y 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.

We found L---- ready enough; indeed, we had kept him waiting. He had
most of his staff with hi