"A vision of the fixture hath to-day been revealed unto me! It is a warning--one that thou surely shouldst heed! When I die, Alexis will live but forty days longer. Surrounded as I am by those who seek my downfall and death, I know not what plots may be formed against me. I only know that assuredly Alexis will only survive me through forty days. If God wills it, my end may be to-morrow!" he added, raising his eyes piously. At this the Empress betrayed terrible distress. But the ruse of the wily scoundrel worked well, for the personal protection at once afforded him by order of the Tsar was as complete as the surveillance upon the Emperor himself. CHAPTER FOUR. THE "HIDDEN HAND" OF BERLIN. Rasputin, though revealing himself constantly as a blasphemous blackguard, had by the middle of 1916 become the greatest power in Russia. Through his good offices Germany hoped to crush the Empire. Examination of the confidential reports concerning his scandalous activities here before me causes me to halt aghast that the Imperial Court, which I attended in peace time, Petrograd society, and the hard-working classes in Russia, should have become so completely and so utterly hypnotised by his disgraceful "religion." The latter had eaten into the Empire's heart, causing an outburst of open and disgraceful immorality in the higher circles--a new "sensation" that was appalling. In Moscow, Kazan, Tambov, and other cities, "circles" of the "Sister-Disciples" had been eagerly formed, together with a branch which were meeting in secret at a small old-world monastery called Jedelevo, in the Province of Simbirsk, and about whose doings many scandalous whispers reached Petrograd. "Grichka" possessed the reputation of being a popular preacher. That was not so. He had never been ordained a priest; he was a pure adventurer, and did not belong to any ecclesiastical order. Therefore he had no licence to preach in a church. He was simply a Siberian peasant convicted of theft, blackmail, and outrage, who had set himself up to be a "holy man." And as such, all Russia, from the Empress downwards, accepted him and swallowed any lie that he might utter. Truly the whole situation was amazing in this twentieth century. He preached often to his "sister-disciples" in their _salons_, and sometimes at "At Homes," where fast society women who had fallen beneath the pious scoundrel's fascination hoped to make other converts. To such "At Homes" only young and pretty women were ever invited. Rasputin had no use for the old and angular.