet hotel called the
+Westfaelischer-Hof, in the Neustadische-strasse, on the north of the
+Linden. We had travelled by way of Helsingfors, Stockholm, and Hamburg,
+Rasputin being bearer of letters from the Tsaritza to the Kaiser and
+Kaiserin, assuring them of her continued good wishes and her efforts to
+secure a German conquest.
+
+Hardly had we been in the rather dismal hotel an hour when a waiter
+introduced into our private sitting-room, where I stood alone, a tall,
+dark, middle-aged man, who clicked his heels as he bowed elegantly before
+me.
+
+Smiling, and without uttering a word, my visitor handed me half of a
+plain visiting-card that had been roughly torn across, after I had
+scribbled my signature across the back. From my cigarette-case I took the
+other half, and placing them together, ascertained that they fitted. The
+torn portion that the Baron von Hausen--for that was his name, I
+learnt--had handed to me had been conveyed to Berlin by Hardt a month
+before, in order that we might repose confidence in any person who called
+upon us and bore it as the credential of the Koeniggraetzerstrasse.
+
+My visitor was a pleasant, shrewd-eyed man, well dressed and wearing a
+fine diamond in his black cravat, who, when he had seated himself at my
+invitation, glanced to see if the door was closed, and then exclaimed:
+
+"Well, Herr Koster, I trust that the Father and yourself have had a
+comfortable journey."
+
+"Quite," I replied. "But, of course, it is a very roundabout route."
+
+"I expected you two days ago," said the baron, who at that moment rose at
+the entry of Rasputin and greeted him.
+
+The appearance of the monk in Berlin was very different from the figure
+he presented in Petrograd. His hair and beard had been trimmed, he had
+washed, and in his clerical garb he looked a typical Dutch pastor.
+
+I introduced the pair, whereupon the baron said:
+
+"His Majesty the Emperor wishes you to come to Potsdam at four o'clock
+to-morrow afternoon. You are to meet the Chancellor."
+
+To this the monk agreed, saying in his halting German:
+
+"It is not the first time I have been received by His Majesty. I shall
+bring Feodor."
+
+"As you wish. But I question if His Majesty will allow him to be present
+at the audience."
+
+"In that case, Baron, tell His Majesty that I shall not come," remarked
+the "saint" bluntly. "His Majesty the Tsar permits the presence of my
+secretary, therefore why should your Emperor object? Give him that
+message," he said, adding: "I have little time to spare here in Berlin,
+and am returning to Petrograd almost at once."
+
+The Baron von Hausen demurred, but Rasputin insisted on his message being
+given to the Kaiser.
+
+Then, when our visitor had left, the monk helped himself to a stiff glass
+of brandy, and laughing said:
+
+"The only way to treat these Germans is with dignity, Feodor. I want you
+to note all he says and translate the most important into Russian for
+me. Why does Bethmann-Hollweg want to be present, I wonder?"
+
+"To advise the Kaiser, no doubt."
+
+"About what? I will deal with His Majesty himself, and nobody else," he
+snapped.
+
+Even while we were discussing the situation another caller came, a
+German, also dressed as a pastor, who gave the name of Schwass. In a
+moment Rasputin, recognising him, locked the door and, turning quickly,
+asked in Russian:
+
+"Well, how do things go? You are not suspected?"
+
+"Not in the least," was the reply of the man, who had been an agent of
+the Russian Secret Police, and who was now a spy living in Berlin under a
+clerical guise.
+
+"You have a letter for me, I believe, Father, from the Minister
+Protopopoff, have you not?" he asked.
+
+I unlocked the small attache case and from among a number of other
+letters which we had brought from Russia was one in a plain envelope
+addressed to the Pastor Wilhelm Schwass.
+
+The spy tore it open, read it through carefully three times, and then
+placed it in the fire and watched until it was consumed. What the
+instructions were we knew not. They were evidently unwelcome, for the
+man's face went grey, and scarcely uttering another word he turned and
+left us.
+
+After dinner, which we took together in our sitting-room, we went out for
+a walk in the Linden. Rasputin was eager to go to one or other of the
+variety entertainments, but I dissuaded him from such an action, he being
+in clerical attire.
+
+"If you go you may arouse the curiosity of some stupid policeman, and
+inquiries might be made concerning us. No, while in Berlin it will be
+necessary for you to remain very quiet," I urged. "Remember, the baron
+and certain of his friends are watching us."
+
+So we idled along to the Cafe Bauer, where we spent an hour watching the
+gay crowd, among whom were a number of convalescent officers with those
+in the capital on leave from Flanders. Berlin life seemed quite
+unchanged, and the war had not by any means checked the spirit of gaiety
+in its "night life." There had been a successful attack upon the British
+that day, and the "victory" over the hated English was upon everyone's
+lips.
+
+For another hour we wandered, noting the merriment and confidence in
+conquest on every hand.
+
+"Truly," declared Rasputin, "these Germans spread reports of their own
+distress for propaganda purposes. Ah, they are indeed a great people,
+with a great leader!"
+
+I differed from him, for I have never had a liking for Germans. At heart
+Rasputin had, I knew, no great liking either. He admired them and
+assisted them because he was a born adventurer, and as the tool of the
+Kaiser was well paid for his services, while at the same time he had
+succeeded in placing himself in the position of autocrat over the Tsar
+himself.
+
+After an expensive supper at a small place near the Rosenthal Thor, where
+two scantily-clad girls danced while the patrons ate, we retraced our
+steps to the Neustadische-strasse.
+
+On re-entering the hotel the hall-porter gave me a message asking me to
+ring up Herr Weghinger at No. 2862, Potsdam.
+
+This I did from our sitting-room, asking for Herr Weghinger.
+
+"Yes," came the voice. "Are you Herr Koster?"
+
+I replied in the affirmative, recognising the voice of Baron von Hausen,
+who said:
+
+"Will you please tell your friend that I have arranged for your visit
+here, and that you will be welcomed. Be outside the French Embassy at
+three o'clock, when a yellow car will drive up. Enter it, and you will be
+brought here. I shall await you." And then he wished me good night.
+
+The wire over which I had spoken was, I knew, one of the private ones to
+the Neues Palais at Potsdam.
+
+Rasputin had again triumphed. When I told him he laughed coarsely,
+remarking:
+
+"People are too apt to regard this Kaiser fellow as lord of the world. He
+will never work his will upon Gregory. Nicholas tried, and failed. Let
+William try, and he will discover that at least one man is his equal--and
+more!"
+
+On the following day at three o'clock we both stood upon the kerb in the
+Pariser Platz, opposite the closed French Embassy, when suddenly from the
+Sommerstrasse a big yellow car approached us and drew up. The driver, who
+had evidently been given our descriptions, got down, saluted, and opened
+the door for us. Then a minute later we were on our way out of Berlin on
+the Potsdam road. The papers that day had reported that the Emperor was
+in Brussels, but such misleading statements are permissible in war.
+
+When we had come down the hill to the Havel and passed over the Glienicke
+Bridge, we sped through the pleasant town of Potsdam, until at last we
+entered the great Sanssouci Park, driving past the fountains straight up
+the tree-lined Hauptweg till we pulled up before the private door of the
+palace, that used by the Imperial family.
+
+The baron, in uniform and all smiles, was there to meet us, as he had
+promised.
+
+"I had a difficulty with the Emperor," he whispered to me. "But as the
+Father insists, His Majesty has given way."
+
+Rasputin overheard his words, and I saw upon his bearded lips a sinister
+smile.
+
+Through rooms with painted ceilings we were conducted, through the Shell
+Salon--the walls of which were inlaid with shells, the friezes being of
+minerals and precious stones--across the Marble Room, and then along an
+endless, thickly carpeted corridor, which reminded me of one at Peterhof
+leading to the Empress's private apartments, until the baron saluted a
+sentry, passed him, and a little farther on knocked discreetly at a
+polished mahogany door, that of the Kaiser's private workroom.
+
+A moment later we were ushered into a rather small room, plainly
+furnished, very much like an office. In a chair by the fire sat the
+grey-bearded Chancellor smoking a cigar, and standing with his back to
+the English grate was the Emperor William, looking grey and worn, dressed
+in a drab suit of tweeds.
+
+"Ah, Gregory!" exclaimed His Majesty, who took no notice of my
+unimportant self, "I do not forget our last meeting. Well, you have done
+well--excellent work for our Fatherland!" And he introduced the monk to
+the Imperial Chancellor, who, I thought, greeted the charlatan somewhat
+contemptuously.
+
+Now, Rasputin, wearing clothes to which he was unaccustomed, and devoid
+of his gold chain and jewelled cross, which he had so constantly fingered
+when he granted audiences to those who wished to bask in his
+smiles--which, of course, always meant great pecuniary advantage or
+official advancement--seemed at the first moment ill at ease.
+
+"I have done the bidding of my Imperial sister," was his reply. "I have
+for thee letters from her, also letters for thy wife," and from the
+pocket of his clerical coat he drew four letters, rather crumpled.
+
+The Emperor hastily scanned the two which Alexandra Feodorovna had
+addressed to himself, and I noticed a smile of satisfaction flit across
+his grey, mobile features.
+
+Then, placing them upon his littered writing-table, he gave us seats, and
+around the fire we sat to talk.
+
+Truly, that council of treachery was an historic one, and cost the lives
+of many innocent non-combatant women and children.
+
+The Kaiser began by chaffing Rasputin as to his disguise, saying with a
+laugh:
+
+"Really, you might pass unsuspected anywhere, Father! The baron has been
+telling me that you are at this moment the very reverend Pastor van
+Meuwen, from Utrecht. My police have no knowledge that you are Russian
+and an enemy. But there, you are clever, and your services to me are
+worthy far greater reward than you have yet received. Now tell me," he
+added, "how is Stuermer? I sometimes wonder whether he is acting straight
+or crooked. Only the other day he telegraphed to Downing Street that you
+Russians would never agree to a separate peace to isolate Britain. This
+is most annoying."
+
+"Thou art misled, as is all the world," replied the monk with a meaning
+smile. "That telegram was sent to London only after many conferences, in
+which Alexandra Feodorovna took part with Nicholas, Stuermer, Fredericks,
+and Protopopoff. The British Press was growing dubious as to our
+determination in winning the war, hence Stuermer's assurance to bamboozle
+the world was highly necessary."
+
+"That relieves us of much anxiety," remarked Bethmann-Hollweg, chewing
+the end of his cigar. "We were beginning to fear that Stuermer might be
+leaning towards England."
+
+Rasputin made a gesture in the negative.
+
+"Stuermer is ever a good friend of the Fatherland," was his slow reply,
+his eyes fixed upon the Emperor.
+
+"There must be famine in Russia," declared the Kaiser impatiently. "Your
+friend Protopopoff has not yet created it, as he promised when he saw me.
+Famine will bring Russia quickly to her knees, as it will eventually
+bring Britain. Our U-boats are doing marvels. Happily we warned the
+British, therefore we are contravening no convention."
+
+"Soon our friends in London who have sworn never to sheathe the sword
+until we are wiped from the face of the earth will begin to squeal,"
+remarked the Imperial Chancellor with a laugh. "And especially if we can
+carry out Professor Hoheisel's plan and create a pestilence. It must be
+tried in Russia first, and then in England," Bethmann-Hollweg went on.
+"The bacteria of anthrax, glanders, and bubonic plague must be sown in
+various parts of Russia, Gregory. Before you leave Berlin the plan will
+be explained to you."
+
+"The plan by which we sought to propagate cholera by sending infected
+fruit to various charitable institutions broke down because the delivery
+of the fruit was delayed, and it arrived at its destination in an
+uneatable condition," replied Rasputin. "No one would touch it, hence all
+our plans were upset."
+
+"The distribution of presents to charitable institutions must be
+repeated," declared the Chancellor, to which the Emperor agreed.
+"To-morrow you will be told our wishes in that direction," the Chancellor
+went on.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed the Emperor, "this military offensive must stop, and at
+once, if we are successfully to invade England. As soon as Russia makes
+peace our hands will be free to strike a staggering blow at John Bull.
+Not till then."
+
+"As soon as we bring Russia to her senses then we shall begin to twist
+the tail of the British lion," said the Chancellor. "All our plans are
+complete. As soon as there is quiet on the Russian front we can, within
+forty-eight hours, if we wish, put six army corps into East Anglia
+between the Tyne and the Blackwater," he added boastfully.
+
+"Hindenburg will lead them into London one day, never fear," declared the
+Emperor in the most earnest confidence.
+
+I sat in silence, listening to this strange talk of what was to happen to
+England when Russia was crushed.
+
+"The charges against Soukhomlinoff ought never to have been made," the
+Emperor went on, addressing the monk. "I understood from your report to
+Steinhauer that you were arranging that the Tsar should hush up the
+inquiry?"
+
+"The Emperor gave orders to that effect, in consequence of the advice of
+the Empress, but the charges were so very grave that Stuermer urged him to
+cancel his orders lest the public should suspect him of any intention of
+suppressing a scandal."
+
+It was true that the charges against the Minister of War were astounding.
+A high official in the Ministry, named Kartzoff, had betrayed his chief,
+whereupon Colonel Tugen Baranovsky, late Chief of the Mobilisation
+Department of the Russian General Staff, had declared that the
+mobilisation plans drafted by the general were full of wilful errors,
+while rifles, machine-guns, and field and heavy guns were all lacking.
+Allegations had been made by General Petrovsky, later Chief of the
+Fortifications Department, to the effect that the general had only twice
+visited the artillery administration during the whole time he held his
+portfolio as Minister, while Colonel Balvinkine, one of the heads of the
+Artillery Administration, had asserted that Soukhomlinoff had insisted
+upon important contracts for machine-guns being given to the Rickerts
+factory at a cost of two thousand roubles each, while the Toula factory
+could turn out excellent machine-guns at nine hundred roubles.
+
+Such were the charges whispered loudly from end to end of Russia.
+
+"It would be best for that fellow Kartzoff to disappear," declared the
+Kaiser. "His mouth should be closed, as he may become an awkward witness.
+Tell Protopopoff from me that it would be judicious to send him to some
+unknown destination, and that I shall expect to hear early news that he
+is missing."
+
+"I will carry out thine order," said Rasputin gravely. "I agree with thee
+that Kartzoff is highly dangerous. Besides, he is a friend of my worst
+enemy, Purishkevitch, the member of the Duma who has been agitating
+against the events at the front."
