Part 32 (2/2)
Then, placing them upon his littered writing-table, he gave us seats, and around the fire we sat to talk.
Truly, that council of treachery was an historic one, and cost the lives of many innocent non-combatant women and children.
The Kaiser began by chaffing Rasputin as to his disguise, saying with a laugh:
”Really, you might pa.s.s unsuspected anywhere, Father! The baron has been telling me that you are at this moment the very reverend Pastor van Meuwen, from Utrecht. My police have no knowledge that you are Russian and an enemy. But there, you are clever, and your services to me are worthy far greater reward than you have yet received. Now tell me,” he added, ”how is Sturmer? I sometimes wonder whether he is acting straight or crooked. Only the other day he telegraphed to Downing Street that you Russians would never agree to a separate peace to isolate Britain. This is most annoying.”
”Thou art misled, as is all the world,” replied the monk with a meaning smile. ”That telegram was sent to London only after many conferences, in which Alexandra Feodorovna took part with Nicholas, Sturmer, Fredericks, and Protopopoff. The British Press was growing dubious as to our determination in winning the war, hence Sturmer's a.s.surance to bamboozle the world was highly necessary.”
”That relieves us of much anxiety,” remarked Bethmann-Hollweg, chewing the end of his cigar. ”We were beginning to fear that Sturmer might be leaning towards England.”
Rasputin made a gesture in the negative.
”Sturmer is ever a good friend of the Fatherland,” was his slow reply, his eyes fixed upon the Emperor.
”There must be famine in Russia,” declared the Kaiser impatiently. ”Your friend Protopopoff has not yet created it, as he promised when he saw me.
Famine will bring Russia quickly to her knees, as it will eventually bring Britain. Our U-boats are doing marvels. Happily we warned the British, therefore we are contravening no convention.”
”Soon our friends in London who have sworn never to sheathe the sword until we are wiped from the face of the earth will begin to squeal,”
remarked the Imperial Chancellor with a laugh. ”And especially if we can carry out Professor Hoheisel's plan and create a pestilence. It must be tried in Russia first, and then in England,” Bethmann-Hollweg went on.
”The bacteria of anthrax, glanders, and bubonic plague must be sown in various parts of Russia, Gregory. Before you leave Berlin the plan will be explained to you.”
”The plan by which we sought to propagate cholera by sending infected fruit to various charitable inst.i.tutions broke down because the delivery of the fruit was delayed, and it arrived at its destination in an uneatable condition,” replied Rasputin. ”No one would touch it, hence all our plans were upset.”
”The distribution of presents to charitable inst.i.tutions must be repeated,” declared the Chancellor, to which the Emperor agreed.
”To-morrow you will be told our wishes in that direction,” the Chancellor went on.
”Yes,” exclaimed the Emperor, ”this military offensive must stop, and at once, if we are successfully to invade England. As soon as Russia makes peace our hands will be free to strike a staggering blow at John Bull.
Not till then.”
”As soon as we bring Russia to her senses then we shall begin to twist the tail of the British lion,” said the Chancellor. ”All our plans are complete. As soon as there is quiet on the Russian front we can, within forty-eight hours, if we wish, put six army corps into East Anglia between the Tyne and the Blackwater,” he added boastfully.
”Hindenburg will lead them into London one day, never fear,” declared the Emperor in the most earnest confidence.
I sat in silence, listening to this strange talk of what was to happen to England when Russia was crushed.
”The charges against Soukhomlinoff ought never to have been made,” the Emperor went on, addressing the monk. ”I understood from your report to Steinhauer that you were arranging that the Tsar should hush up the inquiry?”
”The Emperor gave orders to that effect, in consequence of the advice of the Empress, but the charges were so very grave that Sturmer urged him to cancel his orders lest the public should suspect him of any intention of suppressing a scandal.”
It was true that the charges against the Minister of War were astounding.
A high official in the Ministry, named Kartzoff, had betrayed his chief, whereupon Colonel Tugen Baranovsky, late Chief of the Mobilisation Department of the Russian General Staff, had declared that the mobilisation plans drafted by the general were full of wilful errors, while rifles, machine-guns, and field and heavy guns were all lacking.
Allegations had been made by General Petrovsky, later Chief of the Fortifications Department, to the effect that the general had only twice visited the artillery administration during the whole time he held his portfolio as Minister, while Colonel Balvinkine, one of the heads of the Artillery Administration, had a.s.serted that Soukhomlinoff had insisted upon important contracts for machine-guns being given to the Rickerts factory at a cost of two thousand roubles each, while the Toula factory could turn out excellent machine-guns at nine hundred roubles.
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