A new day has begun. The people of Kiev don't know what the nobles in the city experienced the night before. For them, every day is the same, except that they are busy for the sake of livelihood.
However, this night is destined to go down in history, because after this night Kiev and Ukraine will change their masters, and after this night the Russian reformists begin to sound the clarion call for a counterattack against the conservatives.
The first person to be beaten by the iron fist of the reformists was Count Shuvalov. On the second day of his house arrest, Count Rostovtsev brought Grand Duke Nicholas to interrogate him.
"Earl, on behalf of His Majesty, I will now ask you some questions. You must answer them truthfully. If you tell any lies, once you are discovered, you will be punished in the most severe way! Do you understand?"
Shuvalov just wanted to say: Haha, he is not scared. Isn't he still worried about what should and should not be said in this situation? Playing this kind of trick with him is like treating him like a child.
!
He replied lazily and nonchalantly: "I understand! Just ask! Anyway, I have a clear conscience!"
Count Rostovtsev didn't care whether his attitude was good or not, he just asked calmly: "What is your relationship with Madam Petrovna?"
This question did not surprise Shuvalov at all. He knew that this issue must be the focus, but he had nothing to be afraid of. His people knew what to say and what not to say, but he did not believe it.
Count Rostovtsev was able to get his men to open their mouths in one night.
So he replied confidently: "It doesn't matter. I just met a few times at salons and balls, chatted twice, and danced a few times!"
Count Rostovtsev continued: "Is that all?"
Count Shuvalov snorted coldly and said proudly: "Of course!"
Count Rostovtsev smiled. This smile puzzled Shuvalov. He didn't understand what was so funny about it.
"I'm afraid that's not true?" Count Rostovtsev replied calmly, "According to the testimony of the witnesses, you have a close relationship with this Mrs. Petrovna and have an ambiguous relationship. What? Don't you want to tell the truth?"
"Nonsense!" Count Shuvalov retorted with feigned anger: "It's completely nonsense! If you must frame me with these groundless things, then please provide evidence!"
Count Rostovtsev smiled and said: "Evidence? There is a lot! There are eyewitness testimonies, and they all insist that you have an ambiguous and close relationship with Mrs. Petrovna!"
Shuvalov was completely unmoved and said coldly: "Whose testimony? I'm afraid they are all based on rumors!"
"Searching?" Rostovtsev said with a slight smile, patted a dozen documents at his hand and said: "There are quite a lot of rumors about you, four counts, seven viscounts, twelve barons, and many others.
The unclear lady and young lady all told me in unison that you have an ambiguous relationship with Mrs. Petrovna. Are they all lying? Or is it that your popularity in Kiev, Count Shuvalov, is quite bad and you have become annoying to everyone?
to the point?”
Shuvalov remained very calm, because he knew that those nobles who did not like him, as well as the timid nobles, would definitely not be able to withstand Count Rostovtsev's interrogation and would definitely confess these things.
But he feels that these things are not fatal, because he can completely use pranks and misunderstandings to deal with it, or even say that these people have a grudge against him and deliberately add insult to injury. Anyway, it is impossible for these things to defeat him!
He snorted coldly and said: "As the person in charge of the third department, I am mainly responsible for maintaining the stability of the empire. It is inevitable that I will offend many people. It is not surprising that I am criticized by these despicable people!"
Count Rostovtsev smiled slightly again and said: "Really? But why do I think these testimonies are so credible? And I think His Majesty will also pay attention to these testimonies!"
"Hmph! Whatever you say, I'm innocent anyway!"
"That's really missing," Count Rostovtsev said, still smiling. "According to my investigation, you are a serious suspect! For example, could you explain to me why the day before Fionin escaped from prison, you
What about your secret meeting with Madame Petrovna? Can you tell me what you and her talked about?"
Shuvalov was suddenly startled, with a layer of cold sweat on his back, because only he and a few confidants should know about his secret meeting with Petrovna. How did Count Rostovtsev find out! Could it be?
However, he quickly calmed down and said calmly: "I don't remember seeing that woman before the incident. This is still someone who framed and falsely accused me!"
Count Rostovtsev smiled and said: "Then can you explain why Petrovna's maid, valet and housekeeper told the imperial envoy that you secretly met that woman that day?!"
Count Rostovtsev deliberately used that woman to refer to Petrovna, which was obviously a dig at Shuvalov. But Shuvalov could no longer care about this because he had heard very bad things.
According to the news, people close to Petrovna have fallen into the hands of Count Rostovtsev. The question is, how is this possible?
You must know that after Petrovna fled, Shuvalov had done some remedial work in order to completely silence her. He immediately sent people to arrest Petrovna's servants, but what he didn't expect was
But these people were already gone. Obviously Petrovna had been on guard against his attack and had evacuated the servants around her in advance.
Shuvalov later spent a lot of time searching for these people, but made no progress. Like Petrovna, these people were neither alive nor dead, as if they had disappeared out of thin air.
He asked suspiciously: "How did you find these people? There was a special search for these people in the third part before, but they ran away long ago!"
Count Rostovtsev still smiled and replied: "Just last night, these people chose to surrender, and then truthfully confessed all the information related to Petrovna, including the fact that you secretly communicated with this person before the incident.
As for the fact of the meeting with the woman, according to their account, you had a secret meeting with that woman for nearly two hours. Now, Your Excellency, please tell me what you talked about with that woman!"
Shuvalov was not so calm for the first time, because Count Rostovtsev's words gave him a great impact. Petrovna's people actually chose to surrender, and sooner or later in Rostovtsev
The count surrendered on the day he arrived in Kiev. If there was no conspiracy, then it would be called a ghost!