+
+Rasputin, by the way, did not fail to give Protopopoff the Kaiser's
+message, and three days after our return to Petrograd Kartzoff was
+enticed away from there by means of a forged telegram, a week later his
+body being found in a wood near Kislovodsk, in the North Caucasus, while
+two other witnesses against the Minister of War were arrested, and died
+later in the island fortress of Schluesselburg.
+
+The Kaiser seemed unusually cordial towards the monk, much more so than
+on the occasion when they met in Silesia. The Chancellor seemed to be
+watching the "holy" man, taking note of his every gesture and every
+remark.
+
+The Kaiser agreed entirely with his Chancellor's views, and was insistent
+upon the creation of a pestilence in Russia.
+
+"Cholera or plague could work more for our ends in Russia in a month than
+we can effect by military force in a whole year," he declared as he lit a
+cigarette, afterwards tossing the match carelessly into the fire. "What
+are the views of Alexandra Feodorovna?"
+
+"The same as thine own," the monk replied. "Unfortunately all our efforts
+failed. A man named Tsourikoff by some means obtained knowledge of what
+was intended. Her Majesty heard of it, hence I had him removed two days
+later. He was met by a certain dancer, and had supper with her at
+Pivato's, in the Morskaya. An hour after they parted Tsourikoff died
+mysteriously."
+
+"The dancer was a friend of yours, eh? Perhaps a sister-disciple?"
+remarked the Emperor with a meaning grin.
+
+"Thou hast guessed aright," answered the monk. "But after that we did not
+dare to carry the infection further."
+
+"It must be done. I have some ideas. The baron will explain them to you
+to-morrow, and I shall expect you to carry them out," said the great War
+Lord. "In Russia there must be revolt and disease, in England invasion,
+and in France--well, we know how we shall conquer both France and Italy,"
+he added, smiling mysteriously.
+
+He spoke as one who believed that he held the destinies of Europe in the
+hollow of his hand.
+
+"Middle Europe will conquer the world, of that I have no doubt. All is in
+God's hands," agreed the "saint" in bad German, crossing himself with a
+mock piety which seemed to amuse both the Emperor and his Chancellor.
+
+"Listen to-morrow to Hoheisel's scheme, which I have approved," said the
+Emperor, passing to his visitor another cigarette from the heavy golden
+box. "The professor will call on you with the baron and explain. Act
+boldly, dear friend Gregory, for recollect that you have behind you the
+whole resources of Prussia and the good will of myself."
+
+The monk, who had only on the previous day declared that he would subject
+the Kaiser to his influence, had fallen so completely beneath the thrall
+of the German Emperor's curious hypnotism that he sat ready and eager to
+do his bidding.
+
+"The letters you have brought to me from Tsarskoe-Selo are satisfactory
+so far as they go, but there is still much to be done," said the Kaiser.
+"Tell the Empress that I will reply to her by courier, but that she is to
+continue her efforts, and that you both have my full and complete
+support. The prosecution of Soukhomlinoff must be at once suppressed, and
+those hostile statements in the Duma from time to time directed against
+us must be made a penal offence punishable by deportation. Kartzoff must
+go, and Purishkevitch, who is so constantly speaking in the Duma against
+yourself and others, should be suppressed without delay. Perhaps he will
+come to a sudden end!" suggested the Emperor. "At least we can hope so."
+
+Next day at noon the baron brought to us a short, stout, yellow-haired
+man in gold spectacles, the famous German bacteriologist, Professor
+Hoheisel, of the Friedrichshain Hospital.
+
+With the door locked, we all four sat down while the deep-voiced
+scientist unfolded his plan for the devastating of certain populous areas
+in Russia by the dissemination of a newly discovered and highly
+infectious disease.
+
+"The disease was discovered a year ago by Gerhold, at the Alt-Moabit, and
+is closely allied to bubonic plague. It is more highly infectious than
+anthrax or smallpox, and inevitably proves fatal," the professor said,
+seated at the head of the small table. "Curiously enough, infants seem to
+be immune up to six years of age. Now, my proposal, to which both the
+Emperor and the Chancellor have agreed, is that the cultures which I
+have prepared, and of which a large quantity is already in Stockholm
+ready to be utilised, should be introduced into a consignment of meat
+extract and tinned beef which has come from South America, and which is
+being held back by a certain firm in Stockholm friendly to ourselves."
+
+"How do you propose to infect it?" asked the monk, the devilish plot
+appealing at once to his cunning and unscrupulous mind.
+
+"By puncturing the tins and introducing the culture by means of a
+hypodermic syringe, and closing up the hole with a spot of solder. The
+bottles will be treated by puncturing the corks with the needle and
+closing the hole with melted resin."
+
+"I might say," added the baron, "that the cargo has been purchased by our
+friends, Messrs. Juel and Ehrensvard, who are awaiting instructions
+before re-shipping it. When the meat is prepared it will be your work,
+Father, to see that it is distributed in the two cities in which we want
+to experiment, namely, Nijni-Novgorod and Vologda."
+
+"They are doomed cities, eh?" I remarked.
+
+"We intend them to be so," the professor said. "When once the disease is
+released it will spread everywhere, and no precautions can be taken
+because, up to the present, it is known to only half-a-dozen of us in
+Berlin, and we have no knowledge how to treat it successfully."
+
+Rasputin was silent.
+
+"It will certainly be far more dangerous than cholera or
+plague--dangerous to ourselves, I mean," he remarked.
+
+"Of course the epidemic must not be allowed to break out in Petrograd or
+in any of the army centres--at least, not at present. We must first watch
+the effect in Vologda and Nijni."
+
+"Well," said the monk, "what do you wish me to do?"
+
+"You are returning by way of Stockholm," replied the baron. "His Majesty
+wishes the professor to accompany you, and in the warehouse of the firm I
+have named you will see the canned goods and bottles. The professor will
+show you that the tins have been repainted and are labelled with the mark
+of a well-known firm, so that there can be no suspicion of them. Only the
+paint is a much brighter blue than that usually employed. The reason of
+this is that they can easily be identified by any in the secret, and
+prevented from being opened in any area save those two towns I have
+named."
+
+"When do you leave?" asked the deep-voiced demon in human form.
+
+"On Friday next. I have still a number of persons to see."
+
+"Then I shall be ready to travel with you, Father," declared the
+professor; and then, after taking some brandy and soda-water, the
+conference ended.
+
+The devilish ingenuity of the whole scheme appalled me. The sowing of
+cholera germs by means of infected fruit had happily failed, but now
+Germany intended to strike a blow at the civil population of Russia upon
+a scale more gigantic than I had ever imagined.
+
+Next day, a man who gave the name of Emil Doellen brought Rasputin a
+letter, which I opened.
+
+It was, I found, a code message which had been received at the great
+German wireless station at Nauen, having been dispatched from Petrograd,
+ostensibly to the warship _Petropavlovsk_ in the Baltic, as Rasputin had
+arranged before he left Russia.
+
+When I decoded it, I found it to be from the Minister Protopopoff,
+containing certain further instructions, as well as a message from the
+Tsaritza--which necessitated the monk having a second audience with the
+Kaiser.
+
+In reply--while the secret messenger Doellen retired for an hour--I sat
+down and wrote, at the monk's dictation, a long dispatch, in which he
+made brief allusion as to the proposed dissemination of disease, and
+stating his intention to remain some days in Stockholm.
+
+     "All is well," he dictated. "The Emperor William sends his best
+     greetings and acknowledgments of your dispatch of the 3rd inst.
+     It has been found necessary to recall the troops who have been
+     held ready at Hamburg and Bremen for the invasion of Britain. The
+     German General Staff have, after due consideration, decided that
+     an invasion before Russia is crushed might meet with disaster,
+     hence they are turning their attention to submarine and aerial
+     attacks upon Britain in order to crush her. I have learnt from a
+     conversation with the Kaiser that London is to be destroyed by a
+     succession of fleets of super-aeroplanes launching newly devised
+     explosive and poison-gas bombs of a terribly destructive
+     character. Urge S. [Stuermer] to disclaim at once all knowledge of
+     the Rickert contracts. The action taken against General S. is
+     again ordered to be dropped. See the Emperor and persuade him.
+     Blessings upon you.
+                                                       "GREGORY."
+
+Then I proceeded to put it into the special code which Rasputin and
+Protopopoff alone used, and when Doellen called it was ready for
+transmission from Nauen back to the Russian battleship, to which I had
+addressed it, to be "picked up" by the wireless station in Petrograd.
+
+The "holy Father" greatly enjoyed himself in a quiet way in Berlin.
+Indeed, he purchased a ready-made suit of clothes, and, attired in them,
+he went out on two occasions and did not return till dawn, and then half
+intoxicated. On the second occasion the baron called and remonstrated
+with him, pointing out that he was running great risk.
+
+"We have been watching you in order to avoid any unwelcome inquiries by
+the police. But if you continue we can accept no further responsibility,"
+he said. "You see, you pose as Dutch without being able to speak a word
+of the language!"
+
+After that Rasputin became more discreet, but I was nevertheless glad
+when one night we met Professor Hoheisel at the station and left for
+Hamburg, duly arriving at Stockholm two days later, where we lost no time
+in visiting the premises of Juel and Ehrensvard.
+
+Indeed, Mr. Juel, the head of the Hun firm which was doing a large export
+business between Sweden and Germany, called upon us at the Grand Hotel
+within an hour of our arrival, and together we all went to a narrow
+street off the Fjellgatan, not far from the Saltsjoebanans station, where
+we found a great warehouse filled to overflowing with tins of corned beef
+and cases containing bottles of beef extract, which had come from
+America, destined for Germany, but which had been held up to be diverted
+to Russia after being treated with disease germs.
+
+We were shown stacks upon stacks of tins of one pound, two pounds and six
+pounds of beef, all bearing a well-known label, but all painted a
+peculiar blue for identification purposes. In the store we were met by
+four German laboratory assistants of the fat professor, ready to commence
+work upon the tins.
+
+"I will show you what we shall do," said Hoheisel. "The manipulation of
+the tins is quite easy."
+
+He conducted us to a small room on the top floor, which I at once saw was
+fitted as a laboratory, and which contained microscopes, incubators,
+stands of test-tubes, and all the other apparatus appertaining to the
+bacteriologist.
+
+One of his assistants had carried up four small tins of beef, with a
+couple of bottles of beef extract. These he placed on the table, and as
+we stood around he took a small bradawl, and having punctured the tin at
+the large end close to the rim, he took from one of the incubators a
+test-tube full of a cloudy brown liquid gelatine. Then filling a
+hypodermic syringe--upon which was an extra long needle--he thrust it
+into the contents of the tin and injected the virus into the meat.
+
+Afterwards, with a small soldering-iron he closed the puncture.
+
+"That tin, infected as it is, is sufficient to cause an epidemic which
+might result in thousands of deaths," declared the Hun professor proudly.
+
+His assistant then took a bottle of beef extract, which in Russia is
+popular with all classes in preparing their cabbage soup, and refilling
+the syringe, plunged the needle through the cork, afterwards placing a
+spot of melted resin upon the puncture.
+
+"You see how simple it is!" laughed the professor, addressing the
+"saint." "All that now remains is for a firm in Petrograd to buy the
+consignment and arrange for it to be sold to wholesale dealers in Vologda
+and Nijni. This we expect you to arrange."
+
+"I certainly will," replied Rasputin promptly. "Truly, the idea is a most
+ingenious one--a disease which is as yet unknown!"
+
+We remained in Stockholm for four days longer. The professor and his
+assistants were working strenuously, we knew, preparing death for the
+population of those two Russian towns.
+
+One afternoon, after he had lunched with us at the hotel, he said:
+
+"If our experiment is successful, then we mean to repeat it from South
+America to England. It is therefore most important that news of the
+epidemic does not reach the ears of the Allies. You will point out that
+to the Minister Protopopoff. When the plague breaks out the censorship
+must be of the strictest."
+
+Rasputin nodded. He quite understood. He hated the British just as
+heartily as did the Tsaritza.
+
+A week later we were back at Tsarskoe-Selo, and the monk--who pretended
+to have been on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Tver--made to the Empress a
+full report of his journey to Potsdam. He also told her of the diabolical
+plot to sweep off the population of Vologda and Nijni as an experiment,
+in order to see how Hun "science" could win the war.
+
+Protopopoff came to Rasputin's house half-a-dozen times within the next
+three days, and it was arranged that a firm of importers, Illine and
+Stroukoff, of Petrograd, should handle the consignment of preserved meat.
+Both partners in the firm were in the pay of the Ministry of the
+Interior, hence it was not difficult to arrange that the whole cargo
+should be sent to Vologda and Nijni to relieve there the growing shortage
+of meat.
+
+I strove to combat the clever plot, but was, alas! unable to do so. Every
+precaution was taken against possible failure. The cargo arrived, and was
+at once sent on by rail to its destination, payment being made for it
+through ordinary channels, and nobody suspecting. Food was welcomed
+indeed in Russia in those days of 1916.
+
+In the stress of exciting events that followed I forgot the affair for
+several weeks. One night, however, Rasputin, on returning from Peterhof,
+where the Court was at that moment, received Protopopoff, and the pair
+sat down to drink together.
+
+Suddenly His Excellency exclaimed, with a laugh:
+
+"Your mission to Berlin has borne fruit, my dear Gregory! For the past
+four days I have been receiving terrible reports from Vologda, and worse
+from Nijni-Novgorod. The inhabitants have been seized by a mysterious and
+terribly fatal disease. A medical commission left Petrograd yesterday to
+study it."
+
+"Let them study it!" laughed Rasputin. "They will discover no mode of
+treatment."
+
+"Both towns are rapidly becoming decimated. There have been over thirty
+thousand deaths, and the mortality is daily increasing."
+
+"As I expected," remarked the monk. "The professor knows what he is
+doing. Later on we shall be sending the infection into England and cause
+our John Bull friends a surprise."
+
+"But the position is terribly serious," said His Excellency.
+
+"No doubt. Berlin is watching the result. One day they may deem it wise
+to infect our army. But that must be left to their discretion."
+
+Truly the result of that devilish plot was most awful. In the three
+months that followed--though not a word leaked out to the Allies, so
+careful were Protopopoff and the camarilla to suppress all the
+facts--more than half the population of the two cities died from a
+disease which to this day is a complete mystery, and its bacilli known
+only to German bacteriologists.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE "PERFUME OF DEATH"
+
+
+     "I AM much grieved to hear of the disaster at Obukhov. The
+     accident to Colonel Zinovief is most deplorable. Please place a
+     wreath upon his grave from me. Pray always for us.
