Rasputin The Rascal Monk Part 8

"Thou canst realise the great danger to us all. If that man is brought before the Court believing that we have not endeavoured to save him, he will, no doubt, reveal and produce certain letters I have sent to him.

Our plans will then become public, and Russia will rise and crush us!

At present they do not suspect thee of any pro-German leanings. Thou art the great and patriotic Tsaritza. But if this prosecution proceeds, then a.s.suredly will the truth become known!"

"But, Holy Father, what can I do?" asked the weak hysterical woman, alarmed and distracted.

"Thou must telegraph at once to thy husband to order the prosecution to be dropped," said the crafty scoundrel, standing in that erect att.i.tude he was so fond of a.s.suming, with one hand upon his breast and the other behind his back.

"I will do all that you wish," was her eager response, and she sat down at once to write the message to the Tsar who, on that night, was with his gallant soldiers at the front.

"Paul Letchitzki, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Munitions, has been arrested for embezzlement of public funds," she wrote. "It is highly necessary, for our peace, that the prosecution shall be instantly stopped. Every moment's delay means danger. I will explain when you return. Telegraph your order for his immediate release and the end of all proceedings against him. I await your acknowledgment.--Alec."

Then, having read the telegram, of which both men approved, she gave Rasputin her golden bangle from her wrist. From it was suspended the tiny master-key of the escritoire in her boudoir.

"Will you, my Holy Father, fetch me my private cipher-book?" she asked the mock-monk, at the same time bending and kissing his hand.

The fellow knew where the little book was kept in such privacy, and in a few moments he had brought it. Then Sturmer at once sat down and put the message into cipher, afterwards taking it himself to the clerk in the telegraph room on the other side of the Palace, for transmission to the Emperor.

At ten o'clock next morning a reply in code was handed to the Empress.

When, with the aid of her little book, she de-coded it, she read:

"I cannot understand how the prosecution of a thief of whose name I am ignorant can affect us adversely. I have, however, at your desire ordered his release and the suppression of all proceedings.--Nikki."

To this, the Tsaritza, after she had sent a copy of the rea.s.suring despatch to Rasputin, replied:

"I thank you for your kind generosity. How n.o.ble of you! Accused was an innocent victim of his enemies, and our action shows that you are open and just. Our Father and myself anxiously await your return.-- Alec." The moment Rasputin received the message from the hands of the trusted Cossack, Ivan Khanoff, the personal guardian of the young Tsarevitch, whom the Empress trusted with all her private correspondence, he telegraphed to Boris Sturmer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, telling him of the order of the Tsar.

And both laughed triumphantly at each other over the telephone. Yet both certainly had had a very narrow escape of exposure, and for the first time the Tsaritza saw the handwriting on the wall.

CHAPTER FIVE.

RASPUTIN'S SECRET ORDERS FROM BERLIN.

Some pages of Rasputin's _dossier_ concern his intimate friends.h.i.+p with the Imperial family, and more especially with the Tsar's daughters, whom the Empress herself had placed beneath his "tuition" and influence.

It seems that the monk Helidor--who because of his patriotism fell out of favour when Rasputin commenced to perform his conjuring tricks, which the Imperial Court believed to be miracles--still retained his friends.h.i.+p with the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Olga, and the governess of the Imperial children, the honest and straightforward Madame Tutcheva.

To Helidor--who afterwards revealed all he knew to the Revolutionary Party--the young Grand d.u.c.h.ess confessed her love for a certain very handsome officer, Nicholas Loutkievitch, of the Imperial Guard. She saw him often in the vicinity of the Palace, and also when she went to church, and he used to smile at her.

"Holy Father," she said one clay to Helidor, "what can I do? I love him. But alas! love is forbidden to me--for I am an Imperial princess.

It is my torment."

Helidor had tried to console her by saying that she was young, and that she would love many times before she found the man who was to be her husband. It was surely not strange that the handsome young Grand d.u.c.h.ess should be attracted by a handsome man, for after all, even Imperial princesses are human.

Helidor, who belonged to the Pravoslavny Church, under Bishop Teofan, saw Rasputin a few days later and incidentally mentioned the youthful infatuation of the young Princess.

"Oh! I have already cured all that!" said the scoundrel with a laugh.

"Her infatuation has been dispelled. I have cast the devil out of her."

Then Rasputin boastingly disclosed to Helidor certain things which left no doubt in the latter's mind as to the true state of affairs existing at Tsarskoe-Selo, or the truth of what Madame Tutcheff had alleged.

Indeed, among the filed pages of the _dossier_ which deal with this particular incident, is a letter which I venture here to reproduce.

Rasputin, with all his mujik's shrewdness, preserved many letters written to him by women of all grades, hoping that when cast out of the Imperial circle he could use them for purposes of blackmail. Here is one of them:

"Palace of Peterhof.

"March 23rd, 1916.

"Holy Father,--Dear true friend, we are all desolate without you. When are you returning from Pokrovsky? You promised to be here on the third, yet we have had no word from you. Dear true friend and father, how is Matroysha (Rasputin's peasant wife)--and the children? Give my love to them. Tatiana and I are sending them some things by the courier to-day.

Each time we go to Anna's (Madame Vyrubova) all is but blank despair.

We miss our sweet and helpful reunions, and long always for your return.

You, my holy Father, are my inestimable friend. I no longer think of Nicholas, but of you alone, and of our holy religion. My mother is desolate without you. Pray for me. I kiss your dear hands. Your loving daughter, Olga."

