ught to the monk by Kouropatkine. Both were
in uniform, and after ushering them into Rasputin's study I felt that
some dark conspiracy was on foot.

They remained in council for nearly an hour when I was called into the
room, and to me, as the monk's right hand, the plot was explained so that
I could assist in it.

To me the German Stuermer, who afterwards rose to be Prime Minister of
Russia, was no stranger. Indeed, it was he who, inviting me to be seated,
explained what was in progress.

"It is necessary, Rajevski, that the Father should meet Her Majesty the
Empress. He is our saviour, and it is but right that he should come to
the Imperial Court. But he cannot be introduced by any of the ordinary
channels. Her Majesty must be impressed, and her curiosity aroused."

I bowed in assent, little dreaming of the devilish scheme which,
instigated from Potsdam, and paid for by German gold, was about to be
worked. Already Germany had decided to conquer Russia, and already the
far-seeing Kaiser had watched and recognised that he could use Rasputin's
undoubted influence in our priest-ridden country for his own dastardly
ends.

"Now," continued Stuermer, stroking his beard as he looked at me. "We have
just discovered that Her Majesty intends to pay a visit incognita next
Friday to the shrine of Our Lady at Kazan, in order to pray for the birth
of an heir to the Romanoffs. We have therefore decided that our Father
shall go to Kazan, and be found by the Empress praying before the shrine
beseeching the Almighty to grant Her Majesty her fond desire. He will
appear to her a perfect stranger uttering exactly the same prayer as that
in her mind."

"They will not speak," Kouropatkine added. "Our Father will apparently
take no notice of her save to glance into her face, for why should he
recognise in her the Empress?"

I saw with what ingenuity the plan was being laid, for well I knew the
amazing and quite uncanny fascination for women of all classes possessed
by the Starets.

At the time I naturally believed that Stuermer and his friend Kouropatkine
were both convinced that it would be to the advantage of Russia if the
holy man gained admission to the Imperial Court as spiritual guide to
Nicholas II. Such a widely popular figure had the Starets become, and so
deeply impressed had been the people of Moscow and Warsaw, where he had
performed some mysterious "miracles," that there were hundreds of
thousands of all classes who, li