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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.sisted.
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 att.i.tude of Nicholas towards the nation.
Kokovtsov, who had allowed Akimoff to be present--the latter, I believe, in eager antic.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sent 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 t.i.tle 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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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 d.a.m.ning 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 rehea.r.s.ed 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 a.s.sembly concluded that his presence was required at the palace immediately, therefore they rose and retired, leaving the mysterious Hardt alone with us.