Their action was emphasized by that of King Edward himself, who, in sending a subscription of 200 guineas for the relief of the sufferers, declared that he had heard with profound sorrow of the "unwarrantable action" to which the North Sea fishing-fleet had been subjected. The principal witnesses of the outrage were summoned at once to the Foreign Office, and Lord Lansdowne had long audience of the King, while the Prime Minister, who happened to be in Scotland, came back post-haste to London. On the 25th of October Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, called at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg and requested the British Ambassador, Sir Charles Hardinge, to convey to King Edward and the British Government a message from the Czar, who, while he had received no message from the Admiral in command of the Baltic Fleet, could only attribute "the incident in the North Sea to a very regrettable misunderstanding". It was added that the Czar wished to express his sincere regret for the sad loss of life that had occurred, and to say that he would take steps to afford complete satisfaction to the sufferers as soon as the circumstances of the case were cleared up. These assurances, though far from adequate, would have done something to calm the temper of public opinion in England if they had been accompanied by any sign of a similar spirit in the Czar's advisers. But the latter seemed inclined to be as intractable as the Russian press was impenitent. While the Russian Government pursued a policy of delay and evasion, the Russian newspapers roundly denied that any blame attached to the Baltic Fleet, and scouted all idea of reparation; and all the time Admiral Rozhdestvensky was proceeding serenely on his voyage. On the 26th of October his battleships arrived at Vigo Harbor, where at last he took the trouble to communicate his report of what had happened to St. Petersburg. The statement is such an amazing one that it may be given in full. It was communicated to the world under the authority of the Russian Naval General Staff, and ran as follows:-- "1.--The incident in the North Sea was provoked by two torpedo-boats which, without showing any lights, under cover of darkness, advanced to attack the vessel steaming at the head of the detachment. When the detachment began to sweep the sea with its searchlights and opened fire, the presence was also discovered of several small steam vessels resembling small steam fishing-boats. The detachment endeavored to spare these boats and ceased fire as soon as the torpedo-boats were out of sight.