We studied the “toilette” that went on in the ladies’ waiting-room, and when night came and still no answer, we debated what to do next. At 9.30 we saw our hopes of a comfortable bed next night disappear, but we still felt it would be well to leave at 2.30 A.M. if fate permitted. The “hotel,” a small cottage within sight of the station, we did not fancy, so we resigned ourselves to the small rest obtainable on a wooden bench and the window ledge. Every time a train arrived the colonel appeared also, and I fear he got rather tired of our polite request for information; the importunate widow would have had no chance with him. What an extraordinary occupation for an officer; but he sought to beguile the time by hob-nobbing with the large staff of employees who, doubtless for an absurdly small wage, spend most of the twenty-four hours loafing about the railway. At last the night ended, and we saw with pity a group of emigrants trying to breakfast under a dull drizzling sky opposite the station. A friendly porter gave us the news we were longing for—a telegram had arrived. No words can express our delight, for we seemed to know every stone of that railway platform, and we rushed to the office to demand our passports, of which the officials had taken possession. Our detention had lasted twenty-four hours, and as we shook the dust from our feet we failed not to be thankful for the Providence which caused us to be citizens of a land of liberty instead of tyranny. It is only in Russia that one thoroughly realises it; and the irksomeness of it becomes intolerable. “Implicit obedience, silent subjection, and the irresistible power of despotism are here brought home effectively to the stranger. But this impression remains with the traveller throughout the entire journey— ‘Be silent; keep yourselves in curb— We are watched in look and word.’ An Empire of one hundred and thirty millions of prisoners and of one million gaolers—such is Russia.” FOOTNOTES [1] Whigham’s “Manchuria and Korea,” pp. 117-119, 153, 49. [2] This wise policy has been consistently carried out ever since. In 1878 there was not a single Manchu governor or viceroy of any of the eighteen provinces of China. (Ross, p. 566.) [3] When it was made known at the opening of the hospital that more furnishings were required, many gifts, both in money and requisites, were at once contributed, while two merchants told the doctor to apply to them for money as it was needed, which he did several times till the hospital was completed.