The reason she had not joined was because she was not yet prepared. Germany knew that and with Rasputin's aid had laid a plot to invade her. She was, while still unready, forced into the war by Sturmer. Nineteen days after the despatch of that cipher message from Berlin she formally declared hostilities against Austria-Hungary. Berlin was delighted, and the sinister "dark force" of Russia rubbed his dirty hands with delight. The plot he saw must succeed. Truly it was a vile and devilish one, which not even the shrewdest diplomat suspected, namely, to deliver Roumania and her resources of grain and oil to the enemy. As an outcome of the conspiracy the Russo-Roumanian army, owing to treachery in the latter, at once retreated under pressure from Mackensen's forces, and very quickly, almost before the Allies were aware of it, Roumania and the Constanza railway were in the enemy's hands. Disaster, engineered by the camarilla, followed disaster after that "Now or never" ultimatum of Sturmer's. The promises made to the brave Roumanians were broken one after the other. Why? Because with Rasputin, Protopopoff and certain Generals suborned by the mock-monk, the Prime Minister's intention was to use the great retreat and the rapid absorption of Roumania as a means to force the Tsar and his Empire into a separate peace. Indeed, Rasputin--in attendance daily at Tsarskoe-Selo--by declaring to the Empress and his sister-disciples at Court that he had been accorded a vision of the Tsar and Kaiser fraternising, and interpreting this as a divine direction that peace should at once be made with Germany, had very nearly induced His Majesty to sign a declaration of peace, when one man in the Empire discovered the dastardly manoeuvre, the Deputy Gospodin Miliukoff, whose actions I will describe in a further chapter. CHAPTER EIGHT. THE MOCK-MONK UNMASKED. Documentary evidence contained in the papers which the monk so carefully preserved shows conclusively that he paid a secret visit to Berlin in the first week of October, 1916. While the brave Russian army were fighting valiantly, ever and anon being betrayed by their leaders, treachery of the worst and vilest sort was afoot in the highest quarters. That German potentate, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who occupied an important position in the entourage of the Tsar, was acting as counsellor to the Tsaritza, and at the same time, aided actively by the woman Vyrubova, was working to delude the Emperor and defeat his gallant armies. At Russian Field Headquarters the Tsar was cheered everywhere, and his officers were enthusiastic. It was known that the German offensive had spent itself, and it was believed by those who were being bamboozled that, when all was ready, Russia would press on to her well-deserved victory.