With the fall of Kinchou and the retreat of Fock's entire division towards Arthur, all glances were directed to Lieutenant-General Smirnoff. Those who had believed absolutely in the impregnability of the former position now lost heart, and began as fast as possible to clear out of the place, going in Chinese junks to Chifu. When the battered remnants of the 5th Regiment—the regiment which by its gallant defence of Kinchou had covered itself with everlasting glory, and which had lost more than half its men and two-thirds of its officers—marched into Arthur, it was given a most unexpected, not to say unique, welcome. 'You are a wretched, undisciplined corps of traitors, cowards, and blackguards. I will try the lot of you by court-martial. How did you dare leave Kinchou? Don't dare to show yourselves in Arthur, lest by your presence you infect the whole garrison with your cowardice,' was St?ssel's greeting.
The regiment had no divisional commander, and no one dared to take its part. Discipline prevented the officer commanding from replying to St?ssel, and he and his officers had to bear these totally undeserved insults. One General put the whole blame of the defeat on the regiment, and assured St?ssel (it was not hard to convince[Pg 85] him, as he was not at Kinchou) that the abandonment of the position was solely and entirely the fault of the 5th Regiment, and the senseless way in which it had fortified the place.
This cruel and shameful injustice to this gallant regiment was soon known by all the others, and it had a very bad moral effect on the whole garrison.
After the Kinchou débacle, the Commandant drew up an order as to the distribution of the different units in the Fortress, and on June 1 took it to St?ssel for official approval. The latter rudely cut him short, and, without either reading the order or looking at the scheme, said that it was inopportune.
'The publication of any such orders with regard to the distribution of the troops might,' he said, 'become known to the Japanese through their spies. [He had himself, on May 29, issued an order detailing troops to various positions on the hills.] The district under my command has almost entirely passed into the hands of the enemy. Arthur alone remains, I shall take upon myself the defence of the Fortress. Its present staff will be broken up, for it is a useless body. My staff will be sufficient. I will send Colonel Khvostoff to command a battalion. You will be on my staff. It is impossible for two equal commanders to be in one place.'
This was on June 1: we actually held on to the district outside the Fortress for two months after this date.
The Commandant was in an awkward position. St?ssel defied him, and the Fortress, which, thanks to his own efforts and skill, was being gradually got into a state of readiness, was to be taken from him and to be commanded by a man who would wreck all. That moment settled the relationship between these two. It was the first act[Pg 86] of the tragedy, which ended on January 1. Quietly, and with perfect politeness, Smirnoff answered:
'I was appointed Commandant of this Fortress by the Tsar; the Fortress Staff is the organ of the Commandant, appointed by Imperial orders. I have no intention whatever of resigning either the rights entrusted to me by the Tsar or the duties consequent on them. You, sir, as my commanding officer, can give me general orders relating to the defence of the Fortress, but I remain its master until the Tsar himself deprives me of it. If my removal from the duties of Commandant admits of no delay, you have it in your power to publish an order to that effect.'
During this scene those present anxiously awaited the result, for in those few minutes the fate of Arthur was decided. In an angry voice St?ssel replied:
'I do not mean to remove you from duty. You will remain Commandant, but I shall run the Fortress. Whether legal or not is my affair; I will answer for that.'
What could Smirnoff say?
There was a knock at the door; an orderly entered to announce some officers, and the episode was over. But as every wall has ears, this incident was soon known to the whole garrison, and indignation knew no bounds. We were all afraid for the fate of Arthur, and made conjectures as to the action Smirnoff would take. Some declared he would leave on a destroyer; others, in indignation, said that St?ssel should be invalided and forced into hospital; others swore that the day and hour had been settled when Smirnoff would surround St?ssel's house with a whole regiment and arrest him, as well as Fock and others. The moment would have been an appropriate one, for the discontent in the garrison was very great, and the hatred of Fock and St?ssel had much increased since Kinchou. Everything depended on Smirnoff's[Pg 87] decision; but to adopt such violent measures was risky—a dangerous precedent for the discipline of the troops. St?ssel also had St. Petersburg at his back. Even the Viceroy could not interfere with his recent appointment as Officer Commanding the District, though much against it. Who could say that St?ssel's arrest would not have results quite opposite to those wished for? It was most likely that St. Petersburg—that hotbed of the most revolting scandals and intrigues—would represent St?ssel's arrest to the Tsar in such a light as to cause an immediate order for his release. Was it not all possible?
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A WOMAN DRESSED AS A SOLDIER, WHO WENT THROUGH SEVERAL FIGHTS.
Finally, Smirnoff, in spit............