All the propaganda that was going on was sure to take effect, and in September the Bolsheviks tried their first revolution. Their plan was simple. The two infantry regiments which lay outside the town were to march into the town and unite with the regiments there in overturning the Government. After that the rule of the Soviets was to be proclaimed. All this could not be arranged so secretly that the authorities should not hear of it. The General Commanding-in-Chief came up in his car in order personally to see the men and hear their complaints. He was promptly arrested. The soldiers then held a meeting to consider the situation. I was present and recognized on the platform certain officers of the regiment. It was decided to march off into the town, and I thought that, as a matter of course, the officers would go with them and march at their head. But not a bit of it. The resolutions having been confirmed with a blood-curdling yell, the officers disappeared. Just as the soldiers were on the point of starting, there came on the scene two hundred and fifty Younkers (Officers’ Training Corps). They took up a position barring the way to the town, and proceeded to demand the release of the general, the surrender of all arms, and that the ringleaders should be named to them. The left wing of the Younkers rested for a time on our garden, and it was a pleasure to see the smartness of their evolutions. They were real soldiers confronting sham ones. For though this small handful of troops had in front of them a regiment some thousands strong, and on their right flank another regiment, they won the day. It is true that they had two field guns, but these could easily have been rushed by determined soldiers. After some hours’ parleying (extremely anxious for us, who would have been in the thick of any fighting) the Bolsheviks gave in entirely. As I have said before, their officers had disappeared at the very beginning, and most of their other ringleaders ran away when they saw things were getting serious. Of those who were caught, one had his pockets stuffed with pornographic literature and he was wearing women’s underclothing; another had thousands of pounds on him, a remarkable thing in a common soldier; while a third was a notorious criminal who had the murder of two whole families on his conscience. I had always regarded as a stupid libel the favourite Conservative assertion that the Socialist leaders incite their followers to revolt and then keep out of harm’s way themselves, but here was evidence too damning. With my own eyes I saw the officers stir the men up to revolt, I saw the officers walk off before the trouble began, and next day, not knowing what I had seen, these same men told me that the whole affair had been got up by a few misguided fanatics and cowards, and that it was very much to be deplored. CHAPTER XI THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT [SN: BEFORE THE STORM]