sputin, the latter said:

"Well, my dear Feodor. The day of Kokovtsov is ended. One may be thankful
for it, because it will mean less friction between the Emperor and the
Empress."

Three days later His Majesty dismissed his Prime Minister, but gave him
the title of Count. He had no son, therefore the distinction was a mere
empty one.

With this digression, for which I hope I may be pardoned, I will return
to Stolypin. The mystery of his assassination has always been carefully
hushed-up by the Secret Police, but I here intend to lift the veil, and,
at the risk of producing certain damning evidence, disclose the whole of
the amazing and dastardly plot.

Few people know of it. Rasputin knew it, I know it, the Empress knows it,
and a certain woman living in seclusion in London to-day knows it. But
to the world the truth which I here write will, I venture to believe,
come as a great surprise.

The cry "Land and Liberty" was being heard on every hand in the Empire.
Peter Arkadievitch Stolypin, son of an aide-de-camp general of Alexander
II., was in the zenith of his popularity. He had become a _vermentchik_,
the traditional appellation applied to the favourite of the Emperor, and
as such he loomed largely in the eyes of Europe. He had entered the
public service as a youth, and had later on become governor of the
province of Samara, where he had attracted the notice of Count Witte
because of the drastic way in which he had suppressed some serious riots
there. In due course he was called to Petrograd, where he was introduced
to the Emperor, and later on the mantle of Count Witte had fallen upon
him.

Though in high favour with the Emperor he was clever enough to court the
good graces of Rasputin, knowing full well what supreme influence he
wielded over the Imperial couple. For that reason I frequently had
conversation with him both at Court and at the Poltavskaya. He was a man
of complex nature. A lady-killer of the most elegant type, refined and
determined, yet lurking in the corners of his nature was a tyrannical
trait and a hardness of heart.

In Samara he had distinguished himself by various injustices to the
population, and hundreds of innocent persons had, because they had been
denounced by the _agents-provocateurs_ of the secret police, been sent to
prison or to Siberia by administrative order. At first there was a
rivalry between him and General Trepoff in the Tsar's good graces, but
Trepoff died, leaving Stol