+                                                           "ALIX."
+
+This was the text of a telegram addressed to Rasputin from the Empress,
+which I opened when it was placed in my hands. It had been sent from
+Bakhtchisaray, the Oriental town in the Crimea, where Alexandra
+Feodorovna had gone to visit the military hospitals, it being necessary
+for her to pose before Russia as sympathetic to the wounded.
+
+The disaster to which she referred had taken place at the great steel
+works at Obukhov, the outrage having been committed by two German secret
+agents named Lachkarioff and Filimonoff, who had visited Rasputin and
+from whose hand they had received German money. Nearly five hundred lives
+had been lost, as the foundry had been in close proximity to an
+explosives factory, where Colonel Zinovief, the director, had been blown
+to atoms.
+
+It was late at night, and the monk, who was in a state of
+semi-intoxication, on hearing of the wish of Her Majesty, remarked:
+
+"Ah! a clever woman, Feodor--very clever. She never misses an opportunity
+to show her sympathy with the people. Oh! yes--order the wreath to-morrow
+from Solovioff in the Nevski--a fine large one." Then laughing, he added:
+"The people, when they see it, will never suspect that Alexandra
+Feodorovna knew of the pending disaster eight days ago. But," he added
+suddenly, after a pause, "is it not time, Feodor, that I saw another
+vision?"
+
+I laughed. I knew how, during the week that had elapsed since our return
+from the secret visit to Potsdam, he was constantly holding reunions of
+his sister-disciples, many fresh "converts" being admitted to the new
+religion.
+
+Both Lachkarioff and Filimonoff, authors of the terrible disaster at
+Obukhov, had been furnished with passports by Protopopoff, and were
+already well on their way to Sweden, but the catastrophe was the signal
+for a terrible period of unrest throughout Russia, and in the fortnight
+that followed, rumours, purposely started by German agents and the secret
+police under Protopopoff, assumed most alarming proportions.
+
+All was the creation of Rasputin's evil brain. With the Emperor and
+Empress absent in the South, he had, with the connivance of "No. 70,
+Berlin," determined to undermine the moral of the whole nation by
+disseminating false reports and arranging for disaster after disaster.
+
+In the "saint's" study in the Gorokhovaya there was arranged the terrible
+railway "accident" which occurred near Smolensk, in which a crowded troop
+train collided with an ambulance train, the wreckage being run into by a
+second troop train, all three trains eventually taking fire and burning.
+The exact loss of life will never be known.
+
+Another outrage was the destruction of the big railway bridge over the
+River Tvertza, not far from Kava, thus blocking the Petrograd-Moscow
+line, while a train conveying high explosives made in England a few days
+later blew up while passing the station of Odozerskaja, completely
+wrecking the line between Archangel and Petrograd and killing nearly
+three hundred people.
+
+Each of these outrages was arranged in my presence, and I was compelled
+to assist in counting the money which was afterwards given by the monk to
+their perpetrators as price of their perfidy.
+
+"We must create unrest," Rasputin declared one night to His Excellency
+the Minister Protopopoff, as the precious pair sat together. "We must
+prepare Russia for disaster."
+
+Hence it was that they arranged for a series of most alarming false
+rumours to be circulated throughout the length and breadth of the Empire.
+
+Indeed, on the day following, I heard in a bank where I had business that
+all Moscow was involved in a great revolution, that the Moscow police
+were on strike, and that the troops had refused to fire upon the
+populace. Everyone stood aghast at the news. But the truth was that the
+telegraphs and telephones between Moscow and Petrograd had been wilfully
+cut in three places by agents of Protopopoff, and while those alarming
+rumours were current in Petrograd, similar rumours were rife in Moscow
+that revolution had broken out in the capital.
+
+Rasputin and his friends in the course of a few days created a veritable
+whirlwind of false reports, hoping by that means to shatter or stifle all
+manifestations of patriotic feeling, and prepare Russia for a separate
+peace.
+
+Meanwhile he had contrived, as the Kaiser ordered, to prevent the
+offensive being resumed in Poland; and yet so cleverly did he effect all
+this that General Brusiloff, who was at the south-west front, actually
+gave an interview to a British journalist, declaring that the war was
+already won, "though it was merely speculation to estimate how much
+longer will be required before the enemy are convinced that the cause for
+the sake of which they have drenched Europe in blood is irretrievably
+lost."
+
+The cold white light of later events has indeed revealed the black hearts
+of Rasputin and his friends, for while all this was in progress Stuermer,
+though so active in the betrayal of his country, boldly made a speech
+deploring the fact that anyone credited the sinister rumours which his
+fellow-conspirators had started, and to save his face he warned the
+working-classes to remain patient and prosecute the war with vigour.
+
+I recollect well the day he had made that speech--the day on which the
+Labour group of the Central War Industrial Committee issued its
+declaration. There was a reunion of the sister-disciples, at which three
+new members were admitted to the cult, all society women under thirty,
+and all good-looking. Their names were Baroness Terenine, whose husband
+had been Governor of Yaroslav; Countess Chidlovski, one of the
+acknowledged society beauties of Petrograd, who had of late had an
+"affair" with an Italian tenor named Baccelli; and Anna, the pretty young
+daughter of a woman named Friede, who was also a "disciple."
+
+There was a large attendance, and Rasputin exhibited more than the usual
+mock piety. In his jumbled jargon, which he called a sermon--that mixture
+of quotations from the "Lives of Saints" mingled with horrible
+obscenities--he had referred to the terrible rumours.
+
+"These, I fear, my dear sisters, are, alas! too true," he declared.
+"Being in the position of knowing much, I beg of you all to pray
+ceaselessly, and let these three who to-day join our holy circle take
+upon themselves the duty of obtaining fresh converts, and thus ensure to
+themselves the blessing of him who stands here before you--the saviour of
+Russia."
+
+Then he paused, and all the kneeling women crossed themselves, piously
+murmuring, as was part of the creed:
+
+"God's will be done! God's will be done! Truly, our Father Gregory is
+holy! Truly, the sacrifice which each and all of us make is made to God!"
+
+The three newly-admitted aspirants, dressed in very flimsy black in the
+mode which the monk imposed upon them, knelt before the Father and kissed
+his hands, while from his lips fell those awful blasphemies, which,
+amazing as it was, hypnotised, neurotic society women believed to be the
+truth.
+
+Afterwards Rasputin gave them all tea and cake, he being personally
+waited upon by the three neophytes. Then, half-an-hour after the last one
+had departed--for the three had remained behind with him for further
+private instruction and conversation, as was usual--the Prime Minister
+Stuermer was announced.
+
+"I have made the speech you suggested," he declared to the monk as he
+sank into a chair. "Phew! what a smell of perfume, my dear Gregory!" he
+laughed. "Your sister-disciples have left it behind them. Open the
+window, Feodor," he exclaimed, turning to me. "Let us have some fresh
+air."
+
+The monk then explained that while Stuermer had made that public
+declaration he had told the women that the situation was grave, well
+knowing that they, in turn, would tell their husbands, and the rumours
+would quickly be propagated.
+
+"I have had another reassuring telegram from Downing Street," Stuermer
+remarked, with a grin. "I dare not publish it, otherwise it would upset
+our friends in Berlin."
+
+"As I have told you, the Kaiser forbids the publication of any of our
+reassurances from France or England--especially from the English, whom he
+hates so deeply. What, I wonder, will be the fate of the English when he
+is able to send an army of invasion across the North Sea?"
+
+"If he is ever able. I doubt it," remarked the traitorous Premier of
+Russia.
+
+"He certainly intends doing so," said Rasputin. "And when he does I
+should be sorry to be in Britain. They will treat the civilians worse
+than they did the Belgians."
+
+"Yes; he intended being in Paris two years ago," replied the goat-bearded
+_debauche_ in uniform.
+
+"It is time I saw another vision," said the monk presently. "I shall see
+one to-night most probably--one concerning our defeat."
+
+"Do," urged Stuermer. "You have not had a vision for quite a long time. It
+impresses all classes, and we can make so much use of it when dealing
+with Nicholas. He believes as thoroughly in your visions as in the
+spirit-voice of the dead Alexander."
+
+Next day the whole world of Petrograd was startled.
+
+To Grichka the Blessed Virgin had once again revealed herself, just as
+she had done years ago to the peasant girl at Lourdes.
+
+The Procurator of the Holy Synod called to see him at noon to inquire of
+him personally, and ascertain what he had seen. Rasputin, with his hands
+crossed over his breast, turned his dark eyes heavenward, and said:
+
+"It is true that last night, just after midnight, as I was praying in my
+room, Our Lady appeared unto me in a cloud of shining light. She was
+clothed in bright blue, and in her hands she bore a bunch of lilies.
+Behind her I saw a picture of a great battlefield, where our soldiers
+were retreating in disorder, being shot down in hundreds by the
+machine-guns of the enemy--and worse--and worse!" And the charlatan hid
+his face in his hands as though to shut out the horror of the
+recollection.
+
+"What else?" asked the head of the Russian Church. "Tell me, O Father."
+
+"It is too terrible--the public must not know----" he gasped, as though
+in fear. "I saw our Emperor killed on the field of battle; he was struck
+in the head by a piece of shell from one of the German long-range guns,
+and half his face was blown away. Ugh!" And he shuddered. "The sight of
+it was terrible. My blood ran cold. Nicholas, our Emperor, dead! I saw
+Brusiloff, too, lying shot, with a dozen other generals. Then the scene
+changed, and I saw the burial of the Emperor with all pomp, and his widow
+Alexandra Feodorovna following the coffin."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then Our Lady opened her lips, and I heard her voice," went on the
+"holy" liar. "She spake to me slowly and solemnly, saying: 'O Gregory,
+what thou hast witnessed is decreed to take place within forty days from
+to-day! These scenes will be enacted upon Russian soil--and worse. The
+people of Petrograd, Moscow and Warsaw will be put to the sword by the
+enemy, who have right and justice upon their side. Russia has fallen away
+from God, and is now accursed.' I shrieked at those fateful words. But
+she repeated them, adding: 'Thou, O Gregory, canst still save Russia if
+thou wilt raise thy voice in warning. Peace must be effected. Let those
+who are in alliance with Russia fight on if they will, but let Russia
+remain holy for the sake of its innocent people and its great Imperial
+house. Warn His Majesty at once, warn his Ministers, to cut themselves
+adrift from those nations which are seeking to profit by their alliance
+with Russia. Compel them to make peace with the Emperor William. If this
+is not concluded within forty days, then God's wrath will fall upon this
+land. Thou art sent by God as His apostle, therefore take heed and take
+instant action!' And a second later she had faded out, and there was
+nothing but darkness."
+
+I could see how greatly our visitor was impressed.
+
+"The Emperor should surely know," he said, astounded.
+
+"Yes, but we must not alarm the public too greatly," Rasputin replied.
+
+"Already it is on everyone's lips," exclaimed the other. "The wildest
+stories are afloat concerning the Blessed Virgin's appearance to you. We
+certainly must have peace with Germany. That is what everyone is saying,
+except members of the Duma and the war party."
+
+Thus, by pretending to have seen a vision at an hour when, truth to tell,
+he had been snoring in a drunken sleep, half Russia grew alarmed,
+including the Emperor and Empress, who both hurried back to
+Tsarskoe-Selo, where Rasputin repeated with much embellishment what he
+had told the Procurator of the Holy Synod.
+
+Just at the moment Rasputin was engaged upon a piece of outrageous
+blackmailing, which I think ought to be recorded against him.
+
+The facts were briefly as follow. The German agent Lachkarioff, who with
+his accomplice had blown up the Obukhov steel works and was now safe in
+Sweden, had, while in Petrograd, made the acquaintance of a certain
+Madame Doukhovski, the young wife of the President of the Superior
+Tribunal at Kharkof. She was a giddy little woman, and the monk had
+plotted with old Countess Ignatieff to entice her to join the cult, but
+she had always refused. Lachkarioff was a good-looking, well-dressed man,
+who posed as a commercial magnate of Riga, and she, I suppose, fell
+beneath his charm. At any rate, for a long time the pair were
+inseparable.
+
+One day the German agent, who was an exceedingly wily person, came to
+Rasputin and told him that he had induced the young lady of Kharkof to
+reveal to him certain secrets concerning the dealings of Soukhomlinoff
+and the supply of machine-guns for the Army--facts which had been
+presented in strictest confidence by one of the War Minister's enemies to
+the President of the Kharkof tribunal.
+
+Rasputin smiled in triumph when he heard the exact details which Madame
+Doukhovski had divulged.
+
+"Sit down yonder, my friend, and put that into writing, and sign it,"
+said the monk, indicating the table by the window.
+
+"You will not punish her for her indiscretion, I hope," remarked the man,
+who was at the moment plotting that series of terrible disasters.
+
+"Not in the least," Rasputin assured him. "Your friend is my friend. But
+when such statements are made I like to have them on record. If
+Soukhomlinoff comes up for trial--which I very much doubt--then the
+memorandum may be of use to prove what silly and baseless gossip has been
+in circulation."
+
+In consequence of this assurance, Lachkarioff wrote down what had been
+told him by the judge's wife, a document which the "saint" preserved with
+much care--until the Obukhov catastrophe had taken place and its author
+was out of Russia. Then he wrote to Madame Doukhovski and asked her to
+call upon him upon an urgent matter concerning her husband.
+
+In surprise, and perhaps a little anxious, she kept the appointment one
+afternoon, and I ushered her into the monk's room.
+
+He rose, and, addressing her roughly, said:
+
+"So you have obeyed me, woman! And it is best for you that you have done
+so. Hitherto you have held me in contempt and refused all invitations to
+visit me. Why?"
+
+"Because I am not a believer," was her open, straightforward answer.
+
+"Then you will believe me ere I have done," he declared, with an evil
+grin, stroking his ragged beard, and fixing his eyes upon her.
+
+"You insult me," she cried angrily. "Why should you speak to me like
+this?"
+
+"Because you have been an associate of Felix Lachkarioff--a traitor and a
+spy," he declared in that deep, hard voice of his. "Oh! you cannot deny
+it. Your husband has no knowledge that you were an intimate friend of the
+man who has fled from Russia after causing that frightful disaster at
+Obukhov. Is not that so?"
