The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Minister of Evil, by William Le Queux

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Minister of Evil
The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia

Author: William Le Queux

Release Date: September 22, 2007 [EBook #22720]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MINISTER OF EVIL ***

Produced by Michael Ciesielski and the booksmiths at
http://www.eBookForge.net

The Minister of Evil

The Secret History of
RASPUTIN'S
Betrayal of Russia

William Le Queux

Cassell and Company, Ltd
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne

First Published August 1918.
_Reprinted September 1918._

Copyright, 1917, by William Le Queux, in the United States of America.

TO THE READER

AFTER the issue to the public of the curious chronicle of "Rasputin the
Rascal Monk," based upon official documents, and its translation into a
number of languages, I received from the same sources in Russia a bulky
manuscript upon very thin paper which contained certain confessions,
revelations, and allegations made by its writer, Feodor Rajevski, who
acted as the mock-saint's secretary and body-servant, and who, in
consequence, was for some years in a position to know the most inner
secrets of Rasputin's dealings with those scoundrelly men and women who
betrayed Holy Russia into the hands of the Hun.

This manuscript, to-day before me as I write, is mostly in Italian, for
Rajevski, the son of a Polish violinist, lived many years of his youth in
Bologna, Florence, and old-world Siena, hence, in writing his memoirs, he
used the language most familiar to him, and one perhaps more readily
translated by anyone living outside Russia.

In certain passages I have been compelled to disguise names of those who,
first becoming tools of the mock-saint, yet afterwards discovering him to
be a charlatan, arose in their patriotism and--like Rajevski who here
confesses--watched patiently, and as Revolutionists became instrumental
in the amazing charlatan's downfall and his ignominious death.

These startling revelations of the secretary to the head of the "dark
forces" in Russia, as they were known in the D