An officer has just come from the _Sissoi_ to report that they have received a perfectly clear message, in which the _Nicholas_ asks for the situation of the _Suvaroff_. Perhaps the _Nicholas_ is actually signalling. In any case, it will soon be made clear. If Nebogatoff effects a junction, then, after his ships have had a chance of being overhauled and of coaling, we shall move on to Vladivostok. Now we shall hardly wait for the _Slava_ and other ships. Probably they have not yet left Russia. There has just been a solemn service. O God! what squalor! The crew and the choir stood barefoot. All were in white. They tried to put on clean clothes, but they were all torn. The officers' clothes were bad also. All the same, the service made a deep impression on me. It brought back to my mind the last week I spent with you. This is the second Easter I have spent in a ship (the first in the _Apraxin_[17]), and both with Rojdestvensky. The engineer-constructor Kostenko, who was in the battleship _Orel_, was washing his feet and somehow cut his left foot with the basin. He was sent to the hospital-ship _Orel_. He cut his tendon achilles. The flagship's doctor said he required hospital treatment. I do not yet know if his wound is dangerous. There were six engineer-constructors in the fleet. One has been sent to Russia, and one will be in hospital. Thirty-three per cent. of all the engineers have, so to speak, fallen out of the ranks. For whom else is a similar fate in store? Poor Kostenko! He is a talented man. It is not a year since he left school. Perhaps it is all for the best that he has gone to the hospital-ship _Orel_. At all events, he will not have to undergo the chances of a battle. In order not to disclose the position of the fleet, we are forbidden to send letters and telegrams from here. The question of the messages from the _Nicholas_ has been cleared up. Two French ships were communicating with one another. We have distinguished ourselves quite like Russians. We came into the bay of Van Fong, anchored, and arranged for an inspection of the entrance to the bay. The bay itself was not examined. Suddenly to-day a steamer was seen moving towards the entrance. "What is this?" "Where does she come from?" "Whose steamer?" etc. The alarm was beaten. It appears that it was a French steamer that has been lying here for four days. How this will please you! It is true the bay is very large, and there are many commodious corners in it; but, nevertheless, it does not excuse our carelessness. Why should not Japanese torpedo-boats have hidden themselves earlier, and attacked the fleet at night from the side where they were least expected. It might have happened, and they would certainly have done it if they had known that we should not have examined the bay, or that we should come here. They say very truly that St. Nicholas the "Casual" is protecting us.