The only "call" the licentious blackguard had received was the news that two very prepossessing young girls, named Vera and Xenie, daughters of the late Baroness Koulomzine, of Moscow, had expressed their desire to Countess Ignatieff to join the secret cult. The Countess had shown him their photographs and the libertine, in pretence of performing a pilgrimage, travelled to Moscow in order to initiate them. Next day, at the Convent of the Ascension, where the libertine had spent the night, he interviewed the two young gentlewomen. Before an ikon with flowers upon the altar and in the presence of the Lady-Superior, he exorcised their sins according to his prescribed rite. It was a strange scene. The penitents in the dimly-lit chapel each touched their forehead and breast with thumb and forefinger, gazing immobile and fascinated at the miracle-working "Master," their lips moving in proper response to the prayers of the Heaven-sent confessor. At what subsequently transpired I can only hint. According to the official report before me the girls confessed to two officers, their half-brothers, that after the benediction the verminous monk induced them both to go to the Turkish baths together, for "purification" as he put it. Well, the mock-monk found himself under arrest, and only by the most strenuous efforts of the Countess Ignatieff was he released, after spending forty hours in a cell. But Rasputin merely smiled. He knew his own power. Next day he returned to Petrograd, and within twelve hours of his arrival Plestcheff, Chief of Police of Moscow, had, at the instance of the Empress, been relieved of his post in disgrace. Rasputin's exploits in Moscow brought him very nearly to disaster. Master-criminal that he was and as my intention is to show, he calmly reviewed his position, and saw that by cleverly playing his cards--now that the Empress and her easily gulled Court had become so completely enthralled by his "wonder-working"--he might assume his own position as the most powerful man in the Empire.