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Indeed, I learned from the general's conversation with the monk I first having taken an oath never to divulge anything of what I saw or heard that even the correspondence of the Tsar, his relatives, or friends was not immune from examination. Then I instantly realised the reason that the Tsaritza and Rasputin, in communicating with their friends in Germany, sent their letters by hand.
It was a chance which Rasputin would never allow to slip. Of that I was quite certain. The evening I returned to Petrograd the monk had left me a message to go to Tsarskoe-Selo; therefore I took my green pass, which admitted me past the many guards of the innermost holy-of-holies, the Imperial apartments, where I knew I should find the real ruler of Russia.
"And, friend Hardt," Rasputin said, as the Kaiser's emissary placed the letter carefully in his wallet, "please impress upon Number Seventy what I have said about money. All this costs much. Tell him that sometimes when inordinate demands are made upon me as you know they are often are I have to use my own funds in order to satisfy them.
The death of Rasputin and other signs of unrest. The revolution of March 1917. The Czar becomes Mr. Romanoff. Four different governments within eight months. Civil war and a German effort for peace.
"Go, and do my bidding. Return to-morrow night, and tell me of your success!" Then he bowed out the reluctant but fascinated young woman, who in her silver chain-bag carried the small bottle of perfume. That night Rasputin, after drinking half a bottle of brandy, retired to bed, declaring that women were only created to be the servants of men.
He was in Gothenburg, and being a close friend of an English journalist there, it was feared lest he should allow himself to be interviewed, and reveal something of the truth concerning the subterranean working of Germany in Petrograd. "The man's lips ought to be closed," Steinhauer had written to Rasputin only a week before. "Can you suggest any way? While he lives he will be a menace to us all.
He became, in actual fact, the real ruler of all the Russias, for the prime minister who incurred his displeasure did not long remain in power. Such a man, naturally, would have many enemies, even within court circles, and efforts were made to bring about the downfall of Rasputin.
The sowing of cholera germs by means of infected fruit had happily failed, but now Germany intended to strike a blow at the civil population of Russia upon a scale more gigantic than I had ever imagined. Next day, a man who gave the name of Emil Döllen brought Rasputin a letter, which I opened.
Further, I order the arrest of Ivan Yakowleff and the confiscation of all his property." Alexander Klouieff! The fellow was an ex-agent of secret police, a man ready to do any dirty work, even murder, for Rasputin, if paid for it a low-bred criminal of the worst possible type!
As servant of the head of Russia's "Dark Forces" as Rasputin and Protopopoff were afterwards denounced in the Duma I was compelled to be ever at the saint's elbow; hence I saw and heard much that was astounding. One night, a few months after Stolypin's assassination, we had been bidden to dinner by the great Polish landowner Ivan Volkhovski, who had a beautiful villa outside Petrograd.
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