The last thing which could be got out of the Russian Commander-in-Chief was that he would telegraph at once to Alexieff at Port Arthur and ask his permission to arrange matters.  If Alexieff said yes, we would go to work at once; otherwise nothing could be attempted.  I knew that probably not a single word would be mentioned to any one out of Peking, and that these were mere manoeuvres.  However....

I had almost forgotten the matter when, a few mornings after this interview, I was suddenly awakened at daylight and told that there were several Russian officers in my courtyard who wished to speak to me at once.  Their business was urgent.  I went out and greeted the men, and they said that L——­ would be ready at two o’clock that day to go with his staff to the Board of Revenue and effect the seizure; and that a quarter share on all amounts seized would be given by the Russian Government for the information supplied.  These officers added that they would have to go back at once; but in the end they remained with me the whole morning, drinking as hard as they could, and contenting themselves with despatching a Cossack to say that all was arranged.

We started to go to the Russian headquarters at an early hour, but in some mysterious way news must have been conveyed to other people of this latest development, for half a dozen men arrived and appeared immensely surprised to find these Russian officers there with me on their horses.  They asked me, each in turn, whether everything had been arranged, and how much everyone was going to get, and where the treasure was to be stored.  There was, indeed, no end to their questions, and they said that they estimated that the sum seized would amount to about ten or twelve million francs.  Later on, each man took me aside, and explained what he had done to help the thing along, hoping that he would be remembered in the end, as this was a very big affair, and the more people in it the better.  I confess I did not clearly understand all this; it was like floating a mining company.  But I knew that most of these dear friends had been sitting shivering inside the Legations while the sack was going on, because they had no wish to risk their lives; and now that they thought they could safely earn an honest penny in a legitimate affair, they would stoop to anything!

We were soon such a huge cavalcade that I became nervous about the reception L——­ would give us.  The Russian officers, too, became more and more drunk in the open air, and kept on saying that they hoped there would be fighting, heavy fighting, for they felt just like it.  A charge was what they wanted, they said.  No one could find out with whom they proposed to fight, as the place we were going to was only a stone’s throw away, with not a Chinaman near and a couple of strong companies of Russian infantry inside.  The officers became intensely angry when everyone laughed, and said that although they were drunk, they were not like many people without stomachs about whom there had been so much talk.  That was a nasty home-blow for some of them.