“And what if I have,” he exclaimed angrily. “They are, all of them, pigs--all these people who want to discuss me or my doings. I am but a poor peasant, but God has spoken to me, and He has allowed me to know what it is that He wishes. I can speak with our Czar. I am not afraid to do so, as they all are. And he knows that he ought to listen to me, else all kind of evil things would befall him. I could crush them all, all these people who want to thwart me. I could crush them in my hand as I do this piece of bread,” and while he was speaking he seized a biscuit out of a plate on the table and reduced it to crumbs. “They have tried to send me away, but they will never get rid of me, because God is with me and Gricha shall outlive them all. I have seen too much and I know too much. They are obliged to do what I like, and what I like is for the good of Russia. As for these ministers and generals, and all these big functionaries whom every one fears in this capital, I do not trouble about them. I can send them all away if I like. The spirit of God is in me and will protect me. “Thou canst say this to those who have sent thee to see me. Thou canst tell them that the day will come when there will be no one worth anything in our holy Russia except our Czar and Gricha, the servant of God. Yes, thou canst tell them so, and be sure that thou dost it.” I protested that I should consider this my first duty, but at the same time begged “the servant of God,” as he called himself, to explain to me by what means he had acquired the influence which he possessed. “By telling the truth to people about themselves,” he quickly replied. “Thou probably thinkest that all these fine ladies about the court who come to me do not care to be told about their failings. But there it is that thou art mistaken. They feel so disconcerted when they hear me call them by their proper names and remind them that they are but b----s, and the daughters of b----s, that they immediately fall at my feet. A silly lot are these women, and Gricha is not such a fool as one thinks. He knows how they ought to be treated. Wilt thou see how I treat them?” I said that nothing would give me more pleasure. Rasputin went to the door and called Avdotia. “Go to the telephone,” he said when she came in, “ask the Countess I---- to come at once. She must come herself to the telephone, and if a servant replies, say that he must call her immediately, and then tell her that I require her presence here at 12 o’clock to-night; not one minute earlier or later, mind.” The woman went away, and I could hear her talking at the telephone in the next room in an authoritative tone. Soon she returned with the words: “The Countess sends her humble respects to Gregory Efimitsch, and she will be here at midnight as she has been ordered to.” Rasputin turned toward me with a triumphant smile on his coarse cunning countenance.