THE ADVISER OF NICHOLAS II
By the second week in March I was back in Petersburg.
On the long journey across Asia, I had had time to mature my plans,
with the advantage of knowing that the real enemy I had to fight was
neither M. Petrovitch nor the witching Princess Y----, but the Power
which was using them both as its tools.
It was a frightful thing to know that two mighty peoples, the
Japanese and Russians, neither of which really wished to fight each
other, had been locked in strife in order to promote the sinister and
tortuous policy of Germany.
So far, the German Kaiser had accomplished one-half of his program.
The second, and more important, step would be to bring about a
collision between the Russians and the English.
Thus the situation resolved itself into an underground duel between
Wilhelm II. and myself, a duel in which the whole future history of
the world, and possibly the very existence of the British Empire,
hung in the balance.
And the arbiter was the melancholy young man who wandered through the
vast apartments of his palace at Tsarskoe-Selo like some distracted
ghost, wishing that any lot in life had been bestowed on him rather
than that of autocrat of half Europe and Asia.
It was to Nicholas that I first repaired, on my return, to report the
result of my mission.
I obtained a private audience without difficulty, and found his
majesty busily engaged in going through some papers relating to the
affairs of the Navy.
"So they have not killed you, like poor Menken," he said with a
mixture of sympathy and sadness.
"Colonel Menken killed!" I could not forbear exclaiming.
"Yes. Did you not hear of it? A Japanese spy succeeded in
assassinating him, and stealing the despatch, just before Mukden. A
lady-in-waiting attached to the Dowager Czaritza happened to be on
the train, and brought me the whole story."
I shook my head gravely.
"I fear your majesty has been misinformed. Colonel Menken committed
suicide. I saw him put the pistol to his head and shoot himself. His
last words were a message to your majesty."
The Czar raised his hand to his head with a despairing gesture.
"Will these contradictions never end!" he exclaimed. "Really, sir, I
hope you have made a mistake. Whom _can_ I trust!"
I drew myself up.
"I have no desire to press my version on you, sire," I said coldly.
"It is sufficient that the Colonel was robbed, and that he is dead.
Perhaps Princess Y---- has also given you an account of my own
adventures?"
Nicholas II. looked at me distrustfully.
"Let us leave the name of the Princess on one side," he said in a
tone of rebuke. "I have every reason to feel satisfied with her
loyalty and zeal."
I bowed, and remained silent.
"You failed to get through, I suppose," the Czar continued, after
waiting in vain for me to speak.
"I beg pardon, sire, I safely delivered to the Emperor of Japan your
majesty's autograph on the cigarette paper. I was robbed of the more
formal letter in the house of M. Petrovitch, before starting."
Nicholas frowned.
"Petrovitch again! Another of the few men whom I know to be my real
friends." He fidgeted impatiently.
"Well, what did the Mikado say?"
I had intended to soften the reply of the Japanese Emperor, but now,
being irritated, I gave it bluntly:
"His majesty professed to disbelieve in your power to control your
people. He declared that he could not treat a letter from you
seriously unless you were able to send it openly, without your
messengers being robbed or murdered on the way across your own
dominions."
The young Emperor flushed darkly.
"Insolent barbarian!" he cried hotly. "The next letter I send him
shall be delivered by the commander of my army on the soil of Japan."
I was secretly pleased by this flash of spirit, which raised my
respect for the Russian monarch.
A recollection seemed to strike him.
"I hear that you were blown up in attempting to bring some coal into
Port Arthur," he said in a more friendly tone. "I thank you, Monsieur
V----."
I bowed low.
"Some of my admirals seem to have been caught napping," Nicholas II.
added. "I have here a very serious report about Admiral Stark at
Vladivostok."
"You surprise me, sire," I observed incautiously. "Out in Manchuria I
heard the Admiral praised on all hands for his carefulness and good
conduct."
"Carefulness! It is possible to be too careful," the Czar complained.
"Admiral Stark is too much afraid of responsibility. We have
information that the English are taking all kinds of contraband into
the Japanese ports, and he does nothing to stop them, for fear of
committing some breach of international law."
I began to see what was coming. The Emperor, who seemed anxious to
justify himself, proceeded:
"The rights of neutrals have never been regarded by the British navy,
when they were at war. However, I have not been satisfied with taking
the opinion of our own jurists. I have here an opinion from Professor
Heldenberg of Berlin, who of course represents a neutral Power, and
he says distinctly that we are entitled to declare anything we
please contraband, and to seize English ships--I mean, ships of
neutrals--anywhere, even in the English Channel itself, and sink them
if it is inconvenient to bring them into a Russian port."
The insidious character of this advice was so glaring that I wondered
how the unfortunate young monarch could be deceived by it.
But I saw that comment would be useless just then. I must seek some
other means of opening his eyes to the pitfalls which were being
prepared for him.
I came from the Palace with a heavy heart. The next day, Petersburg
was startled by the publication of a ukase recalling Vice-Admiral
Stark and Rear-Admiral Molas, his second in command, from the
Pacific.
Immediately on hearing this news I sent a telegram in cipher to Lord
Bedale. For obvious reasons I never take copies of my secret
correspondence, but to the best of my recollection the wire ran as
follows:
Germany instigating Russian Navy to raid your shipping on
the pretext of contraband. Object to provoke reprisals
leading to war.
As the reader is aware, this warning succeeded in defeating the
Kaiser's main design, the British Government steadily refusing to be
provoked.
Unfortunately this attitude of theirs played into German hands in
another way, as English shippers were practically obliged to refuse
goods for the Far East, and this important and lucrative trade passed
to Hamburg, to the serious injury of the British ports.
But before this development had been reached, I found myself on the
track of a far more deadly and dangerous intrigue, one which is
destined to live in history as the most audacious plot ever devised
by one great Power against another with which it proposed to be on
terms of perfect friendship.