+
+The handsome, dark-haired woman whom the spy had so grossly betrayed
+turned pale, and sat utterly staggered that her secret was out. She had
+never dreamed that the handsome, polite man who had one day been
+presented to her in the lounge of the Hotel d'Europe was a German agent,
+that he was engaged in committing outrages on behalf of the enemy, or
+that he was friendly with the monk.
+
+"Your husband does not know that spy? Answer me?" demanded Rasputin
+roughly.
+
+"I have told my husband nothing," was her faltering reply.
+
+"That is not surprising, Madame," laughed the "saint," leaning back in
+the chair where he had seated himself, "especially when you have told
+that spy certain secrets of our Government, which you obtained by
+examining the dossiers which have been passing through your husband's
+hands."
+
+"What do you mean?" she cried, starting up in indignation.
+
+"Ah, no," he said; "it is useless to pretend ignorance, Madame. Read
+this!"
+
+And he handed her a copy of what the German agent had written, saying: "I
+have the original, which I am passing to the authorities, so that they
+may take what action they deem best against you as a traitor and against
+your husband for negligence!"
+
+The unfortunate woman, when she scanned the statement, went pale to the
+lips, fully realising the extreme seriousness of the nature of her
+offence, now that her admirer was known to be a spy of Germany.
+
+"But you won't do that?" she gasped. "Think, Father, what it would mean
+both to my husband and myself! Think!" she cried hoarsely.
+
+"You have revealed the contents of certain highly confidential documents
+to the Germans," the monk said. "You do not deny it. You, Madame
+Doukhovski, are a traitor to Russia, and evidence of your treachery is
+contained in that confession of a German spy whom you assisted and whom
+you----"
+
+"I looked at the dossiers on my husband's table because Monsieur
+Lachkarioff asked me to do so," she declared. "He told me he was a friend
+of Soukhomlinoff, and that he was doing all he could to assist in
+clearing him of the charges levelled against him. I believed him,
+alas!--I was foolish enough to believe that he spoke the truth. And now
+he has betrayed me!"
+
+"I suppose you were infatuated by the man," laughed the monk scornfully.
+"If you were so weak, then you must pay the penalty."
+
+"And that is--what?" she asked breathlessly, and pale as death.
+
+"Exposure," replied the charlatan who was the head of the traitorous
+camarilla around the throne. "Our dear land is in serious peril to-day,
+therefore those who attempt to betray her should be held up as examples
+to others."
+
+"But you will not--you'll not let anyone know of my indiscretion!" she
+begged.
+
+"That certainly is my intention," was his hard reply. "This statement was
+made to me by your lover, and it is but right that it should be
+investigated, so that we may know the extent of the harm that you have
+done."
+
+The frantic, despairing woman, bursting into tears, threw herself at the
+feet of the "miracle worker," begging hard for mercy.
+
+"Think!" she cried. "Think what it will mean to my husband and myself. He
+will probably be placed under arrest and lose his post, while I--I would
+rather die than face such exposure."
+
+"Ah! my dear Madame," said Rasputin tauntingly. "Life is very sweet, you
+know."
+
+"But you must not do this!" she shrieked loudly. "Promise me, Father,
+that you will not! Promise me--do!"
+
+Rasputin drew his hand roughly from her, for she had seized it as she
+implored him to show her mercy.
+
+"There may be some extenuating circumstances in your case--but I doubt
+it," he said.
+
+"There are!" she declared. "I grew to love the man. I was blind, mad,
+infatuated--but now I hate him! Would that I could kill the man who
+wrought such disaster in our land! Would that I could kill him with my
+own hand!"
+
+Rasputin drew a long breath. The wish she expressed had suddenly aroused
+within his inventive brain a means of executing a sharp and bitter
+revenge.
+
+"Perhaps one day, ere long, you may be afforded opportunity," he said in
+a changed voice. "If so, I will call you here again and explain what I
+mean."
+
+"Ah! Then I may hope for your pity and indulgence, eh?" she cried
+quickly, but still in deep anxiety.
+
+Yet Rasputin would not commit himself, for he was playing a very deep and
+intricate game.
+
+When the erring woman had gone the monk filled his glass with brandy,
+some of that choice old cognac which the Empress sent him regularly, and
+turning to me, said:
+
+"Feodor, the man Doukhovski is wealthy, I understand. Protopopoff has
+been making inquiry, and finds that he is owner of a large estate near
+Ryazhsk, and that from an uncle quite recently he inherited nearly a
+million roubles. He only retains his office because he does not regard it
+as patriotic to retire while the war is in progress. What will he think
+of his wife's betrayal when he knows of it?"
+
+"But you will not inform him," I exclaimed.
+
+"Not if Madame is reasonable. She is wealthy in her own right," replied
+the monk. "If women err they must be compelled to pay the price," he went
+on in a hard voice. "Felix Lachkarioff evidently deceived her very
+cleverly. But there--he is one of the most expert agents that the
+Koeniggraetzerstrasse possesses, and is so essentially a ladies' man."
+
+After a pause Rasputin, lighting a cigarette, laughed lightly to himself,
+and said:
+
+"The report furnished to me yesterday shows that Madame was one of the
+Plechkoffs of Lublin, and her balance at the Azov Bank is a very
+considerable one. The price of my silence is the money she has there. And
+I shall obtain it, Feodor--you will see," he added with confidence.
+
+So ruthlessly did he treat the unfortunate woman that, by dint of threats
+to place the original of that statement of Lachkarioff before the
+Minister Protopopoff, he had before a week had passed every rouble she
+possessed.
+
+I was present on the night when she came to him to make the offer, the
+negotiations having been opened and carried on by a man named Zouieff,
+one of the several professional blackmailers whom Rasputin employed from
+time to time under the guise of "lawyers." She was beside herself in
+terror and despair, and carried with her a cheque-book.
+
+The interview was a strikingly dramatic one. She penitent, submissive,
+and full of hatred of the spy under whose influence she had fallen; the
+monk cold, brutal, and unforgiving.
+
+"Yes," he said at last, when she offered him a monetary consideration in
+exchange for his silence. "But I am not content with a few paltry
+roubles. I am collecting for my new monastery at Kertch, and what you
+give will atone to God for your crime."
+
+Within ten minutes she had written out a cheque for the whole of her
+private fortune, while at the monk's dictation I wrote out a declaration
+that his allegations were false, a document which he signed and handed to
+her, together with Lachkarioff's original statement.
+
+Even then Rasputin's cunning was not at its limit.
+
+Lachkarioff's usefulness to Germany in Russia was at an end. He was in
+Gothenburg, and being a close friend of an English journalist there, it
+was feared lest he should allow himself to be interviewed, and reveal
+something of the truth concerning the subterranean working of Germany in
+Petrograd.
+
+"The man's lips ought to be closed," Steinhauer had written to Rasputin
+only a week before. "Can you suggest any way? While he lives he will be a
+menace to us all. Filimonoff is safe in an asylum in Copenhagen, though I
+believe he is perfectly sane. Only it is best that no risk should be
+run."
+
+Here were means ready to hand to close the mouth of Felix Lachkarioff,
+for the woman whom he had betrayed was furiously vengeful.
+
+"You said the other day that you would be ready to strike a blow at that
+enemy of Russia who has so grossly misled you," Rasputin said to her in a
+deep, earnest voice, as she sat in his room. "Would not such a course be
+deeply patriotic? Why not, as expiation of your sin, travel to Gothenburg
+and avenge those hundreds of poor people who were his victims at Obukhov?
+I can give into your hand the means," he added, looking her straight in
+the face.
+
+"What means?" she asked.
+
+He crossed to his writing-table, and, unlocking a drawer with a key upon
+his chain, he took out a tiny bottle of extremely expensive Parisian
+perfume, a pale-green liquid, which he handed to her.
+
+"It looks like scent," he remarked, with a grin, "but it contains
+something else--something so potent that a single drop introduced into
+food or drink will produce death within an hour, the symptoms being
+exactly those of heart disease. That is what deaths resulting from it are
+always declared to be. So there is no risk. Meet him, be friendly, dine
+with him for the sake of old days in Petrograd, and before you leave him
+he will be doomed," added Rasputin, in a low whisper. "He surely deserves
+it after deceiving you as he has done!"
+
+"He certainly does," she declared fiercely, unable to overlook how he had
+betrayed her. "And I will do it!" she added, taking up the little bottle.
+"Russia shall be avenged."
+
+"Excellent, my dear sister. You will indeed be rewarded," declared
+Rasputin, crossing himself. "When you return to Petrograd, give me back
+that precious little bottle of perfume, which I call the Perfume of
+Death."
+
+That the woman did not fail to carry out her promise was certain, for
+within a fortnight we heard in a secret dispatch that Hardt brought us
+from Berlin that the agent Lachkarioff had died suddenly from heart
+disease after dining with a Russian lady friend at the Grand Hotel in
+Stockholm.
+
+Truly, the grip in which Germany held Russia and its Government was an
+iron one, and death most assuredly came to those whom Berlin feared, or
+who were in any way obnoxious to the German war party.
+
+Ten days later a small packet was left at the house, addressed to the
+monk. When I opened it I found the little Parisian perfume bottle.
+
+One morning, a week later, I went with Rasputin to the Ministry of the
+Interior, where we were ushered into the small, elegant private room of
+"Satan-in-a-silk-hat" Protopopoff, who greeted us cordially. But as soon
+as the door was closed, and he had invited us to be seated, he rose,
+turned the key, and, facing us, gravely said:
+
+"Gregory, I fear something serious is about to happen. Late last night I
+received an urgent visit from the Under-director of Secret Police of
+Moscow, who had come post-haste to tell me that there has been a secret
+meeting between Miliukoff and the Grand Dukes Serge and Dmitri in that
+city, and it has been decided that at the reopening of the Duma Miliukoff
+will rise and publicly expose us."
+
+"What?" shrieked the monk, starting. "Is that what is intended?" he asked
+breathlessly.
+
+"Yes. He apparently knows the authors of the outrage at Obukhov and our
+association with them. It is believed that he actually holds documentary
+evidence of the money which we passed through the Volga-Kama Bank, in
+Tula."
+
+"But this must be prevented at all hazards," declared Rasputin. "We
+cannot allow him to denounce us. Not that anybody will believe him. But
+it is not policy at this moment. Public opinion is highly inflamed."
+
+"I agree. Of course, nobody will believe him. Yet he is dangerous, and if
+he denounces us in the Duma it will come as a bombshell. I called upon
+Anna Vyrubova early this morning, and she has gone to the palace," said
+Protopopoff.
+
+Rasputin remained silent, his hand stroking his ragged beard, a habit of
+his when working out some scheme more devilish than others.
+
+"Miliukoff will be supported by Purishkevitch, without a doubt," His
+Excellency the Minister went on. "Both are equally dangerous."
+
+The "saint" grunted and knit his brows, for he saw himself in a very
+perilous position. In three days' time the Duma would re-open, and
+Miliukoff would probably bring forth certain documentary evidence of the
+treachery of Stuermer, Fredericks, Soukhomlinoff, Anna Vyrubova, and a
+dozen others who formed the camarilla which was working for Russia's
+downfall.
+
+"The Duma must be prevented from opening," Rasputin declared at last.
+"The Emperor must rescind the order and further postpone it."
+
+"The Duma has been prohibited from meeting for over five months. It can,
+I agree, wait still further. His Majesty must find some excuse, or----"
+
+"I know what is passing in your mind, friend," interrupted the monk.
+"Yes, I will urge Nicholas further to prohibit it, and thus give us time
+to suppress our enemies."
+
+"Action must be taken at once," said the Minister. "I had a telephone
+message from the secret police in Moscow to say that Miliukoff left for
+Petrograd at nine o'clock this morning. The Grand Dukes have gone south."
+
+Two hours later, on our return to the Gorokhovaya, an Imperial courier
+arrived in hot haste from Tsarskoe-Selo with a sealed note for the monk,
+enclosed in two envelopes.
+
+These I tore open, and, signing the outer envelope as assurance of safe
+receipt, handed it to the courier, who left. Afterwards I read the
+message to Rasputin, it being as follows:
+
+     "HOLY FATHER,--Anna has just told me of Miliukoff's intention in
+     the Duma. The Emperor must further adjourn its re-assembling. I
+     have telegraphed to him urging him to do this. If not, let us
+     adopt Noyo's suggestion to pay the agents J. and B. ten thousand
+     roubles to remove him. I would willingly pay a hundred thousand
+     roubles to close his mouth for ever. This must be done. Suggest
+     it to P. [Protopopoff]. Surely the same means could be used as
+     with T. and L. and the end be quite natural and peaceful! You
+     could supply the means as before. But I urge on you not to delay
+     a moment. All depends upon Miliukoff's removal. If he reveals to
+     the Duma what he knows, then everything must be lost. I kiss your
+     dear hands. With Olga I ask your blessing.--Your dutiful
+     daughter,
+                                                                "A."
+
+It was thus evident that the Empress knew of what Rasputin gleefully
+called "The Perfume of Death." Ah! in how many cases, I wonder, was it
+used by the mock "saint" to stifle the truth and to sweep his enemies of
+both sexes from his path? Such a letter as this I have here given seems
+utterly incredible in this twentieth century, yet those who knew
+underground Russia immediately before the downfall of the Romanoffs will
+express no surprise.
+
+At once we went to Tsarskoe-Selo with all haste, and Rasputin had a long
+conference in private with the Empress and Anna, the outcome of which was
+that Alexandra Feodorovna dispatched an urgent message in cipher to the
+Tsar, who was still absent at South-West Headquarters.
+
+We remained at the palace all that day. At six o'clock Anna Vyrubova
+entered the room, where I sat writing some letters, and inquired for the
+monk.
+
+"He was here a quarter of an hour ago," I replied.
+
+"Then find him at once and give him this. It is most urgent," said the
+high-priestess of the cult of the "sister-disciples," handing me a sealed
+envelope.
+
+Ten minutes later I found Rasputin walking alone on the terrace,
+impatient and thoughtful, and opened the envelope. Within was a message
+in Their Majesties' private cipher, which had been deciphered by the
+Empress's own hand, and which read:
+
+     "Tell our dear Father [Rasputin] that to postpone the Duma would,
+     I fear, create an unfavourable impression, and I judge
+     impossible. Protopopoff has asked my authority to arrest
+     Miliukoff upon some technical charge, but I do not consider such
+     a course good policy. I agree that to-day's situation is grave,
+     and agree also that at the last moment some means should be taken
+     to prevent him from speaking.
+                                                              "NIKKI."
