"You did well, General," declared Rasputin, with an evil smile. "What has really happened in Vilna?" "Well, the woman Isembourg, though she was a spy of Germany, is now on our side in the contra-espionage service," was his reply. "From the first she assured me that the colonel was extremely honest and patriotic. Though before the war she had several times tried to induce him to give her military information, yet he always declined and endeavoured to avoid her." "Well, that difficulty can be overcome, surely?" asked the monk. General Soukhomlinoff, a traitor himself, laughed lightly as he replied: "Of course. There were other means. Elise, three days ago, handed over to me a typewritten document revealing the secrets of the defences of Grodno, which she reported had been given to her by Colonel Svetchine in return for a promise of ten thousand roubles when she could obtain the money from a secret source in Petrograd." "Then he is a traitor!" exclaimed the monk eagerly. The general winked, and replied: "Elise Isembourg declares that he is, and that he gave her the document." "He, of course, denies it?" "He knows nothing as yet," said His Excellency. "I have issued orders for his arrest to-day, and have given instructions for the court martial to be held here, in Petrograd." The evil monk laughed gleefully. "Ah! I see," he remarked. "And probably the colonel has never yet seen this typewritten document?" "Probably," replied the Minister of War, with a mysterious smile. "There have been such cases. I have fixed the court martial for next Thursday, and I assure you it will be difficult for the colonel to prove his innocence!" From that conversation I gathered the diabolical nature of Rasputin's plot against a perfectly innocent man, as revenge for his wife's insults. Next day we were called to the palace, for the Empress was sorely worried over the health of the Tsarevitch, and she implored the holy Father to pray for him, little dreaming that the ever-recurring attacks were due to the subtle poison administered in secret by her most trusted favourite, Madame Vyrubova. For several days we remained at the palace, while Rasputin performed one of his "miracles," namely, the restoration of the lad to his normal condition. What if the Empress had known that the "miracles" in which she so fervently believed were merely performed by the administration of certain antidotes to the poison already given! While at the palace on that occasion I witnessed some strange doings at a spiritualistic seance to which Bossant, the notorious French medium, had been commanded. The Emperor, Empress and their intimates were present, including Rasputin and myself, and when the circle was formed and the seance in full swing the Tsar consulted the spirit of his dead father as to how he should act in the conduct of the war against Germany. The reply, of course, arranged by the Empress and her friends, was something as follows: