ress my ignorance as
to his whereabouts. I told her that he might possibly have gone upon
another pilgrimage.

Late that night I went back to the palace, where I found Madame Vyrubova
much perturbed.

"It is strange, Feodor!" she exclaimed. "He never leaves Petrograd
without first informing me."

I set her mind at rest by suggesting that, as affairs were so critical,
he was probably with Stuermer and Protopopoff plotting further
manoeuvres.

Next night, however, a thrill went through the Court, as well as through
the Russian people, by the six-word announcement in the Exchange
newspapers, which coldly said:

"_Gregory Rasputin has ceased to exist._"

I read the statement aghast. I saw Anna Vyrubova, who was beside herself
with grief and anxiety, and for a moment I spoke with the distracted
Empress. Then I left with all haste for the capital.

On arrival I learnt at the Ministry of the Interior that a policeman on
night duty along the Moika Canal had heard shots and cries coming from a
house belonging to the young Prince Felix Youssoupoff, who had married a
cousin of the Tsar, and who was well known in London, where he passed
each "season." In the house were the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch,
ex-Minister of the Interior Kvostov, Deputy Purishkevitch, and others.
When the policeman went to ask what had happened, he received no
explanation.

A little later two motor-cars drove up to the door. In one of the cars a
large bundle was placed. It was the body of Rasputin. Beside this bundle
a man took his seat and ordered the chauffeur to drive to an island at
the mouth of the Neva. Traces of blood were left in the garden. There
were also marks of blood on the ice of the frozen Neva, where the car had
stopped. Near these marks was a freshly made hole, and close to the hole
lay a pair of blood-stained rubber shoes.

Alexandra Feodorovna, frantic and bewildered, informed the Emperor by
telegraph, and by the time he had returned the monk's body had been
recovered from the river. I was present at the Mass served by the
Petrograd Metropolitan Pitirim, an evil-liver of Rasputin's creation,
after which I went with the body, which was conveyed to Tsarskoe-Selo.
There, at the burial, Protopopoff was one of the chief mourners, and he,
together with General Voyeykoff, Fredericks, and the Emperor himself,
carried the silver coffin containing the remains of one of the worst
rascals in Christendom, while the Tsaritza, Anna, and the