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, Féodor, 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, Féodor--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 cafés. 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 Klöss."
"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 Stürmer 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 Stürmer,
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, Féodor," 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
Féodor 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, Féodor," 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, Féodor, 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, Féodor."
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, Féodor, 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, Féodor, 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, Féodor--that we
want. The failure at Minsk is, however, very strange. We must inquire
into Tchernine's actions and report fully to the Königgrätzerstrasse.
Otherwise I shall once again be blamed. Surely I did my best--and so did
you!"