Notwithstanding his weak state of health, Smirnoff to-day went out to see the work on the third artillery line of defence, which had been newly armed with the naval guns. It ran from the northern part of the town wall to Stonebroken Ridge, Spur Hill, and Big Hill. Roads were being made, trees cut down, and the scene was a confusion of digging, blasting, levelling, building. He remarked: 'As soon as this line is finished I shall be happy. I am quite easy about the rest.' On our way back we met Stössel. 'Aha! so that's it? Wherever we find the war correspondent we find the Commandant, eh ...?' was the rude welcome he gave the man whose energies and capabilities had gained for him the reward of Aide-de-camp to the Tsar! [Illustration: COLONEL RASCHEVSKY.] Aye, and not only was he an aide-de-camp, but he was now a hero, for had he not been promoted to the St. George of the Third Class? Alas! how that Order for gallantry fell in our eyes. It was dreadful to think of the Tsar and the millions of people in Russia who had been deceived by his false reports. But for this I was forced to go and congratulate him, as for his former honour. After a few moments' conversation he turned to me. 'Who writes the "News" in the _Novy Kry_?' 'I don't know.' I had every right to say this, for, though it was not signed, I well knew that Stössel was aware I wrote it. 'What are you doing with yourself?' 'I am collecting materials with which to write a book.' The General frowned, and his manner changed. 'And you will, I suppose, only write the truth in it?' 'Only the truth.' 'Ah! all you correspondents are liars! The one who pays most gets the truth.' 'At present and till the end of the campaign, sir, I am in the power of the censors; but later, taking advantage of the Tsar's promise to the press representative of the capital, I shall consider it my duty to write the truth--the whole truth, in order that Russia and the Tsar may be spared another Port Arthur. 'And I wish to remind _you_, sir, that my name is an unsullied one, and I belong to one of the oldest of the "noble" families.' Two days later the following District Order appeared: 'As the _Novy Kry_, although warned more than once, continues to publish information of the distribution and movement of our troops which would be better kept secret, the offices of the paper will be closed for one month.' Colonel Raschevsky wrote as follows in his diary of that date: 'Stössel has published a stupid order about closing the _Novy Kry_ offices on the pretext that it publishes information about the sorties, patrols, etc., which might be of use to the enemy. It is utterly absurd! The paper passes through the hands of two censors--the Commander of the Port and the Fortress Staff--and suddenly to deprive us, from pure caprice and out of an evident desire to make himself unpleasant to the Commandant, of the only source of information and news from without is,' etc., etc.