am and who spoke English faultlessly, gave me the
history of yesterday's battle. The man had looked at doom, and there was
doom still in his eyes. "We were beaten by their artillery," he said,
"there was never such a scene of carnage. The Russians had a shell for
every man."

In Philipopolis I was introduced to the Gueschoffs, a Bulgarian
mercantile family who had been established there for some generations.
The two sons had been educated at Owen's College, Manchester, and might
easily have passed anywhere for Englishmen. One of them was Deputy
Vice-Consul for Great Britain and the other held a similar office for
the United States. I dined with them and spent a very pleasant evening,
and I am sure that no visible shadow of mischance was then hanging over
the household. But a fortnight later I was amazed to learn that the
father and the two sons had alike been arrested on a charge of treason,
that they had all three been tried before a military tribunal and
condemned to death, whilst the whole of their possessions had been
sequestrated by the commandant of the city, Ibrahim Pasha. This was in
no special degree an affair of mine, but as soon as I heard the news I
hastened back to Philipopolis, and in the course of a hurried interview
with Mr Calvert, the British Vice-Consul, the conclusion was arrived at
that the official position of the two younger men was of a character to
afford them some protection against proceedings of so summary a nature.
It became entirely obvious as the result of a mere surface inquiry that
the charge against the Gueschoffs had been trumped up by the military
authorities simply and purely because they were wealthy people, and the
commandant saw his way to a handsome windfall.

Armed with such scanty proofs as I could gather, I set out for
Constantinople and, arriving there in the space of two days, I laid my
case before Sir Arthur Laird, who was then our Ambassador to the Porte,
and the Honourable Horace Maynard, who was Minister for the United
States. Sir Arthur was a pronounced Philo-Turk and would not for a
moment believe that any such abominable intrigue as I suggested could
have occurred to the mind of any Turkish official. He received me with
marked coldness and I felt from the first that I could make no headway
with him. Mr Horace Maynard met me in another spirit "One of these men,"
he told me, "is under the protection of the American flag and in his
case I shall insist upon a new trial a