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A minute later the man Aivasoff straightened himself and, pointing to a door on the opposite side of the room, asked: "Are you both ready? The Tsaritza is awaiting you." Rasputin, though pretending to be careless of his personal appearance, stroked his long beard, and then announced his readiness to pass into the presence of the Empress. "You will go first, and bow," said our attendant.
The wire over which I had spoken was, I knew, one of the private ones to the Neues Palais at Potsdam. Rasputin had again triumphed. When I told him he laughed coarsely, remarking: "People are too apt to regard this Kaiser fellow as lord of the world. He will never work his will upon Gregory. Nicholas tried, and failed.
"Yes, now," replied the monk, pointing to the writing-table, whereupon the Police Director sat down and wrote out the order transferring the agent Ostrovski to Japan, an order which Rasputin, after pretending to read it, handed to me to place in my pocket. "And now, what about this person Botkine?" asked Gutchkoff. "How do you wish me to act towards him?"
Not a single item of the project had been criticised, no comment had been offered, therefore His Excellency naturally believed that his efforts were receiving approbation. Rasputin was silent. Suddenly the Tsar rose from his chair with a sigh of weariness, and slowly selected a fresh cigarette from the big golden box upon his writing-table.
"Sometimes she is in anger, at others in despair. Anna Vyrubova is frantic. Why do you not come to audience?" "She promised that I should see Nicholas," was the reply. "After I have spoken with him I will see her. It does a woman good to wait." "I agree, but your refusal may be stretched too far," said the Bishop. "None will tell the truth concerning her," Rasputin said.
Are we not returning to the days when political prisoners were walled up alive? And you imagine, gentlemen, that you can claim for this country the civilising mission of a European nation!" He spoke of a man whom I knew well, one of the most sinister persons in all Russia, a man who, like Rasputin and Stürmer, accepted German gold.
I was not present at the séance, but later that night, when Rasputin was sitting alone with me over a bottle of champagne which an "Araby" flunkey had brought him, he revealed that the "message" from the Tsar's dead father had been precise and much to the point. "Nicholas, I speak unto thee," the spirit had said.
I had gone with Rasputin to the General Headquarters of the Army at the Polish front, a journey which the intriguer had been sent upon by those at Court whose mouthpiece he was to discuss a peace necessary for the Empire, he declared.
To me, Nicholas, who was wearing an old grey tweed suit, seemed very doubtful regarding the whole transaction. "Who is this person Alexander Klouieff?" he demanded. "I must know something more of him." "He is a man of considerable wealth upright, honourable, and devoted to thee," Rasputin assured him. "Canst thou not place thy trust in those I recommend? If not, I say no more."
"Is that what is intended?" he asked breathlessly. "Yes. He apparently knows the authors of the outrage at Obukhov and our association with them. It is believed that he actually holds documentary evidence of the money which we passed through the Volga-Kama Bank, in Tula." "But this must be prevented at all hazards," declared Rasputin. "We cannot allow him to denounce us.