RASPUTIN MEETS HIS FATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1918, Page 6

RASPUTIN MEETS HIS FATE.

ORA.UATIC SCENE WHICH ENDED THE ROMANOFF DYNASTY, AM EYE-WITNESS'S STORY. (By Wm. Le Queux) It seems that in December 15 (Russian style) the "Saint' had been invited to the elegant house of Prince Youssoupoff in Fetrograd to a merry supper. The 'penchant of the monk for a pretty face and a mysterious adventure being well known, it had been 'hinted to him that a certain lady who desired to remain incognito desired to meet him. Now the bouse of Prince Youssoupoff—who, by the way, bad a house in London before the. war and was well known in Mayfair—runs from the Moskaya to the Offitzerskaya. BAITING THE TRAP. The Prince was supposed to be alone to meet his guest and this mysterious, young and pretty lady who desired to enter the cult of the "Sister (Disciples." As n matter of fact, however, there were assembled iiuthe room on tile first floor several persons determined to rid Russia of the traitor who was daily betraying her into the hands of the Huns They were the Prince Youssoupoff, his son, Count Elsten, the Grand Duke Dmitri (who was suspected by the Empvess), the Deputy of the Extreme Right, Pouriehkeiviteh, a man named Stepanoff, a well-known danseuse (the mysterious lady who acted as decoy, named Mile. C ), and the lady who has described the scene to me, a Eussian nfrsing sister, who is now in London. Eleven o'clock struck. It wa9 a dramatic scene. All were anxious for Rasputin's arrival, but he did not come. The Prince went to the telephone and asked for the monk at bis house. Tlu' reply was that the Father had gone out to dine somewhere early in the evening. Would he come? Would he walk into the trap so cunningly baited for him? .POISONED WINE. The moments seemed hours as the little assembly sat waiting and diseuss- | ing whether anyone equld have given him warning, for it was known that the [miracle-worker had spies set everywhere. At twenty minutes past eleven a car was heard at the back door in the OffvHerskaya, and his host, rushing down, admitted him mysteriously. The monk removed his sable-lined coat, discloging h. : s black clerical garb and bejewelled cross suspended round his neck. "You need not be afraid, Father," said bis host. "Wo are alone, except for my friend Stepanoff. He is on© of MS." H« laughed merrily. Then he conducted the "Saint" into the large, handsome dining-room, where a tall, fair-haired man. Paul Stepanoff came forward to meet him. j Upon the table were two bottles of wine. Into one cyanide of potassium had been introduced, and its potency had an hour before been tried upon a dog, which at that moment was lying dead in the yard outside. After Stepanoff had been introduced, the Prince said in a confidential tone: "The lady I mentioned has not yet arrived.,,, I shall go to the door to await her, so that the servants are not disturbed." "I DO NOT FEEL WELL." Thus the Father was left with his merry, easy-going, fellow-guest—who at a glance he saw was a hon viveur like himself. The two men began to talk of Spiritualism, in which Stepanoff declared himself to be much interested, and a few minutes later he poured out some Wine, filling the father's glass from the poisoned bottle while he attracted his attention to a picture at the end of the room. They raised their glasses, and drank. Some dry biscuits were in a silver box, and after Rasputin had emptied his glass he took a biscuit and munched it. But to Stepanoffs amazement the poison took no effect. Was the monk, after all, under some divine or mysterious protection. Stepanoff was expecting him to bo seized with paroxysms of agony every moment. On the contfary, he was still calm and expectant regarding the mysterious lady whom he was to meet. Suddenly, however, Rasputin, slightly paler than usual exclaimed: "CuriousI do not feel very well'." And he crossed the room to examine an ancient crucifix, beautifully jewelled, which was standing upon a side table.' A TRICKSTER TO THE LAST. Stepanoff rose and followed him, remarking on the beauty of the sacred emblem, yet aghast that the "Saint" could take such a dose of poison and yet remain unharmed. Prince Youssoupoff, with the others, was standing silent in the upstairs room eagerly awaiting Stepanoff's announcement that the traitor was no more. Those moments were breathless ones. What, they wondered, was happening below? They listened, and could hear the voices of the pair, sWll in conversation. "Ah! that spasm has passed!" Rasputin was heard to declare. Passed! Was he immune from the effects of that most deadly poison? The real fact was that he had only sipped the wine, and already having had sufficient to drink before he came, and being unwilling to <tfi'end his host, he had contrived to empty his glass unseen by Stepanoff into a dark porcelain flower-bowl The monk had taken the big crucifix in his hand to examine it the more closely, when Stepanoff, seeing that Rasputin was still unharmed, suddenly drew a big Browning pistol, and placing it under the monk's arm and against his breast, fired. "I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE." Ti.o others above, bearing the shot, rushed out upon the wide balcony, while Stepanoff dashed up the stairs to meet them crying: "The Saint is dead at last! Russia is freed of the scoundrel!" The others shouted for joy, and, reentering the room, toasted the liberation and regeneration of Russia. Suddenly they heard a" noise below, and went out upon the balcony agian. There, to their horror, they saw the door of the diningroom opened and Rasputin haggard and blood-stained, staggering forth, with an imprecation upon his lips, to the Jo>r opening to the street, in an effort to escape. Thp attempt at poisoning him had failed, and the shot had only wounded him. The tension was breathless. Was he, after all, endowed with some supernatural power? "You have tried to kill me!" cried the monk, his hands stained with blood "But I still live —I live—and God will give me my revenge!" ' SHOT AFTER SHOT. With his hands clasped over the spot where he had bß«n_ wounded, ht mr« I

