l with which you
have carried out your mission. I regret that I cannot give you a
favorable answer to take back to your nation."

I was thunderstruck at this exordium. Slightly raising his voice, the
Mikado went on:

"Tell the Emperor of Russia that I do not distrust his sincerity, but
I distrust his power. The monarch who cannot send a letter through
his dominions in safety; who has to resort to stratagems and
precautions like these to overcome the opposition of his own
subjects, is not the ruler of his empire.

"Why, sir, do you suppose that if I had a message to send to my
brother in St. Petersburg I should have to stoop to arts like these?
That any subject of mine would dare to plot against me, to seduce my
messengers, to drug and rob them? Incredible! The tale you have told
me completely confirms everything I and my advisers have already
heard with regard to the Russian Government. It is a ship without a
captain, on which the helm is fought for and seized by different
hands in turn. To-day the real rulers of Russia are the men who are
bent on war--and who, while we are talking, have actually begun the
war!"

I gazed around the Council-Room, unable to believe my ears.

"Yes," the stern sovereign continued, "while you, sir, were entering
the Inland Sea, charged with this offer of peace"--his majesty tossed
the precious piece of paper on the table with a look of disdain--"a
Russian gunboat, the _Korietz_, was firing the first shot of the war
at one of my squadrons off Chemulpo."

The glances directed by those present at the naval officer behind the
imperial chair convinced me that he had just brought the fatal news
to the Council.

"And now," added the Mikado, "I will give my reply to the real
masters of Russia--to the directors of the _Korietz_."

He nodded to the naval officer, who walked across the floor to a box
on the wall like a telephone receiver, and pressed a button.

"That," his majesty explained, "is the signal for a flotilla of
torpedo boats to enter the harbor of Port Arthur and blow up the
Russian fleet."

I think a faint cry of remonstrance or misgiving must have escaped
me. The Japanese monarch frowned, and his voice took a still sterner
ring.

"Go back to your unfortunate master, and tell him that when he can
send me a public envoy, in the light of day, to ask for peace, and to
undertake the fulfilment of the pledges which his Ministers have
broken, I will grant his request."