+
+The monk at once flew to the Empress's side, where Stuermer was being
+received in audience. Again the situation was eagerly discussed. That
+night, when we returned to Petrograd, although it was nearly midnight,
+Protopopoff was summoned by telephone, and when the pair met I learnt
+what had been arranged at the Palace.
+
+The Empress's wishes were to be carried out. The patriot Miliukoff was to
+be "removed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MILIUKOFF'S EXPOSURE
+
+
+MATTERS were now growing daily more desperate in Russia. Suspense,
+unrest, and suspicion were rife everywhere, while the deluded people were
+kept quiet by promises of a great offensive in the near future.
+
+The Minister Protopopoff, wearing his gorgeous uniform, his breast
+covered with decorations--the man whom Great Britain regarded as so
+extremely friendly--had just paid a visit to the British Embassy, and on
+his way home called upon Rasputin.
+
+"It is just as we heard from Moscow," he said to the monk anxiously.
+"Miliukoff intends to denounce you at the opening of the Duma. He has
+been in communication with both the French and British Embassies, and as
+far as I can learn both are in entire agreement with him."
+
+"Then I must save myself," Rasputin declared, stroking his matted beard
+thoughtfully.
+
+"The British never dream that I have been assisting you in your schemes
+with Alexandra Feodorovna. That is why they are so friendly with me at
+the Embassy. Indeed, only yesterday the French Ambassador handed me the
+latest report upon the output of munitions in France, and the details of
+their long-range gun. These I copied, and Hardt has left with them for
+Berlin."
+
+"Truly, we have fooled the Allies exquisitely," laughed the Black Monk.
+"But if I am denounced, you also will be discovered as my associate, as
+well as Stuermer, Fredericks, and our other friends."
+
+"That is why the Empress urges you to resort to the 'perfume,'" said the
+much-decorated traitor.
+
+"Yes, but how?" asked Rasputin. "There is no time."
+
+"There is sufficient."
+
+"What do you suggest?" asked the monk.
+
+"You know little Xenie, who married the Councillor of State, Kalatcheff,
+last year? She is one of your 'sisters,' is she not?"
+
+The "saint" nodded.
+
+"Well, according to a secret report made to me, she has conceived a
+violent hatred of Miliukoff, who was once a friend of her husband, and
+who still admires her. Miliukoff visits her home sometimes, and one day
+quite recently while in her salon he denounced you. She has been going
+about declaring him to be your bitterest enemy. If so, could she not
+invite him to take tea with her--and then?"
+
+"An excellent idea!" cried Rasputin. "Xenie Kalatcheff warned me against
+Miliukoff some time ago, I recollect. I will see her and sound her upon
+the subject." Then, turning to me, he asked me to inquire over the
+telephone if Madame Kalatcheff was at home.
+
+Five minutes later I informed the monk that the lady was at home, and was
+ready to speak with him if he wished.
+
+At once Rasputin went to the instrument, and, after greeting her gaily,
+asked if she could possibly come round to see him "on a very urgent
+affair," to which she at once acceded.
+
+"I had better not see her, so I shall get off," said His Excellency. "Be
+careful how you treat her. Recollect, her mind may have been poisoned
+against you by Miliukoff. These members of the Duma are often very clever
+and cunning."
+
+"Leave the matter in my hands," said the "saint," with a grin. "I will
+soon ascertain her exact attitude, and act accordingly. First, we must
+remove Miliukoff, and next Purishkevitch--who is equally our enemy."
+
+About twenty minutes later I ushered into the monk's presence a pretty,
+handsomely-dressed woman of about twenty-eight, who often attended our
+reunions, and who was one of the best-known society women in Petrograd.
+
+I was about to turn and leave when Rasputin said:
+
+"You can remain, Feodor. The matter upon which I have to speak with our
+sister here concerns you as well as myself."
+
+Then, when the wife of the Councillor of State was seated, Rasputin
+carefully approached the subject of Miliukoff.
+
+"It has been whispered to me that he is my bitter enemy, and that he is
+about to speak against me in the Duma," he said. "I believe your husband
+and he are friendly. Do you happen to know if there is any truth in this
+rumour?"
+
+"Yes, Father, I do," was madame's instant reply. "I warned you of him
+three weeks ago, but you did not heed. I also told Anna Vyrubova, but her
+reply was that you, being divine, would be perfectly able to take care of
+yourself."
+
+"So I am. But it is against God's holy law that human tongues should
+utter lies against me," he said, cleverly impressing upon her the fact
+that if Miliukoff were suppressed it would be no crime, but an act of
+duty.
+
+"To me, in my own house, he has declared his intention of denouncing
+you--and also our dear Anna and the Empress."
+
+The monk was silent. While she was seated he stood before her with folded
+arms, looking straight at her. Suddenly, fixing her with those remarkable
+eyes of his, he asked in a deep, hard voice:
+
+"Xenie, will you permit this man to besmirch the name of him whom God
+hath sent to you?"
+
+"I don't understand!" she cried, surprised at his attitude. "How can I
+prevent it?"
+
+"It lies in your hands," declared the mock saint. "You are his
+friend--and also mine. He visits your house--what more easy--than----"
+
+"Than what?"
+
+"Than you should invite him to take tea with you to-morrow--to discuss
+myself. He knows that you are a 'disciple,' I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, he has somehow learnt it--but my husband is in ignorance, and he
+has promised not to reveal the truth to him."
+
+"If he knows of our friendship he might tell your husband. He is
+unprincipled, and probably will do so. That is why I suggest you should
+ask him to tea."
+
+As he spoke he crossed to the writing-table, and, opening a drawer with
+the key upon his chain, he took out the tiny bottle of exquisite Parisian
+perfume.
+
+"What is that you have there?" she asked, with curiosity, noticing the
+little bottle. "Scent?"
+
+"Yes," he said, with a mysterious grin. "It is, my dear sister, the
+Perfume of Death."
+
+"The Perfume of Death?" she echoed. "I don't understand!"
+
+"Then I will tell you, Xenie," he replied, his great hypnotic eyes again
+fixed upon her. "I do not use perfume myself, but others sometimes, on
+rare occasions, use this. It is unsuspicious, and can be left upon a
+lady's dressing-table. A drop used upon a handkerchief emits a most
+delicate odour, like jasmine, but a single drop in a cup of tea means
+death. For two hours the doomed person feels no effect. But suddenly he
+or she becomes faint, and succumbs to heart disease."
+
+"Ah, I see!" she gasped, half-starting from her chair, her face ashen
+grey. "I--I realise what you intend, Father! I--I----"
+
+And she sank back again in her chair, breathless and aghast, without
+concluding her sentence.
+
+"No!" she shrieked suddenly. "No; I could not be a poisoner--a murderess!
+_Anything but that!_"
+
+"Not for the sake of the one sent by God as saviour of our dear Russia?"
+he asked reproachfully, in a low, intense tone. "That man Miliukoff is
+God's enemy--and ours. In your hand lies the means of removing him in
+secret, without the least suspicion."
+
+And slowly the crafty, insinuating criminal took her inert hand, and
+pressed the little bottle into its soft palm.
+
+"One drop placed upon the lemon which he takes in his tea will be
+sufficient," he whispered. "Only be extremely careful of it yourself, and
+return the bottle to me afterwards. It is best in my safe keeping."
+
+"No! I can't!" cried the wretched woman over whom Rasputin had now once
+again cast his inexplicable spell.
+
+"But you shall, Xenie! I, your holy Father, command you to render this
+assistance to your land. None shall ever know. Feodor, who knows all my
+innermost secrets, will remain dumb. The world cannot suspect, because no
+toxicologist has ever discovered the existence of the perfume, nor are
+they able to discern that death has not resulted from heart disease."
+
+"But I should be a murderess!" gasped the unhappy woman beneath that
+fateful thraldom.
+
+"No. You will be fulfilling a duty--a sin imposed upon you in order that,
+by committing it, you shall purify yourself for a holy life in future,"
+he said, referring to one of the principles of his erotic "religion."
+
+She began to waver, and instantly I saw that Rasputin had won--as he won
+always with women--and that the patriot Miliukoff had been sentenced to
+death.
+
+"Go!" he commanded at last. "Go, and do my bidding. Return to-morrow
+night, and tell me of your--_success_!"
+
+Then he bowed out the reluctant but fascinated young woman, who in her
+silver chain-bag carried the small bottle of perfume.
+
+That night Rasputin, after drinking half a bottle of brandy, retired to
+bed, declaring that women were only created to be the servants of men.
+Then I sat down, and taking a sheet of plain and very common
+writing-paper, I typed upon it a warning to the man who, at the Empress's
+suggestion, was to be so ruthlessly "removed." The words I typed were:
+
+     "You will be invited to tea to-morrow by Xenie Kalatcheff. Do not
+     accept. There is a plot to cause your death. This warning is
+     from--A Friend."
+
+I typed an envelope with Monsieur Miliukoff's address, and then, slipping
+to the door quietly, I stole out and dropped it in the letter-box at the
+corner of the Kazanskaya.
+
+That I had saved the deputy's life I knew next afternoon when Madame
+Kalatcheff sent round a hurried note to Rasputin, explaining that, though
+she had invited him to her house, he had rather curtly refused the
+invitation.
+
+At this the monk telephoned her to come round, and once again she sat in
+his room explaining that she had sent Miliukoff a note urging him to see
+her at four o'clock, as she wished to make some revelations concerning
+the monk that might be useful to him when speaking in the Duma. The
+reply, which she produced, was certainly couched in most indignant terms.
+
+"Can he suspect, do you think, Feodor?" he asked, turning to me.
+
+"How can he?" I asked. "Perhaps, knowing madame to be a 'disciple,' he
+doubts the genuineness of her promised disclosures."
+
+"Perhaps so," Xenie said. "But what can I do if he suspects me? Nothing
+that I can see."
+
+The pair sat anxiously discussing the situation for the next half-hour,
+until at last the State Councillor's wife, handing back the little bottle
+of perfume to the monk, rose and left.
+
+I was secretly much gratified that I had been able to save the Deputy's
+life, yet Rasputin continued to discuss other plans with me, repeating:
+
+"The fellow must die. Alexandra Feodorovna has willed it. While he lives
+he will always be a constant menace. He must die! He _shall_ die!"
+
+Our national hymn, "Boje Tzaria khrani" ("God save the Tsar"), was being
+sung at the moment in the streets, because news of a victory in Poland
+had just been given out to the public.
+
+Already the foundation stone of the revolution had been laid, and M.
+Miliukoff, with purely patriotic motives, had assisted in cementing it.
+The Senatorial revision which was ordained to inquire into General
+Soukhomlinoff's treachery had, owing to Miliukoff's activity, ordered a
+search at the amorous old fellow's private abode early in the spring,
+with the result that he found himself incarcerated in the fortress of
+Peter and Paul. When the general was arrested, madame his wife--an
+adventuress named Gaskevitch, who had commenced life as a typist in a
+solicitor's office, and who was many years his junior--had a terrible
+attack of hysteria, for things had taken for her a most unexpected turn.
+The woman had been implicated in intrigue and treachery ever since. After
+copying some secret papers for a man in Kiev, she had blackmailed him,
+obtained a big sum of money, and then married a man named Boulovitch, a
+prosperous landed proprietor. By thus entering the higher circle of
+society in Kiev, she got to know General Soukhomlinoff, its
+Governor-General, who connived with her to obtain a divorce from
+Boulovitch, so that she subsequently married the bald-headed old Don Juan
+a few months after his appointment as War Minister.
+
+Madame and Rasputin were ever hand-in-glove. From the moment the general
+was arrested she had worked with singular energy and adroitness to
+retrieve her husband's fallen fortune, and in doing so she assisted to
+lay the beginning of the first Revolution. She enlisted the sympathy of
+Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova and the Empress, all of whom were gravely
+apprehensive as to what might come out at the general's trial. She even
+threw herself at the feet of Alexandra Feodorovna, imploring her to
+intercede with the Emperor so as to save her calumniated and injured
+husband. And at last she succeeded.
+
+The inquiries were suspended, the newspapers were silent regarding the
+scandal, and suddenly it became known that, "owing to the general's
+mental state," it had been decided, on the advice of a board of
+well-known medical specialists, to liberate him!
+
+This astounding news passed from mouth to mouth, and Miliukoff, the
+patriotic fire-brand, declared everywhere that it was Rasputin's work.
+The news produced the most sinister impression upon the people,
+especially on those connected with the Army. The man who had been the
+primary cause of Russia's reverses was to escape punishment! It was,
+indeed, this insensate act of folly on the part of the Tsar which had
+undermined the people's trust in their Emperor, and gave Rasputin's
+enemies--and more especially Miliukoff--opportunity for his bitter
+denunciation.
+
+On the afternoon of the day before the opening of the Duma, Rasputin
+received another letter from the Empress, in cipher, as follows:
+
+     "DEAR FATHER,--Nikki still refuses to postpone the Duma, though I
+     have done all I can to induce him to do so. Come to us at once
+     and try to force him to our views. Not a moment should be lost. I
+     have just heard that Miliukoff is still active, so conclude that
+     what you told me has failed.
+
+     "P. [Protopopoff] has told me an hour ago that Skoropadski [a
+     German agent living in Petrograd as a jeweller in the Nevski] has
+     betrayed us all, and has placed some most incriminating documents
+     in the hands of Miliukoff, who has, in turn, shown them to
+     Purishkevitch. They will be produced in the Duma to-morrow. The
+     police traced Skoropadski to Riga, but they have failed to arrest
+     him, and he has, alas! escaped to Sweden.
+
+     "Holy Father, do not delay a moment in coming to your daughter to
+     comfort her in this her blackest hour! Miliukoff must be
+     prevented from denouncing you. I cannot conceive how your
+     arrangement with Madame Kalatcheff has failed. The perfume has
+     never failed before. Alix is constantly asking for you, and Olga
+     kisses your dear hand. Seek the Emperor at once before coming to
+     me, or he may suspect us to be in collusion. I have quarrelled
+     with him, because by his obstinacy he will ruin us all. How I
+     wish that Miliukoff would be stricken down! Do not delay.
+     Come!--Your devoted daughter,
+                                                                   "A."
