d
to guide Russia in her forthcoming progress and prosperity, so that she
should rise to become the all-powerful nation of Europe.

"It is well, O Lady, that thou hast sent for me," he added. "I am thy
most devoted servant. I am entirely in thy hands."

And again crossing his begrimed hands upon his breast he raised his eyes
to Heaven, and repeated his blessing in that same jumbled jargon which he
used at the weekly seances of the sister-disciples.

"O Father, I sincerely thank you," replied Her Majesty at last. "The
Emperor is unfortunately away in Moscow, but when he returns you must
again come to us, for I know he will welcome you warmly. We are both
striving for the national welfare, and if we receive your goodwill we
shall have no fear of failure."

"There are, alas! rumours of plots against the dynasty," said Rasputin.
"But, O Lady, I beg of thee to heed these my words and remain calm and
secure, for although attempts may be made, desperate perhaps, it is
willed that none will be successful. God in His grace is Protector of the
House of Romanoff, to whom a son will assuredly soon be born."

Alexandra Feodorovna held her breath at hearing those words. That scene
before the shrine of Our Lady of Kazan was, no doubt, still vivid in her
mind.

"Are you absolutely confident of that?" she asked him in breathless
suspense.

"The truth hath already been revealed unto me. Therefore I know," was his
reply. "I know--and I here tell thee, O Lady. The Imperial House will
have a son and heir."

That prophecy, duly fulfilled as it was later on, caused the Empress to
regard the dissolute "saint" as a "holy" man. In that eventful hour at
Tsarskoe-Selo the die was cast. The Empress had fallen irrevocably
beneath the spell of the amazing rascal, and the death-knell of the
Romanoffs as rulers had been sounded.

When we backed out of the Empress's presence the peasant Ivan, who had
introduced us, handed us over to the Tsar's chief valet, an elderly
grey-bearded man in the Imperial livery, a man whose name we understood
was Tchernoff, and who had been valet of the old Emperor Alexander III.

The Starets left the palace full of extreme satisfaction, and indeed,
when an hour later we were alone together in the train returning to
Petrograd, he grinned evilly across at me, and said meaningly:

"Alexandra Feodorovna did not forget our meeting at Kazan, though she did
not allude to it. Ere long, though she is Empress, I intend t