Part 39 (1/2)

Come!--Your devoted daughter, ”A.”

Well I knew that the German-born Empress was sitting alone in the palace breathlessly anxious as to what disclosures were forthcoming. She was not blind to her increasing unpopularity and to the unkind things said openly of her. Somebody had just started a rumour that there was a secret wireless plant at the palace, by which she could communicate direct with Potsdam. Indeed, so many people believed this that, after the Tsar's abdication, every nook, corner and garret of Tsarskoe-Selo was searched, but without success. Sturmer, Fredericks, Protopopoff, the poison-monger Badmayev, Anna Vyrubova, and half-a-dozen others, who formed the dark and sinister forces that were rapidly hurling Russia to her doom, were that day as anxious and terrified as the Empress herself. Well they knew that if Miliukoff, armed with those incriminating doc.u.ments--the exact nature of which they knew not--spoke the truth in the Legislature, then a storm of indignation would sweep over them in such a manner that they could never withstand it.

Rasputin, thus summoned, went at once to the palace, and I accompanied him. He proceeded straight to the Emperor's private room, while I waited in a room adjoining.

I heard their voices raised. The Emperor's was raised in protest; that of the monk in angry threats.

”If thou wilt not postpone the Duma, then the peril will be upon thine own head!” I heard Rasputin shout. ”Why allow these revolutionary deputies to criticise thy policy and undermine thy popularity with the nation? It is folly! Such policy is suicidal, and if thou wilt persist I shall withdraw and return to my home, well knowing that to-morrow the day of Russia's doom will dawn.”

”The people are clamouring for the reopening of the Duma,” replied the Emperor weakly. ”I can do nothing else but submit.”

”I have had a vision,” declared the monk. ”Last night there was revealed unto me the dire result of thy folly. I saw thee, the victim of thy nation's anger, dethroned, degraded and imprisoned.”

But even that lie failed to induce the Tsar to alter his decision, and naturally so, for he was afraid of the dark cloud which he saw rising, and which he believed to be due to the long adjournment of the Duma.

Hence he was afraid to take the monk's advice.

Again I heard both men's voices raised in hot argument.

”I am Emperor!” cried the Tsar at last, angrily, in a high, shrill tone, ”and I refuse to be thus dictated to!”

Next second there was a loud crash of gla.s.s, and I heard Rasputin shout:

”Thou refuseth to listen to good counsel! As I have smashed that bowl, so will the people, I tell thee, rise and smash the House of Romanoff!”

With those words he turned, and a moment later rejoined me, his face flushed with anger, and his knotted fingers clenched.

He went straight to the Empress and told her of his failure to move Nicholas from his decision.

”But surely this man Miliukoff must be prevented from speaking!” cried the unhappy woman, who saw all her deep-laid schemes crumbling rapidly away, and herself branded as a traitress. ”Father, you must work yet another miracle. He must be seized by a sudden illness--an accident must happen to him, or--or something!”

Rasputin shook his head dubiously, declaring that there was no time to arrange a second attempt.

”Have you put it to Protopopoff?” she asked. ”He might suggest some means, now that the woman Kalatcheff has failed us. If not--he will speak--and we are lost! Think, Father, what it all means! There is already public unrest created by the rumours that we have unfortunately spread of pending disaster, and if they are followed by such charges supported by doc.u.ments, then revolution is inevitable!”

I saw that the Tsaritza, now that every means to secure Miliukoff's silence had failed, was terrified lest she be exhibited in her own true traitorous colours.

Back we went to Petrograd, where we called at Protopopoff's house, and where still another attempt against Miliukoff's life was plotted.

By telephone an ex-agent of Secret Police named Stefanovitch, who had done much work as an _agent-provocateur_ for the camarilla, was called, and a price was at once arranged for the murder of the Deputy.

He was to be shot at and killed outside the Tauris Palace, just before two o'clock, as he was entering the Duma. He would probably be walking round to the Chamber from his house with his bosom friend M.

Purishkevitch.

”You will surely know somebody to whom the affair can be entrusted, Ivan,” said the Minister of the Interior. ”If arrested, he will be allowed ample opportunity to escape. Naturally he would not come up for trial. I would see to that. So you can give him my personal a.s.surance.”

”I should suggest a woman,” said the man Stefanovitch. ”I know one who would not hesitate to act as we wish. Her name is Marie Grozdoff, a Polish Jewess. I can trust her. She has done something similar for us before.”

”And the price?”

”The price will be all right,” replied the provocating agent, with a business-like air.