Part IV
RASPUTIN: HIS INFLUENCE AND HIS WORK
CHAPTER XVII
FIVE or six years ago some Russian cousins of mine came for a short stay to Paris, and for the first time they pronounced before me the name of “Rasputin,” telling me of his disastrous influence at Court and particularly over the Empress. “He has persuaded her”—they told me—“that the Tzarevitch will die if she continues to live with the Emperor as his wife, his object being to assure to the enemies of the Romanoffs that their hope will be accomplished and that no other heir will be born to the Emperor, which is their great fear.” Besides, at that period the Empress was ill and nervous, and at times could not walk, having to be wheeled about in an invalid’s chair; to-day, I am told, she has returned to that chair, in Siberia, whither her unqualifiable conduct has led her.
The Emperor certainly had an heir, and for once rumour was right as to what had indeed happened to the poor child, and he had been made to forfeit the hope of posterity to the line of which he might well be the last member. “Therefore he will not reign,” said my cousins. The Emperor had even chosen his successor, a son of one of the Grand Dukes. [C]
Grand Duke Alexis in addition has very feeble health, and the doctors had doubts whether he would live beyond the age of sixteen, which he has not yet reached. They said that also he was attacked by that infirmity which consists in having a skin too few, and consequently a liability to severe hæmorrhages.
My cousin told me that one day on getting into his bath, the Tzarevitch slipped a little and immediately a great “pocket” of blood formed itself; the same thing occurred one day in stepping out of a boat in which he had been for a sail. In fact the poor boy suffered from a strange and disconcerting illness, which is partly explained to-day, as will be seen later on.