+
+Well I knew that the German-born Empress was sitting alone in the palace
+breathlessly anxious as to what disclosures were forthcoming. She was
+not blind to her increasing unpopularity and to the unkind things said
+openly of her. Somebody had just started a rumour that there was a secret
+wireless plant at the palace, by which she could communicate direct with
+Potsdam. Indeed, so many people believed this that, after the Tsar's
+abdication, every nook, corner and garret of Tsarskoe-Selo was searched,
+but without success. Stuermer, Fredericks, Protopopoff, the poison-monger
+Badmayev, Anna Vyrubova, and half-a-dozen others, who formed the dark and
+sinister forces that were rapidly hurling Russia to her doom, were that
+day as anxious and terrified as the Empress herself. Well they knew that
+if Miliukoff, armed with those incriminating documents--the exact nature
+of which they knew not--spoke the truth in the Legislature, then a storm
+of indignation would sweep over them in such a manner that they could
+never withstand it.
+
+Rasputin, thus summoned, went at once to the palace, and I accompanied
+him. He proceeded straight to the Emperor's private room, while I waited
+in a room adjoining.
+
+I heard their voices raised. The Emperor's was raised in protest; that of
+the monk in angry threats.
+
+"If thou wilt not postpone the Duma, then the peril will be upon thine
+own head!" I heard Rasputin shout. "Why allow these revolutionary
+deputies to criticise thy policy and undermine thy popularity with the
+nation? It is folly! Such policy is suicidal, and if thou wilt persist I
+shall withdraw and return to my home, well knowing that to-morrow the day
+of Russia's doom will dawn."
+
+"The people are clamouring for the reopening of the Duma," replied the
+Emperor weakly. "I can do nothing else but submit."
+
+"I have had a vision," declared the monk. "Last night there was revealed
+unto me the dire result of thy folly. I saw thee, the victim of thy
+nation's anger, dethroned, degraded and imprisoned."
+
+But even that lie failed to induce the Tsar to alter his decision, and
+naturally so, for he was afraid of the dark cloud which he saw rising,
+and which he believed to be due to the long adjournment of the Duma.
+Hence he was afraid to take the monk's advice.
+
+Again I heard both men's voices raised in hot argument.
+
+"I am Emperor!" cried the Tsar at last, angrily, in a high, shrill tone,
+"and I refuse to be thus dictated to!"
+
+Next second there was a loud crash of glass, and I heard Rasputin shout:
+
+"Thou refuseth to listen to good counsel! As I have smashed that bowl, so
+will the people, I tell thee, rise and smash the House of Romanoff!"
+
+With those words he turned, and a moment later rejoined me, his face
+flushed with anger, and his knotted fingers clenched.
+
+He went straight to the Empress and told her of his failure to move
+Nicholas from his decision.
+
+"But surely this man Miliukoff must be prevented from speaking!" cried
+the unhappy woman, who saw all her deep-laid schemes crumbling rapidly
+away, and herself branded as a traitress. "Father, you must work yet
+another miracle. He must be seized by a sudden illness--an accident must
+happen to him, or--or something!"
+
+Rasputin shook his head dubiously, declaring that there was no time to
+arrange a second attempt.
+
+"Have you put it to Protopopoff?" she asked. "He might suggest some
+means, now that the woman Kalatcheff has failed us. If not--he will
+speak--and we are lost! Think, Father, what it all means! There is
+already public unrest created by the rumours that we have unfortunately
+spread of pending disaster, and if they are followed by such charges
+supported by documents, then revolution is inevitable!"
+
+I saw that the Tsaritza, now that every means to secure Miliukoff's
+silence had failed, was terrified lest she be exhibited in her own true
+traitorous colours.
+
+Back we went to Petrograd, where we called at Protopopoff's house, and
+where still another attempt against Miliukoff's life was plotted.
+
+By telephone an ex-agent of Secret Police named Stefanovitch, who had
+done much work as an _agent-provocateur_ for the camarilla, was called,
+and a price was at once arranged for the murder of the Deputy.
+
+He was to be shot at and killed outside the Tauris Palace, just before
+two o'clock, as he was entering the Duma. He would probably be walking
+round to the Chamber from his house with his bosom friend M.
+Purishkevitch.
+
+"You will surely know somebody to whom the affair can be entrusted,
+Ivan," said the Minister of the Interior. "If arrested, he will be
+allowed ample opportunity to escape. Naturally he would not come up for
+trial. I would see to that. So you can give him my personal assurance."
+
+"I should suggest a woman," said the man Stefanovitch. "I know one who
+would not hesitate to act as we wish. Her name is Marie Grozdoff, a
+Polish Jewess. I can trust her. She has done something similar for us
+before."
+
+"And the price?"
+
+"The price will be all right," replied the provocating agent, with a
+business-like air.
+
+"Then we entrust the affair to you, Ivan," said His Excellency. "You will
+receive for yourself ten thousand roubles if Miliukoff dies."
+
+And the man went forth to find the woman, who, for money, would not
+hesitate to commit murder.
+
+That night proved a sleepless one for us all. I tried to warn Miliukoff
+again by sending him an anonymous letter, which I posted in secret after
+the monk had retired. But my great fear was lest the letter would not
+reach his hand in time. Probably it would not be delivered till the
+midday post--and if so, he would not see it till after the opening of the
+Duma!
+
+Next morning passed anxiously. Protopopoff had told us over the
+telephone that Stefanovitch had seen the woman Grozdoff, and that all was
+arranged.
+
+I went early to the Duma, and sat among the crowd in the public gallery,
+while Rasputin remained at home, and the Empress at the palace, with Anna
+near the telephone, she having arranged for brief reports of the
+proceedings to be telephoned to her at intervals of a quarter of an hour
+each during the sitting.
+
+M. Michael Rodzianko, the President, gravely took his seat on the stroke
+of two, and the House was crowded. The diplomatic boxes were filled to
+overflowing, the British, French, Italian and United States Ambassadors,
+together with the Ministers of most of the neutral countries, being
+present.
+
+The usual prayer was offered, but neither M. Miliukoff nor M.
+Purishkevitch was in his place!
+
+Had the attempt been successful? I held my breath and wondered. I had
+been listening for a shot, but heard nothing.
+
+Suddenly my heart gave a bound. A pleasant-looking, grey-haired man, in
+gold-rimmed spectacles, and carrying a big bundle of papers, had entered
+by the back way, and was walking to his seat. It was M. Miliukoff! He had
+had my anonymous letter, and had come in by the back way, being followed
+by his bearded, bald-headed friend. Once again had I been able to warn
+him of danger.
+
+The Government was now dancing upon a volcano.
+
+The sitting opened, the President Rodzianko made a speech in which he
+criticised severely the policy of the Stuermer Government, and everyone
+realised the seriousness of the situation now that the President of the
+Duma came out against the Prime Minister.
+
+"The Government must learn from us what the country needs," said
+Rodzianko fiercely. "The Government must not follow a path different from
+the people. With the confidence of the nation it must head the social
+forces in the march toward victory over the enemy, along the path that
+harmonises with the aspirations of the people. There is no other path to
+be followed."
+
+Then the President went on to declare that, though there was no discord
+among the Allies, yet there was no trick that the enemy would not play
+with the treacherous object of wrecking their alliance. "Russia will not
+betray her friends," he declared, "and I say she, with contempt, refuses
+any consideration of a separate peace."
+
+The speech was greeted with thunderous outbursts of applause, while
+Stuermer, who was present, rose and left after its conclusion.
+
+Then, when the applause and cheering of the Ambassadors of the Allies had
+died down; Paul Miliukoff, the brilliant leader of the Constitutional
+Democrats, rose gravely and began to speak.
+
+That speech, which the camarilla had vainly striven strenuously to
+suppress, proved historic, and was mainly the cause of Stuermer's
+overthrow. Boldly and relentlessly he showed his hearers the favour with
+which the Teutons regarded Stuermer and the consternation caused in the
+Allied camp by his activities. Reading extracts from German and Austrian
+newspapers, he brought out the fact that the Central Powers regarded
+Stuermer as a member "of those circles which look on the war against
+Germany without particular enthusiasm"; that Stuermer's appointment to the
+Foreign Ministry was greeted in the Teutonic countries as the beginning
+of a new era in Russian politics, while the dismissal of Sazonov produced
+in the Entente countries an effect "such as would have been produced by a
+pogrom."
+
+The crowning sensation, however, was what he revealed concerning
+Stuermer's connection with the blackmailing operations of his private
+secretary, Manasevitch-Manuiloff, who, a few weeks before, had been
+arrested on a charge of bribery. The secretary told the directors of a
+Petrograd bank that proceedings were being instituted against them by the
+Ministry of the Interior for alleged trading with the enemy, and offered
+to suppress the affair "through influential friends" for a large
+consideration.
+
+The representatives of the bank had special reasons to get even with the
+"dark forces," and especially Protopopoff, since the retired Minister of
+the Interior, A. N. Khvostov, was a brother of the bank's president.
+Khvostov owed his dismissal to a plot to kill Rasputin, which was
+investigated by Manuiloff. The directors of the bank, therefore, accepted
+the fellow's offer, handing him over a large sum of money in marked
+notes.
+
+Later Manuiloff was arrested by the military authorities with the bribe
+in his possession. His release, however, followed soon, and the name of
+Manuiloff was on everybody's lips. Miliukoff, in his speech, said,
+regarding Manuiloff's liberation:
+
+"Why was this gentleman arrested? That has been known long ago, and I
+shall be saying nothing new if I tell you what you already know, namely,
+that he was arrested for extorting bribes, and that he was liberated
+because--that is also no secret--he told the examining magistrates that
+he shared the bribes with the President of the Council of Ministers."
+
+Thus was Boris Stuermer denounced as a traitor and blackmailer!
+
+But worse was to follow. M. Miliukoff vehemently condemned the Empress
+for her support of the plan, originated in Germany, of a speedy and
+separate peace, regardless of circumstances, conditions, or national
+honour. He quoted further passages from German newspapers, in which "_die
+Friedens-partei der jungen Tzarin_" (the Peace Party of the young
+Tsaritza) was freely discussed. He was very outspoken in referring to the
+"dark forces" which surrounded the Throne and had lately assumed such
+overwhelming dimensions, and he openly declared "that man, the monk
+Gregory Rasputin, the ex-horse-stealer and pet saint of Alexandra
+Feodorovna, is, gentlemen, nothing more than an erotic charlatan, who is
+the catspaw of the Kaiser!"
+
+The effect of this was electrical. The House sat staggered.
+
+"Yes, gentlemen," he went on, striking the bundle of papers which lay
+upon the desk before him, "I have here documentary evidence of the
+traitorous actions of this camarilla, who are attempting to lead Russia
+to her doom--papers which shall be revealed to you all in due course. It
+is said that the Prime Minister has already left the Chamber to make a
+personal report to His Majesty of the President's speech. All I trust is
+that the words I have just uttered will also reach the Emperor's ears,
+and that he will trouble himself to examine the irrefutable evidence of
+Rasputin's diabolical work at the Palace and in the Ministries, and the
+crafty machinations of the 'black forces' in our midst."
+
+The Manuiloff disclosures were sufficiently dramatic, but this outspoken
+exposure of Rasputin, the more bitter, perhaps, because of my warnings of
+the two attempts to assassinate him, caused the House to gasp.
+
+The very name of Rasputin had only been breathed in whispers, and his
+cult was referred to vaguely as something mysterious connected with the
+occult. But in that speech, to which I sat and listened, Miliukoff hit
+straight from the shoulder, and called a spade a spade. One of his
+phrases was, "Russia can never win so long as this convicted criminal and
+seducer of women is allowed to work his amazing power upon the rulers of
+the Empire. Remove him!" he went on. "Let him be placed safely within the
+walls of Peter and Paul, together with his 'sisters,' and with all his
+brother-traitors, and then there will be no more suggestion of a separate
+peace. Remove his evil influence!" shouted the fine orator, his voice
+ringing through the Chamber. "I say, remove him from the Imperial circle,
+or Russia is doomed!"
+
+I left the Duma by that long stone staircase with a feeling that at last
+the power behind the Throne, nay, the very Throne itself, was broken.
+
+I sped to Rasputin's house, and with pretended regret related all that
+had occurred.
+
+Hearing it, he sprang to the telephone, declaring in a hoarse voice: "The
+Censor must prohibit every word of it from publication. I will demand
+this of Nicholas!"
+
+And a few moments later he was speaking with the Emperor, urging that an
+order to the Censor be immediately issued--a suggestion that was at once
+carried out.
+
+Meanwhile a dramatic scene was being enacted in the Empress's boudoir,
+for that day proved the beginning of the end of the holy Father's career,
+as well as that of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE TRAITOR DENOUNCED
+
+
+THE Empress, on hearing what had happened in the Duma, had a fit of
+hysterics. Nicholas was present while the Court physician administered
+restoratives. Then, without a word, he turned, and, leaving his wife in
+the care of the traitress Anna Vyrubova, he left for General
+Headquarters.
+
+When Rasputin was informed by telephone of the Emperor's departure he
+became furious.
+
+"He fears to meet Stuermer!" he cried to me. "He is leaving him in the
+lurch."
+
+And this he did, for the next day the fate of Russia trembled in the
+balance, while the Black Monk went about to the Ministers in frantic
+haste, hoping and plotting to turn public opinion again in his favour.
+The charlatan, who could work miracles, and was the Heaven-sent saviour
+of Russia, had been exposed as a mere impostor. Stuermer's position had
+also become desperate under the concerted attacks of the Duma. A meeting
+of the Cabinet was held, at which the monk was present. Stuermer, with
+Protopopoff's support, proposed to dissolve the Duma. Some members
+opposed the suggestion, whereupon Stuermer resolved to execute it upon his
+own initiative.
+
+In Rasputin's room, and in my presence, he drew up a document to that
+effect, but to make it law it required the Tsar's consent, and Nicholas
+was far away. It was Stuermer or the Duma.
+
+Alexandra Feodorovna and Rasputin were both working with Stuermer to
+dissolve the people's representatives, and again prevent them from
+reassembling.
+
+As Rasputin put it to me clearly that night:
+
+"Feodor, this is a great crisis. The Duma and Stuermer are incompatible.
+The victory of the latter will mean revolution. The triumph of the Duma
+will indicate the winning of the battle by the democracy. To achieve his
+purpose, Stuermer needs an audience with the Tsar, and he must have it.
+Alexandra Feodorovna seems to be failing us, for Nicholas has hidden
+himself, hoping that the storm will blow over."
+
+Stuermer strained every effort to obtain audience with the Emperor, but he
+was elusive, and for days no one knew where he was. An audience would
+mean the dissolution of the Duma, and this Nicholas feared would bring
+revolution.
