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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. 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