Part 42 (1/2)
”No, no!” she shrieked. ”Forgive me! forgive me, Father! I--I was mad--_mad!_ Ivan urged me to do this--to kill you!”
”Write as I tell you, Feodor,” Rasputin ordered.
Then, as I sat at the table, he dictated the following lines:
”It is by our order that the woman Olga Alexandrovna Bauer, native of Orel, shall be deported without trial to Yakutsk, in Eastern Siberia, and there sent to penal servitude for life. And further, that Ivan Ivanovitch shall be confined for life in the Fortress of Schlusselburg. Given at our Palace of Tsarskoe-Selo, December 1st, 1916.”
”The Emperor will sign that to-morrow,” he added.
The unfortunate girl, shrieking loudly, threw herself at the feet of the monk, imploring forgiveness.
”No, my pretty one!” he replied. ”You would open your lips if I gave you the chance. But you will not have it. You are my enemy, and the enemies of Gregory Rasputin never prevail for long, for he takes good care of that!”
She had a fit of hysterics, but quickly came to consciousness again, only to find herself in the hands of six grey-coated police officers, who roughly bundled her out into the hall, shrieking and cursing the blasphemous blackguard who was the real ruler of the Empire.
An hour after the girl Bauer had been taken away a secret messenger from Berlin brought us another dispatch in cipher, which, when I decoded it, read:
”MEMORANDUM FROM NO. 70. 68,428. G.
”Instructions from the Emperor William are to the effect that Germany will deliver a peace offer to Russia on December 12th.
Inform Her Majesty of this, and tell her to use all her influence with the Emperor and all the Ministers towards an acceptance.
”Instructions to our friend P. [Protopopoff] are to continue his destructive activities. He must muzzle the Press more closely, hold up all food, and continue provocative work in all quarters.
It is only by producing extreme suffering that you can bring about an uprising for peace. Code now changed to No.
5.--Greetings, ”S.”
Duly the German offer of peace was made on December 12th, and Russia was tottering to her doom. The offer, engineered by the ”black forces,” gave opportunity to the Duma to express its pent-up feelings. Both Miliukoff and his friend who had so narrowly escaped the ”perfume” declared publicly that the camarilla favoured the acceptance of the offer.
Of the truth of this I can myself vouch, for Alexandra Feodorovna had, since her holy Father had received the secret dispatch, spared no effort to induce the Emperor and the Cabinet to accept the olive branch.
Nicholas refused. Whatever may be said of him, I know personally that on many occasions he proved his loyalty to the Allies against the evil counsels of Sturmer and the others.
The nation, however, had to be pacified, so the Tsar called the newly-appointed Foreign Minister, Petrovsky, who represented the best type of bureaucrat, and instructed him how to act. In consequence, three days after the Teuton proposal was made, he announced Russia's rejection of a ”premature peace.” Immediately after the Foreign Minister's declaration, the Duma pa.s.sed a resolution, which contained the following declaration:
”Having heard the statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Duma unanimously favours a categorical refusal by the Allied Governments to enter, under present conditions, into any peace negotiations whatever.”
Truly, public opinion was becoming more than ever inflamed.
Yet ”Satan in a silk hat,” seated in the Ministry of the Interior, was working his evil machinations upon the nation to create the greatest possible suffering and unrest, as his taskmaster in Berlin had ordered.
And in this he had an able a.s.sistant in the unwashed ”saint,” who a few days before, in collusion with his friend the ex-conjurer, had in a low quarter of Petrograd performed a trick which all believed to be a ”miracle.”
One of Protopopoff's schemes, which he successfully carried out, was that of sowing discontent among the ma.s.ses by spreading mysterious leaflets calling for rebellion on the issue of peace. By this he attempted to disrupt the organic life of the country and of the army. With Rasputin he was plotting to create a clamour which would justify the Government in opening separate peace negotiations and throwing the Allies overboard.
Unfortunately for him, however, the unions of zemstvos and of towns remained patriotic. So he prohibited their meetings in order to cause demonstrations and riots.
To all pleas and the warnings of those who saw the handwriting on the wall the Emperor remained deaf.
One afternoon, while I was with Rasputin in his apartments at the palace, the Empress entered, flushed and excited.