+
+As is well known, by a record published by an American journalist, there
+suddenly appeared in the Duma the Ministers of War and Marine, General
+Shuvaiev and Admiral Grigorovitch. They announced that they had a
+statement to make. The representatives of the people held their breath in
+suspense. The War Minister mounted the tribune, and paid a tribute to the
+people's efforts in the cause of national defence, requesting the Duma's
+and the country's future co-operation in the work of equipping the army.
+The Minister of Marine reiterated General Shuvaiev's demand for
+co-operation between the Government and the Duma. The latter, perhaps,
+never witnessed such a scene as that which followed the two Ministers'
+speeches. There was a great ovation, after which Miliukoff rose and said:
+
+"The War and Marine Ministers have declared themselves on the side of the
+Duma and the people. We, on our part, have said that the Duma is with the
+army and the people."
+
+This sealed the fate of Boris Stuermer. The people had achieved their
+first victory over the "dark forces," and Stuermer, driven out, came one
+night to us, and, pacing the room, tore his beard and cursed both the
+Emperor and Empress.
+
+Then, turning upon Rasputin, he cried with a sneer:
+
+"And you, the holy Father and our divine guide, have been powerless to
+save us! Where are your miraculous powers? Only in your own imagination,
+I am beginning to think."
+
+These words led to a serious quarrel and bitter recriminations, for the
+Empress, to save herself, had dropped Stuermer, so that Protopopoff had
+become instantly the favourite at Court, and, indeed, dictator.
+
+Two weeks went by, weeks of the tensest scenes in the contest between the
+democracy and the conspirators, of whom Rasputin and the Empress were the
+head. Protopopoff defied the new Premier, Alexander Trepov, a hide-bound
+bureaucrat, as well as the Duma, and it was then that the crisis was
+reached.
+
+Each day we went regularly to Tsarskoe-Selo, and there another plot was
+quickly hatched. While the public were daily expecting the downfall of
+Protopopoff as a natural outcome of Stuermer's denunciation and
+degradation, they were one day suddenly staggered by the news that the
+retired Premier was about to be appointed Ambassador to a neutral
+country.
+
+Everywhere I went I heard the most sinister dissatisfaction. The people
+knew what was meant, namely, that the Germanophile Stuermer was to
+negotiate a premature peace, and this within three weeks of his downfall!
+The whole Empire was agog at the news, yet Rasputin remained calm and
+silent, believing that his clever plot would be successful.
+
+Certainly it might have been had not the Duma continued its concerted
+attack on the "dark forces," demanding a responsible Ministry. Even half
+of the Extreme Right, the most rabid monarchical faction in the Duma,
+joined the Opposition, a fact which, when told to the Empress, sent her
+again into hysterics.
+
+I remember that day well. Hardt had arrived hot-foot from Berlin, and
+brought the monk a dispatch which, when deciphered, read as follows:
+
+     "MEMORANDUM FROM NO. 70. A.43,286.
+                                              "November 8th, 1916.
+
+     "The attitude of the Duma is creating much alarm for your
+     personal safety. As you have failed to suppress Miliukoff,
+     endeavour at once to remove his chief supporter Purishkevitch.
+     Inform A. [Anna Vyrubova] that Korniloff has revealed to P. her
+     duplicity in the Zarudni affair, and P. has in his possession
+     certain documents incriminating her. These should be secured at
+     all hazards. [G. Zarudni, active in political law cases, and who
+     was, after the Revolution, appointed Minister of Justice in the
+     Kerensky Cabinet.] P. intends to make use of these in the Duma.
+     It is suggested, therefore, that the woman X. [Xenie Kalatcheff]
+     be again given the perfume, with instructions from yourself. If
+     not, employ the girl Olga Bauer. She posed as a domestic servant
+     in the Princess Tchekmareff affair, and was successful. Why not
+     utilise her again?
+
+     "Inform Her Majesty that Stuermer must come back to power very
+     shortly. But this is impossible while Miliukoff and Purishkevitch
+     have the ear of the people. Not a second should be lost in
+     suppressing them. We have heard with satisfaction of the removal
+     of the woman Marya Ustryaloff and the man Paul Krizhitsky. Both
+     knew too much, and, though they served us faithfully, were not
+     further required. [When the sphere of usefulness of German secret
+     agents ends they generally meet with untimely deaths.]
+
+     "Also inform Her Majesty that she and her daughters should
+     exhibit a keener interest in the wounded in order to win back
+     public favour. You, too, should perform another miracle.
+
+     "We hear with regret that, though the allegations made by
+     Miliukoff were suppressed by the Censor, typewritten copies of
+     the speech are being widely distributed everywhere. If you do not
+     act with a firm hand, this will upset all our plans. The moment
+     is critical, and all depends upon your own drastic
+     actions.--Greeting,
+                                                     "S." [Steinhauer].
+
+That same evening the bearded blackguard communicated to the Tsaritza and
+the elegant _morphineuse_ Anna Vyrubova the contents of the secret
+dispatch.
+
+Both Empress and lady-in-waiting, in their rich evening gowns, came to
+the fine apartments which were allotted to the monk in the palace, and as
+they were seated I read over the message.
+
+"Yes," declared Her Majesty when I had finished; "I quite agree that the
+girl Olga Bauer should receive instructions. Order Protopopoff to make
+inquiry into the best means by which she can approach Purishkevitch. The
+fellow must be prevented from implicating our dear Anna in the Zarudni
+affair."
+
+"Yes," said Madame Vyrubova in alarm; "it would ruin not only myself, but
+the Empress also."
+
+"I will do thy bidding," Rasputin responded, standing with his hands
+behind his back, his great cross suspended from his neck scintillating
+beneath the light.
+
+"The girl Bauer, posing as a domestic servant, managed to ingratiate
+herself with Prince Tchekmareff, and gave the perfume to her mistress
+with success," remarked Anna. "And there was not the slightest suspicion.
+Xenie Kalatcheff failed, therefore I am not in favour of her being
+employed again."
+
+"True, Olga is a girl of great daring, and her lover has long been in the
+German service," Rasputin remarked. "I will see her to-morrow." Then,
+turning to me, he said: "Feodor, write to her and ask her to call on me
+to-morrow evening at eight. Send the letter by special messenger."
+
+This I did, and next evening the girl Bauer called. She was slim, very
+pretty, and dressed as she was, as a girl of the people, none would
+suspect her of having committed several secret murders at Rasputin's
+instructions.
+
+"Olga," he said, when she was shown into his room, "really you are
+growing prettier each day! I envy Ivan Ivanovitch, for he has good
+taste."
+
+"You flatter me, Father," said the girl, blushing.
+
+"I speak the truth," declared the monk, twisting the end of his beard in
+his fingers and fixing his strange eyes upon hers. "But," he went on, "I
+asked you here because I want you to help our cause once again--with the
+perfume."
+
+She grew serious in an instant.
+
+"Who is obnoxious?" she asked quickly, in a hard voice.
+
+"Purishkevitch," declared the monk. "The man has somewhere in his house
+certain incriminating papers regarding Madame Vyrubova. These, however,
+do not concern you. When the Deputy is dead I will have the police search
+the house at once, and the papers when found will be handed to me. You
+must repeat the role you played in Prince Tchekmareff's household."
+
+With these words he rose and took from a drawer he unlocked a small
+bottle containing a piece of cotton-wool, saying:
+
+"This wool has been soaked in the perfume and dried, so that it is more
+easily carried and less suspicious than in liquid form. Just place a
+little water on the wool and squeeze it out, when you have the perfume
+ready to hand."
+
+The pretty girl took the little wide-mouthed bottle and held it against
+the light.
+
+"The Deputy will be difficult to approach," she said. "He is not a
+fast-living man, like some with whom I have dealt."
+
+"He will not be able to resist a pretty face like yours," Rasputin said
+confidently.
+
+"Well," she said at last, "I will try, Father. Give me your blessing."
+
+And she went upon her knees, while the erotic blackguard placed his dirty
+hands upon her head, and, raising his eyes to Heaven, pretended to place
+upon her his benediction.
+
+Afterwards, before she left us, she told us that she knew that the Deputy
+had a young man-servant named Protzenko, and it would be her object to
+first attract his attention and become on intimate terms with him, by
+which means she would be enabled to visit the servants' quarters of
+Purishkevitch's house.
+
+"Excellent--if you do not think that you could obtain a place there as
+servant."
+
+"That would be difficult, for I happen to know that all the servants have
+been there for years, and that there is no vacancy."
+
+"Well, Olga, act just as you like," the monk said. "Only remove him, and
+then telephone instantly to me, so that the police can search
+immediately."
+
+Of the girl Bauer we heard nothing for a fortnight. Time after time I
+felt impelled to warn the doomed man, but I feared lest Rasputin should
+suspect me of treachery, the other plots having failed. One night, while
+at the palace, I was informed by a flunkey that someone wished to speak
+with the monk on the public telephone, therefore I went to the
+instrument.
+
+The voice I heard was that of Olga Bauer, who, when she recognised me,
+said:
+
+"Tell the Father that his wishes were carried out half an hour ago. You
+know what I mean--eh?"
+
+"Yes," I replied. "I know--I will tell him at once." And then I rang off.
+
+Returning to Rasputin's handsome room I repeated the message, whereupon
+he sprang up with eager delight, and ringing up Protopopoff at his house
+in Petrograd, told him to order an immediate police search of
+Purishkevitch's house, as had already been arranged.
+
+After that I had some business with the Master of the Imperial Household
+in the opposite wing of the palace, and it was not till half-an-hour
+later that I re-entered the "saint's" room.
+
+I found Rasputin foaming with rage and stamping up and down the room in
+fury.
+
+"I told the Empress and Anna the good news, now to find that it is
+false!" he cried. "The police made a domiciliary visit only to be greeted
+by Purishkevitch himself. Think of it!"
+
+"Then the fellow is not dead!" I gasped in amazement.
+
+"No. He is still alive. His valet Protzenko died an hour ago. That fool
+of a girl has blundered!"
+
+As he uttered these words the door opened and the Empress appeared,
+looking pale and desperate.
+
+"Father," she said, "this is a very serious contretemps for us all. How
+do we not know that the girl Bauer purposely removed the valet in place
+of his master? The visit of the police will arouse the suspicion of our
+enemy, and he may trace the crime to his valet's female acquaintance.
+What then?"
+
+"I had never thought of that!" replied the monk, halting erect before
+her. "She might, in that case, betray us! Truly thou hast spoken words of
+wisdom!"
+
+"Yes. In the girl I discern a possible enemy--and in this crisis we
+should take no risks."
+
+"I agree. I will take steps. If she has betrayed us, then she shall be
+tried for the murder of Princess Tchekmareff. Whatever allegations she
+makes against me will not be allowed to transpire at the trial."
+
+"Or get Nikki to sign an order for her banishment to Siberia as an
+exile," suggested the scheming Empress.
+
+"Ah! my daughter, thou art always wise. An excellent plan! I will first
+make inquiries, and then ask for the Emperor's signature."
+
+Though matters had assumed the most serious aspect in those last days of
+November, Rasputin, bent upon revenge and full of chagrin at being unable
+to obtain possession of those incriminating letters of the high priestess
+of his disgraceful cult, Madame Vyrubova, was busy making inquiries, and
+among those he questioned was Ivan Ivanovitch, a bookbinder in Petrograd,
+who was Olga's lover, and who regarded the monk with considerable
+disfavour, a fact of which Rasputin was unaware.
+
+The young man, in consequence of the nature of the questions put to him
+by the monk, guessed what was in his mind, and that same day told Olga
+that Rasputin disbelieved her story how the valet had drunk the glass of
+kuemmel that had been poured out for his master, and that, full of
+chagrin, he was plotting a revenge.
+
+Of this we knew nothing till afterwards. But on the same night as Ivan
+Ivanovitch revealed the truth to her Olga called upon Rasputin, and I
+admitted her.
+
+"I wish to see the Father," she said, in a deep, earnest voice.
+
+"I will go and see if he will receive you," I answered, and I left her in
+the ante-room.
+
+Rasputin ordered her to be shown in, whereupon, as soon as she crossed
+the threshold, she drew a revolver, and, dashing toward him, fired. The
+bullet missed, and she fired again, also without effect, before I could
+rush up and seize her. She struggled with me with a strength born of
+madness.
+
+"What does this mean, woman?" asked the monk, standing with his arms
+folded, while I held her wrists, the weapon having fallen upon the
+polished floor during our wild struggle.
+
+"It means that I intend to rid the world of a base blackguard and
+betrayer of women!" she said. "I have been in your toils and done your
+dirty work, and now, because I have failed, you intend to denounce me,
+and so close my lips. But they will never be closed. The evidence which
+Purishkevitch holds is complete. I have seen it. Protzenko discovered me
+tampering with his master's papers, so I first assured him it was out of
+curiosity, and then I gave him a little of the perfume."
+
+We both stood aghast at learning the truth.
+
+"It surprises you!" she shrieked, still in my grip. "But you may be more
+surprised when you know that I have become a friend and partisan of the
+Deputy, and that with Ivan I have united to hasten the downfall of
+you--the Black Monk of Petrograd!"
+
+"Silence, woman!" thundered Rasputin, casting an evil glance at her.
+"Hold her, Feodor. I will lock the door!"
+
+Then, picking up the revolver, he strode to the door, which he locked and
+took the key. Passing to the telephone, he was soon speaking with
+Protopopoff, whom he ordered to send police officers to conduct the girl
+Bauer to the fortress of Peter and Paul.
+
+"And I also order you to arrest the girl's lover, Ivan Ivanovitch, as a
+dangerous political. You know his address," he said to the Minister.
+
+"Now you can release her!" he added, turning to me. "And write at my
+dictation."
+
+The girl stood staggered at hearing Rasputin's orders to the Minister of
+the Interior.
+
+"No, no!" she shrieked. "Forgive me! forgive me, Father! I--I was
+mad--_mad!_ Ivan urged me to do this--to kill you!"
+
+"Write as I tell you, Feodor," Rasputin ordered.
+
+Then, as I sat at the table, he dictated the following lines:
+
+     "It is by our order that the woman Olga Alexandrovna Bauer,
+     native of Orel, shall be deported without trial to Yakutsk, in
+     Eastern Siberia, and there sent to penal servitude for life. And
+     further, that Ivan Ivanovitch shall be confined for life in the
+     Fortress of Schluesselburg. Given at our Palace of Tsarskoe-Selo,
+     December 1st, 1916."
+
+"The Emperor will sign that to-morrow," he added.
