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 Sturmer 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 Sturmer 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 rea.s.suring telegram from Downing Street," Sturmer 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 rea.s.surances 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 Sturmer. "You have not had a vision for quite a long time. It impresses all cla.s.ses, 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 sh.e.l.l 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d"s wrath will fall upon this land. Thou art sent by G.o.d 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 a.s.sured 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 a.s.surance, Lachkarioff wrote down what had been told him by the judge"s wife, a doc.u.ment 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 a.s.sociate 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.sing 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 hoa.r.s.ely.
"You have revealed the contents of certain highly confidential doc.u.ments 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 a.s.sisted and whom you----"