General Nogi is a grim old warrior--a silent, sombre, passionate man. Every line of his spare figure and dark face, and every hair of his grizzly beard, stands for strength and energy and resolute will. That is one side of his character graven on the forts of Port Arthur. There is another side. When General Nogi grasps your hand and holds it fast, the stern warrior vanishes, and you are in the presence of a courtly soldier whose eye beams benevolence. A frank, cordial man, toward whom you are drawn as to an old friend. Thus he appeared to General Stoessel when victor and vanquished met amid the ruins of Suishiyei. “I had not expected to meet so pleasant a gentleman,” was the comment of the Russian commander. “He seemed more like a friend of long standing than the leader of a hostile army.” The meeting took place in the cottage where the capitulation of the fortress was signed. General Stoessel came early. The officer appointed to escort him galloped through the fragments of the village in vain pursuit. Hot and breathless he arrived to find that the General had dismounted and was already in Plum Tree Cottage. General Nogi followed in due time. Firmly seated on a prancing bay he looked a born leader. Ten years had been lifted from his shoulders since the morning of the New Year. Of the interview between the two soldiers I shall not repeat the details. It was characteristic that the first words should be of the Emperor to whose “illustrious virtues” are ascribed all victories. General Nogi made known his Sovereign’s command that the officers who had gallantly defended the citadel should be treated with the greatest consideration. “It is his Imperial desire that you should retain your swords.” General Stoessel was grateful. “By the kindness of your Emperor the honour of my family is preserved, and that of my comrades.” Alluding to the death of two sons of General Nogi, the Russian commander observed: “It is this readiness to sacrifice all on the altar of country that makes the Japanese so formidable in war.” Smiling, after the manner of Japanese when speaking of a sorrow of their own, General Nogi was glad that the lives of his children had not been given in vain. One was slain at Nansan, the other on 203 Metre Hill. “Both these positions were of supreme importance, and my sons died well.” At the close of the interview General Stoessel asked the Japanese leader to accept his favourite charger. The offer was courteously declined on the ground that all spoils of war were the property of Japan. “I could not think of accepting so valuable a present for myself.” He promised, however, to receive the horse on behalf of the Army, and to see that it was treated as became the charger of a gallant soldier.