+
+The unfortunate girl, shrieking loudly, threw herself at the feet of the
+monk, imploring forgiveness.
+
+"No, my pretty one!" he replied. "You would open your lips if I gave you
+the chance. But you will not have it. You are my enemy, and the enemies
+of Gregory Rasputin never prevail for long, for he takes good care of
+that!"
+
+She had a fit of hysterics, but quickly came to consciousness again, only
+to find herself in the hands of six grey-coated police officers, who
+roughly bundled her out into the hall, shrieking and cursing the
+blasphemous blackguard who was the real ruler of the Empire.
+
+An hour after the girl Bauer had been taken away a secret messenger from
+Berlin brought us another dispatch in cipher, which, when I decoded it,
+read:
+
+     "MEMORANDUM FROM NO. 70. 68,428. G.
+
+     "Instructions from the Emperor William are to the effect that
+     Germany will deliver a peace offer to Russia on December 12th.
+     Inform Her Majesty of this, and tell her to use all her influence
+     with the Emperor and all the Ministers towards an acceptance.
+
+     "Instructions to our friend P. [Protopopoff] are to continue his
+     destructive activities. He must muzzle the Press more closely,
+     hold up all food, and continue provocative work in all quarters.
+     It is only by producing extreme suffering that you can bring
+     about an uprising for peace. Code now changed to No.
+     5.--Greetings,
+                                                                "S."
+
+Duly the German offer of peace was made on December 12th, and Russia was
+tottering to her doom. The offer, engineered by the "black forces," gave
+opportunity to the Duma to express its pent-up feelings. Both Miliukoff
+and his friend who had so narrowly escaped the "perfume" declared
+publicly that the camarilla favoured the acceptance of the offer.
+
+Of the truth of this I can myself vouch, for Alexandra Feodorovna had,
+since her holy Father had received the secret dispatch, spared no effort
+to induce the Emperor and the Cabinet to accept the olive branch.
+
+Nicholas refused. Whatever may be said of him, I know personally that on
+many occasions he proved his loyalty to the Allies against the evil
+counsels of Stuermer and the others.
+
+The nation, however, had to be pacified, so the Tsar called the
+newly-appointed Foreign Minister, Petrovsky, who represented the best
+type of bureaucrat, and instructed him how to act. In consequence, three
+days after the Teuton proposal was made, he announced Russia's rejection
+of a "premature peace." Immediately after the Foreign Minister's
+declaration, the Duma passed a resolution, which contained the following
+declaration:
+
+     "Having heard the statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
+     the Duma unanimously favours a categorical refusal by the Allied
+     Governments to enter, under present conditions, into any peace
+     negotiations whatever."
+
+Truly, public opinion was becoming more than ever inflamed.
+
+Yet "Satan in a silk hat," seated in the Ministry of the Interior, was
+working his evil machinations upon the nation to create the greatest
+possible suffering and unrest, as his taskmaster in Berlin had ordered.
+And in this he had an able assistant in the unwashed "saint," who a few
+days before, in collusion with his friend the ex-conjurer, had in a low
+quarter of Petrograd performed a trick which all believed to be a
+"miracle."
+
+One of Protopopoff's schemes, which he successfully carried out, was that
+of sowing discontent among the masses by spreading mysterious leaflets
+calling for rebellion on the issue of peace. By this he attempted to
+disrupt the organic life of the country and of the army. With Rasputin he
+was plotting to create a clamour which would justify the Government in
+opening separate peace negotiations and throwing the Allies overboard.
+
+Unfortunately for him, however, the unions of zemstvos and of towns
+remained patriotic. So he prohibited their meetings in order to cause
+demonstrations and riots.
+
+To all pleas and the warnings of those who saw the handwriting on the
+wall the Emperor remained deaf.
+
+One afternoon, while I was with Rasputin in his apartments at the palace,
+the Empress entered, flushed and excited.
+
+"Father! I have had such a blow. What do you think has happened?" she
+gasped. "Nicholas [the Grand Duke] has just had the audacity to read
+before Nikki and myself a statement which was outrageous. I snatched it
+from his hand and tore it up! Oh! it is infamous that I should be thus
+treated!"
+
+"What has happened?" asked the monk, in his slow, deliberate way. "Do not
+distress thyself, my sister." And he made the sign of the cross.
+
+"He has declared that you, our dear Father, have become the ruler of
+Russia; that Protopopoff was appointed through you, and that about you
+is centred a clique of enemy spies and charlatans, and he actually urged
+Nikki to protect Olga and myself from you! When he had finished his
+statement, fearing that he had gone too far, Nicholas said, 'Now call
+your Cossacks and have me killed and buried in your garden.' Nikki merely
+smiled."
+
+"He would hear nothing against thee, I hope," said Rasputin anxiously.
+
+"Nothing. Nikki assured him that I had nothing to do with politics, and
+dismissed the allegations by declaring that he entirely disbelieved
+them."
+
+"Excellent!" exclaimed the monk; but afterwards, when he sat in the room,
+he remained silent and thoughtful for a long time.
+
+At last he exclaimed aloud to me:
+
+"Miliukoff must be removed. While he lives we are all in danger. We must
+try another method."
+
+Matters had now reached a most desperate crisis, for on the following day
+Vladimir Purishkevitch, who had opposed the Government so strenuously in
+spite of his monarchical affiliations, came to see the Tsar to warn him
+also of the evil forces about him. But His Majesty took no heed.
+Therefore, two days later, he delivered from the tribune of the Duma some
+terrible allegations against the camarilla.
+
+Meanwhile Rasputin had been active, and, with Stuermer's aid, had got hold
+of a man named Dubrovin, the leader of "the Black Hundred" and a close
+associate of the "dark forces." This man had, in turn, induced a man
+named Prohozhi, a member of the organisation, to accept a sum of money in
+return for the assassination of Miliukoff by means of a bomb.
+
+All was arranged for the night of December 20th, and Rasputin sat with
+the Empress eagerly awaiting news that the deed had been accomplished.
+Instead of that, however, Protopopoff rang up from his house in Petrograd
+to say that Prohozhi had, on reflection, hesitated to harm Miliukoff, and
+moreover had revealed to young Prince Felix Youssoupoff and several
+others the whole of the conspiracy!
+
+When told of this the Empress fainted. She saw that all was now lost.
+Indeed, on the following day Miliukoff rose in the Duma and made a second
+and more powerful attack upon the camarilla, singling out Protopopoff as
+one of the worst offenders. Again he held in his hand his famous bundle
+of documents, evidence of the treachery of the "dark forces," and in a
+magnificent speech he defied the Government, and urged the people to
+judge matters for themselves in the light which those documents would
+cast upon events. In that latest denunciation of Rasputin and his friends
+there was a ring that resounded through Europe.
+
+The Tsar had again left for the front, while the Empress, nervous and
+trembling, held Rasputin and Anna ever at her side. The precious trio
+which had wrecked Russia were now seriously perturbed at the ugly state
+of public opinion. A dark storm-cloud had arisen, but Rasputin, with his
+boldness and contempt for the people, assured the Empress that there was
+no cause for anxiety, and that all would be well.
+
+The seances of the sister-disciples in Petrograd had been suspended, for
+the monk remained at the palace, and scarcely ever left it. Protopopoff
+came daily to consult with the Empress, with her mock-pious favourite and
+the treacherous pro-German Fredericks, for yet another fresh plot was
+being formed against those who were so antagonistic to the Government, a
+plot which was to be worked by unscrupulous _agents-provocateurs_, with
+the object of placing among their effects incriminating correspondence
+relating to a widespread conspiracy (which did not exist) to overthrow
+the monarchy and suppress the House of Romanoff. The idea, having
+originated in Rasputin's fertile brain, had been taken up with frantic
+haste, for each member of the "dark forces" had decided that "something
+must be done," and that the situation had become most perilous for them
+all.
+
+In those snowy December days, the people at last realised that they were
+being tricked, and that the German-born Empress was striving, with her
+sycophants and with the "holy" rascal, for a separate peace. Secret
+meetings were being held everywhere in Petrograd, the police were making
+indiscriminate arrests, and Schluesselburg was already overflowing with
+its human victims whom Rasputin had indicated, for a hostile word from
+him meant imprisonment or death. He was, indeed, Tsar of All the Russias.
+
+Such was the breathless state of things at Tsarskoe-Selo in the last days
+of December.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then came the final dramatic coup.
+
+Of its exact details I have no knowledge. I give--as I have given all
+through this narrative of fact--only what I _know_ to be actual truth.
+
+On December 29th, at eleven o'clock, I left the palace to take a message
+to Protopopoff, and to interview the much-travelled Hardt, who was coming
+to Petrograd from Stockholm with his usual fortnightly dispatch from
+Berlin. I returned to the Palace about eight o'clock in the evening, when
+I received a message through one of the silk-stockinged servants, whose
+duty it was to wait upon "his holiness," to the effect that the monk had
+gone suddenly to Petrograd upon urgent business, and would return on the
+morrow.
+
+Naturally, I accepted the message, ate my dinner, read the paper, and
+after a chat with Madame Vyrubova, who lived in the adjoining apartments,
+I retired to bed.
+
+Next day I returned to the Gorokhovaya, but the monk had not come back.
+Countess Ignatieff called upon him, but I had to express my ignorance as
+to his whereabouts. I told her that he might possibly have gone upon
+another pilgrimage.
+
+Late that night I went back to the palace, where I found Madame Vyrubova
+much perturbed.
+
+"It is strange, Feodor!" she exclaimed. "He never leaves Petrograd
+without first informing me."
+
+I set her mind at rest by suggesting that, as affairs were so critical,
+he was probably with Stuermer and Protopopoff plotting further
+manoeuvres.
+
+Next night, however, a thrill went through the Court, as well as through
+the Russian people, by the six-word announcement in the Exchange
+newspapers, which coldly said:
+
+"_Gregory Rasputin has ceased to exist._"
+
+I read the statement aghast. I saw Anna Vyrubova, who was beside herself
+with grief and anxiety, and for a moment I spoke with the distracted
+Empress. Then I left with all haste for the capital.
+
+On arrival I learnt at the Ministry of the Interior that a policeman on
+night duty along the Moika Canal had heard shots and cries coming from a
+house belonging to the young Prince Felix Youssoupoff, who had married a
+cousin of the Tsar, and who was well known in London, where he passed
+each "season." In the house were the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch,
+ex-Minister of the Interior Kvostov, Deputy Purishkevitch, and others.
+When the policeman went to ask what had happened, he received no
+explanation.
+
+A little later two motor-cars drove up to the door. In one of the cars a
+large bundle was placed. It was the body of Rasputin. Beside this bundle
+a man took his seat and ordered the chauffeur to drive to an island at
+the mouth of the Neva. Traces of blood were left in the garden. There
+were also marks of blood on the ice of the frozen Neva, where the car had
+stopped. Near these marks was a freshly made hole, and close to the hole
+lay a pair of blood-stained rubber shoes.
+
+Alexandra Feodorovna, frantic and bewildered, informed the Emperor by
+telegraph, and by the time he had returned the monk's body had been
+recovered from the river. I was present at the Mass served by the
+Petrograd Metropolitan Pitirim, an evil-liver of Rasputin's creation,
+after which I went with the body, which was conveyed to Tsarskoe-Selo.
+There, at the burial, Protopopoff was one of the chief mourners, and he,
+together with General Voyeykoff, Fredericks, and the Emperor himself,
+carried the silver coffin containing the remains of one of the worst
+rascals in Christendom, while the Tsaritza, Anna, and the whole Court
+followed in deep mourning.
+
+Such a scandal roused the ire of the people to fever heat, but it freed
+me of my hateful compact, and I cut myself adrift for ever from the
+fascinating Madame Vyrubova and her vicious circle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Perhaps, in concluding this volume of strange and amazing reminiscences,
+which I have written with the sole purpose of revealing the truth to
+Europe, I cannot do better than summarise the career of Rasputin as
+Alexander Yablonovski, one of our ablest Russian critics, has done. He
+declared that the part of the Black Monk in history was an era in itself.
+
+Practically the entire historic role of Rasputin consisted of the fact
+that he united all Russia in a general hatred for the dark, irresponsible
+forces.
+
+The Imperial Duma, the Imperial Council, the united nobility, the social
+organisations, the Press--all were permeated by the same conviction,
+namely, that it was high time to remove from the Russian political arena
+the Government gamblers.
+
+More than that, Rasputin became even a matter of concern to Europe. The
+foreign Press printed articles about him. The foreign ambassadors cabled
+long reports in code to their Governments in connection with him. But, of
+course, to Europe he was more of a sad anecdote than an historical fact.
+To Russia, on the other hand, he was not only a fact, he was an era.
+
+Russia has experienced immeasurable humiliation on account of him. But
+this humiliation has fused the Empire into a single body, creating
+citizens out of human pulp.
+
+Russians all their lives have fought the irresponsible bureaucracy. Her
+literature, Press, science, parties, all, according to their resources,
+plucked the roots of this rotten plant. But how big were the results of
+their half-century of labour?
+
+And then a Siberian mujik appeared, and against his own will he cut the
+arteries of the dark force, he stamped it in the mud, spitting at the
+very principle, the very idea, of autocratic bureaucracy.
+
+Rasputin was killed for the purpose of cleansing Russia of the dark
+forces. Yet, alas! his evil influence lived to bear fruit in Germany's
+favour even after the Revolution and the downfall of the Romanoffs.
+
+No more sinister or astounding figure has ever appeared in all history,
+and the memory of no one is more bitterly hated in Russia than that of
+Gregory the ne'er-do-well, the erotic scoundrel and assassin, who held
+the fate of the Russian Empire within the hollow of his hand.
+
+
+PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C.4
+
+450.818.
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected.
+
+Page 66, "off" changed to "of"
+Page 84, "camerilla" changed to "camarilla"
+Page 85, "Miliukof" changed to "Miliukoff"
+Page 89, "Geurassimof" changed to "Guerassimof"
+Page 105, "lght" changed to "light"
+Page 118, "Kirovchein" changed to "Krivochein"
+Page 134, "disicple" changed to "disciple"
+Page 149, "Vyruboya" changed to "Vyrubova"
+Page 221, "Purishkevich" changed to "Purishkevitch"
+Page 221, "denouncng" changed to "denouncing"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Minister of Evil, by William Le Queux
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MINISTER OF EVIL ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22720.txt or 22720.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/2/22720/
+
+Produced by Michael Ciesielski and the booksmiths at
+http://www.eBookForge.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.