Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/95

Rh It was an obsession of secret worship, a diseased enthusiasm for "black and white thaumaturgy," and neither an innocent diversion nor a scientific investigation.

The most realistic political game or the most vital intrigue on a grand scale was often played behind the scene. There was nothing of pagan rite in it.

I mentioned once before that I was coaching the son of an official of the house of Prince Leuchtenberg, a cousin of the Tsar.

I met there many high dignitaries of the Imperial Court, and one of them invited me to his home. A newly-arrived Paris celebrity was to be there—the famous king of occultists, "Professor" Papus.

The seance was not a success. Some vague glimmers of light, some murmurs and noises, some cold touches—that was all that this "Mahatma" could achieve. I saw many much more interesting phenomena in the occult and spiritist circles in Paris, and later on in Central Asia.

But after a few days I learned many sensational things.

In the palace of one of the most influential of the Grand Dukes, and in the presence of the Tsar and the Tsaritsa, Papus conjured up the apparition of the spirit of one of the dead Tsars, who called upon his successor to embark on a policy hostile to Berlin, to make war on Germany, and to be on his guard against the policy of Count Witte and the influence of an "unknown" but