Part 9 (1/2)
”General Korniloff may be removed by the accidental explosion of a hand-grenade, in the same manner in which General Zhukovsky was removed in March last at Pultusk. This service could be entrusted to the soldier Paul Krizhitsky, of the 17th Grenadiers of Moscow, who is a despatch-rider and constantly at the General Headquarters. He should examine the bomb--a pine-apple one, in preference, and release the pin by accident. For this service you can pay in secret up to eighteen thousand roubles.
”Further, it is urgent that you should induce the Emperor at once to order the release of the men Polenov and Levitsky, and the woman Erich, who were arrested in the Hotel Brosi at Vitebsk. Their papers, if found, must be restored to them. The doc.u.ments are probably stored in the strong rooms of either the Ootchotny Bank, in the Hevsky, or at Lampe's. So get hold of them, as they contain facts incriminating S.
(Sturmer) and V (Madame Vyrubova). It is of most urgent importance that the prosecution in question be dismissed, and further, that those who instigated it should be degraded in pursuance of our policy. For this service you will be granted a generous extra payment. S.--70.” The signature, scribbled in blue ink upon these remarkable instructions, is that of the notorious Herr Steinhauer, the Kaiser's chief spy and controller of the whole secret ramifications of Imperial Germany throughout the civilised world. I venture to publish it in these pages in order to show the devilish cunning of Germany, and their frantic efforts, by any underground and dastardly means, to stem the tide of war which threatened to overwhelm them.
In consequence of these instructions Rasputin immediately set to work to execute the wicked command of His Imperial Master in Berlin.
On the day following that secret message being delivered into his hands by a woman dressed as a peasant, as, descending from his carriage, he entered a house in the Nevski, he walked into the Emperor's private study and, placing his hand across his breast in that mock-pious att.i.tude he so often a.s.sumed, he said:
”Friend! Thou hast always been held by thy people to be a just and honest ruler; but in Vitebsk those who act in thy Imperial name are acting illegally and persecuting two poor men and a woman with motives of revenge. G.o.d has placed His holy protecting hand upon our dear Russia, and has given victory unto our gallant Brusiloff. But if injustice be done in thy Imperial name then the Divine Providence will most a.s.suredly withdraw protection from us.”
”What is this, Holy Father?” asked the Emperor in great surprise.
”At Vitebsk two men, Polenov and Levitsky, together with a woman called Erich, three patriotic Russians who have, been engaged in Red Cross work--have, because of the ill-will of the Governor Wauthier, been apprehended, and false charges inst.i.tuted against them.”
”Of what nature?”
”Of communicating with the enemy--a vague charge which to-day may be made against even the most patriotic,” replied the monk, the ”Holy Father” of the Empress, standing in that same att.i.tude he had at first a.s.sumed. ”From the Holy Father of the monastery at Vitebsk I have received a confidential, and urgent report that the Governor Wauthier, an ill-living official, has inst.i.tuted these false charges in order to conceal his own disgraceful misdeeds, which the woman Erich has threatened to expose.”
Then, after a pause, the dissolute monk and secret agent of the German Emperor said in that insolent, familiar manner he a.s.sumed when addressing the Tsar:
”Friend! This Governor, against whom the Holy Father at Vitebsk sends me secret information, should be dismissed and disgraced, and thy three innocent subjects released. If thou wilt permit injustice in thy Empire, then the success of thy arms cannot be maintained.”
”Holy Father,” said the weak impotent monarch, ”the Governor shall be dismissed. Pa.s.s me over a telegraph-form.”
And Rasputin took from the writing-table one of the forms upon which the Tsar wrote his autocratic orders, and actually at the monk's dictation His Majesty wrote an order for this release of the prisoners and the dismissal of the innocent, patriotic Governor, against whom the lying agent of the Kaiser had, according to his instructions from Berlin, laid a charge!
Truly the great patriotic Russian Empire had already fallen beneath the ”Mailed Fist,” even though thousands of her sons were daily sacrificing their lives to secure her freedom.
On the day following, Petkoff; who had already opened his separatist propaganda among the Ukrainian prisoners, in favour of Germany, arrived hot-foot in Petrograd, and spent some hours with Rasputin at his house, where the Prime Minister Sturmer and His Excellency Protopopoff were also closeted. The secret meeting was held at three o'clock and lasted until eight, when one of the Imperial carriages came from the Winter Palace, as it did daily, to convey the ”Holy Father” there.
The Emperor had left again for the front three hours before, but the Empress remained. The dirty monk at once sought her, explaining that Germany had reached the last limits of her power upon the eastern front, and urgently needed a slackening of the Russian offensive.
”It is truly G.o.d's will that our friends the Germans shall not be crushed!” declared the cunning blackguard. ”Are we not told that if we are smitten by an enemy upon one cheek we should turn the other? I declare to thee that if we press our enemies further, then the wrath of G.o.d will a.s.suredly fall upon thy house--and upon thy son the Tsarevitch,” he said in his low base voice, crossing himself piously the while.
Indeed, that night, so deeply did the charlatan impress the poor Empress that she sat trembling at the fate which must be Russia's should Brusiloff's victory be maintained.
Incredible as it may seem, the Kaiser now held Russia in the hollow of his hand. No despatch from Petrograd to the Allies; no order for material; no communication of whatever sort, Imperial, diplomatic or private, but copies were at once transmitted to the Wilhelmstra.s.se, where the negotiations were known as soon as they were in Downing Street--and sometimes sooner!
Within a fortnight of Rasputin's grim prophecy of Russia's downfall if she further defied the Imperial power of Germany, the cunning plot to infect General Brusiloff with teta.n.u.s was attempted by the soldier Koltchak, while in a train conveying him from Borisoff to Petrograd, on a flying visit to consult with the Minister of War. Happily the plot failed, but the coffee in which the deadly culture had been placed was, alas! unfortunately drunk by a certain Major Dobrovolski, who died mysteriously and in great agony four days later; the General, of course, being entirely ignorant of Berlin's vile plot against him.
An attempt was also made upon General Korniloff at Chernitsa ten days later. A soldier who had no business near, handled a hand-grenade carelessly, just as the General happened to be riding by. The bomb exploded, killing the General's horse on the spot, but he himself escaped with a deep cut over the left eye. Everybody, of course, believed it to be a pure accident, therefore the affair was never reported.
These two attempts upon the lives of Russia's military leaders, the doc.u.mentary evidence of which exists, were only the forerunners of several others even more ingenious and more desperate, as I shall later on disclose in these pages.
The failure of the attempts to a.s.sa.s.sinate Brusiloff and Korniloff, and the continuation of the Russian offensive, now caused the greatest consternation in Berlin, where it was believed that Rasputin was neglecting the work for which he was being paid so heavily.
A message was conveyed to him through Swedish sources telling him of the Kaiser's extreme displeasure at the failure of the plans, and reminding him of His Majesty's words when he had had secret audience and accepted the Imperial proposals to become chief agent of Germany in Russia.
Certain further instructions were also given as matters of extreme urgency. The Russian progress had aroused the most serious fears in Berlin.
Meanwhile the monk's ambition knew no bounds. With marvellous cunning he was busy blackmailing a number of unfortunate society women who, having entered his cult, had afterwards abandoned it, and while being the practical ruler of Russia, because of the Tsaritza's devotion to him, yet he was daily plotting with his pro-German friends for the nation's downfall.