I copy this from the great ma.s.s of papers before me--the doc.u.mentary evidence of the tragic story of the downfall of the great Imperial House of Romanoff--in order that the reader may be able to form some slight idea of the marvellous, almost incredible grip which Germany had upon the Tsar's family, his household and his nation through the medium of the verminous peasant who had declared himself a Heaven-sent apostle of G.o.d.

The moral atmosphere of the Court was shocking. Rasputin, chief agent of the Kaiser, was posing, just as the Kaiser himself posed, as a G.o.d-fearing, prayerful man sent by Divine-right as a deliverer. The monk's mission was, however, to deliver Russia into the hands of Germany.

The next pages of the _dossier_ contain advice notes of German funds paid to the "saint" through the most unsuspicious channels.

As instance of these I copy the following dates and extracts, the actual letters of advice themselves being of a pretended business character and of no importance:

April 6th.--Payment to His Excellency Boris Sturmer by Jules Wick, Morskaya 57, advocate, sum due from the estates of the late Baroness Nikeleuko, of Doubno.--78,600 roubles.

April 18th.--Payment made to Gregory Rasputin by Nicholas Pokotilo.

Address Select Hotel, Ligovskaya 44, Petrograd, representatives of Messrs. Solovoioff, of Odessa.--62,460 roubles.

June 1st.--Payment to His Excellency D.A. Protopopoff made for rent of lands at Vyazma, by Alexander Koltchak, agent of the estate of Prince Tchekmareff, less 15 per cent, commission to Messrs. Montero and Company, of Kieff;--21,229 roubles.

June 3rd.--Payment to Vera Zoueff, dancer at Luna Park, by G. Merteus, Nevsky 81, Petrograd.--13,000 roubles. (The woman who pa.s.sed as a Russian was one, Bertha Riehl, a German dancer, and a secret agent of Berlin.)

June 17th.--Payment to Sophie Tatistcheff (who had married Baron Roukhloff, one of the Tsar's secretaries who had control of his Majesty's private correspondence), by Safonov's Bank, in settlement of an insurance claim for property destroyed by fire at Poltava.

I have copied these in their order of sequence, but the items number over one hundred, and reveal payments of huge sums of German secret service money to Rasputin and his friends, thus forming a most illuminating disclosure as to the manner in which Russia was rapidly being undermined.

With such dark forces at work in the very heart of the Empire, it is indeed marvellous that General Brusiloff could have effected his superhuman offensive between Pripet and the Roumanian frontier. He started with his four armies early in June, 1916, and by the middle of August had captured 7,757 officers, 350,845 men and 405 guns. Berlin became seriously alarmed at such a situation. All Rasputin's plotting with Sturmer, Count Fredericks, Protopopoff, Countess Ignatieff, Madame Vyrubova, and a dozen other less prominent but equally importunate officials, together with all the steady stream of German marks flowing into Petrograd could not stem the Russian tide on the German and Austrian front's. The Russian "steam-roller" seemed really progressing.

The Kaiser grew seriously alarmed. At the instigation of Count von Wedel, his right-hand in espionage and unscrupulous propaganda, a secret message was sent to Rasputin--a message which he preserved among his other papers. It runs as follows, and is in the German cipher of the Koniggratzer-stra.s.se of which the mock-monk kept a de-cipher in his interesting safe. Hence it has been available:

"F.G. 2,734--22.

"Memorandum from `Number 70,' August 29th, 1916.

"It is deemed of extreme urgency that the offensive of the Pripet should at once cease; and be turned into a victory for the Central Powers as promised us in your despatch of July 1st. You are not keeping faith with us! What is wrong? S. (Sturmer, the Prime Minister) is inciting the Russians to victory in his speeches.

"His triumphant telegrams to Asquith must cease. They only serve to encourage the Allies. This advance must not continue. Further, the munition factories at Vologda and Bologoye have not yet been destroyed as we ordered. We know that K. (a clock-maker named Kartzoff who blew up the explosive works at Viborg in which 400 lives were lost), who did such good work in that direction, is arrested and shot, together with the woman R. (Mdlle. Raevesky, whose father was in the Ministry of the Interior under Protopopoff). We note that you gave information to the police concerning both persons, because they became lovers and were likely to open their mouths and thus become dangerous to us.

"_Secret Instructions_:--That to Nicholas Meder be entrusted the task of destroying the Vologda and Bologoye works, and that Madame Fleischer, who lives in Volkovo, be appointed as his a.s.sistant--each to receive six thousand roubles for their services.

"As your efforts to prevent the offensive in the Pripet region have failed up to the present, it is ordered that General Brusiloff be removed by the means already employed in other enemy countries. Send a trustworthy messenger to Doctor Klouieff, living in the Vozkresenskaya, in Kazan, to ask for `a tube.' He will know. The contents of the tube introduced into any drink will produce teta.n.u.s--with a rapid end.

Klouieff is German, and may be entirely trusted. Brusiloff has a body-servant named Ivan, Sawvitch who is a friend of Boris Koltchak, a soldier in the 117th Infantry Regiment of Muisk. Koltchak, who has been in our service for five years, is to be ordered and facilities rendered him to visit his friend Sawvitch at General Headquarters, and to introduce the contents of the tube into Brusiloff's food or drink. For this service you are ordered to pay in secret twenty-five thousand roubles upon its completion. The man Sawvitch is in love with the sister of Koltchak, a fact which will ease certain difficulties. Be careful, however, of Marya Ustryaloff, who is jealous of the woman in question.