Chapter 21
The FuneralThe extreme privacy with which I had
managed my negotiation with M. Auguste completely baffled the
plotters who were relying on the voyage of the Baltic Fleet to
furnish a casus belli between Russia and Great
Britain.
They realized, of course, that some powerful hand was
interfering with their designs, and they were sufficiently
intelligent to guess that that hand must be mine.
But they were far from suspecting the method of my operations.
They firmly believed that M. Auguste was still carrying out their
instructions, and sowing distrust of England in the mind of
Nicholas II. Indeed, on one occasion he informed me that the
Princess Y—— had sent for him and ordered him not to frighten the
Czar to such an extent as to make him afraid to let the fleet
proc