vent to n peal of evil laughter, which ] held the little knot of witnesses on the balcony utterly dumbfounded and appalled. Only one man seemed to have courage to stir. According to the lady who was present, and who gave me the description which 1 here reproduce—the onlv "true and authentic account of the ailair — Stepanoff, his pistol still in his hand, dashed down the stairs, and, preventing the monk from opening the outer door, sprang upon him, and emptied the contents of his weapon, shot after shot, into the monk's head. At last tile spy and traitor was dead! Ten minutes later a closed car arrived, containing Doctor Stanislaus L and driven by a soldier in uniform, named Ivan F . In this car the body of the monk was placed by the doctor,' the soldier, and the patriotic executioner Stepanoff. DROPPED INTO THE RIVER. The men drove with the fellow's body, tho great golden cross still dangling around his neck, to the Petrowsky Bridge. It was very dark and snowy. Nobody was about. Therefore the doctor, the soldier, and the man who had that night lopped off the tentacles of the German oetnpus in Russia carried the body to a point 'between the second and third arches of the 'bridge. Here it had been ascertained earlier in the night that the ice was broken and a large hole existed. They raised the body to cast it over when to their horror, the dead hand caught in the soldier's shoulder-strap! "Is this a curse upon me?" gasped Ivan. "Curse or not, he goes!" cried Stepanoff, and all three hurled him over the parapet. There was a loud splash. Then all was silent again, and the trio, re-enter-ing the car, drove hurriedly away. For six days there were rumors everywhere in Petrograd that "something" had happened. Fredericks, Stumer, and Protopopoff were frantic. The secret police, at orders of the Emperor, were making every inquiry, for the Holy Father was missing!' THE TSARITSA DISTRAUGHT An abandoned motor-car, soaked in blood, had been found miles out of the city It was believed to belong to a Grand Duke. The entire police and detective force of the capital had, in the meantime, been afoot and raked through all the houses of ill-fame, gipsysingers' haunts, and in fact every conceivable place, until tho finding of a blood-stained golosh proved to have belonged to Rasputin gave evidence to a tragedy. The ice on the rivers and canals was, of course, several feet thick, but it is the custom in Russia to cut openings, where water is obtained, and linen is rinsed by laundresses. Divers went, down, but discovered nothing; eventually however, the body was picked up. near the bank, not far from where it had been thrown in. When it was discovered the Empress saw it in secret, and knelt before it, crying hysterically for half an hour, Anna Vyrubova standing in silence at her side. "Dead!" she gasped. Lei- "ace blanched to the lips. "If the Holy Father is dead, then, alas! the dynasty of the Romanoffs is dead also!"