After a certain time, however, Rasputin’s head was turned by this unexpected rise to fame; he thought his position was sufficiently secure, forgot the caution he had displayed when he first came to St. Petersburg, and returned to his scandalous mode of life. Yet he did so with a skill which for a long time kept his private life quite secret. It was only gradually that the reports of his excesses spread and were credited.
At first only a few voices were faintly raised against the _staretz_, but it was not long before they became loud and numerous. The first at Court to attempt to show up the impostor was Mademoiselle Tioutcheva, the governess of the Grand-Duchesses. Her efforts were broken against the blind faith of the Czarina. Among the charges she made against Rasputin were several which, in her indignation, she had not checked with sufficient care so that their falsity was absolutely patent to her sovereign. Realising her impotence, and with a view to discharging her responsibilities, she asked that in any case Rasputin should not be allowed on the floor occupied by the children.
The Czar then intervened, and Her Majesty yielded, not because her faith was shaken, but merely for the sake of peace and in the interests of a man whom she believed was blinded by his very zeal and devotion.
Although I was then no more than one of the Grand-Duchesses’ professors--it was during the winter of 1910--Mademoiselle Tioutcheva herself told me all about this debate and its vicissitudes.[11] But I confess that at that time I was still far from accepting all the extraordinary stories about Rasputin.
In March, 1911, the hostility to Rasputin became more and more formidable, and the _staretz_ thought it wise to let the storm blow over and disappear for a time. He therefore started on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
On his return to St. Petersburg in the autumn of the same year the tumult had not subsided, and he had to face the attacks of one of his former protectors, Bishop Hermogenes, who employed terrible threats and eventually extracted a promise from Rasputin to keep away from the Court, where his presence compromised his sovereigns.
He had no sooner left the Bishop, who had actually gone so far as to strike him, than he rushed to his powerful protectoress, Madame Wyroubova, the Czarina’s all but inseparable companion. The Bishop was exiled to a monastery.