had been taken by that powerful and important ship H.M.S. “Pigmy,” and were at that moment held by the overpowering force of one Naval officer and seventeen bluejackets; whilst at Taku were waiting a dozen or so leviathans, with 7000 men at least on board, who as yet were not aware that they had been baulked of their prey by the aforesaid gunboat of considerably under 1000 tons! However, the news had not to be told just yet, and in an hour’s time the “Pigmy” was hurrying back for all she was worth, packed with Marines to assist the so-called Garrison. At last she disappeared over the horizon, and then the secret was let out. Sparks and clouds of smoke were soon issuing from the funnels of the Fleet’s cruisers, and one by one, as they raised enough steam to move, they got under weigh for Shan-Hai-Kwan to see what had really happened. What had happened was as equally ridiculous as the rest of the farce, for during the night much tramping was heard around No. 1 Fort, as if an army had come down to retake the place. And, as a matter of fact, this is more or less what the noise represented; for the force turned out to be 4000 Russians, who in their guileless way, had turned up from goodness knows where, to surprise and capture the forts, without a word to any of her very good Allies! “Halt! who goes there?” and the column halted out of sheer surprise. “Who are you,” from the other party. “The officer commanding the British garrison of Shan-Hai-Kwan forts,” and so on, till at last the Russian colonel, smelling a rat, asked to go in. “Very sorry, strictly against my orders, you’d better encamp in the open to-night.” Sounds of much discontent from outside, and then, still being dissatisfied about the _bona-fides_ of the occupation, the column began to solemnly march round each fort, only to be challenged time after time by the active sentries, who, by dint of hard running, passed and re-passed each other, with the effect that the forts appeared to be strongly held. The Russian column, therefore, retired to the railway station, where they encamped until authority arrived to give the forts up to the Allies. This was done, the British laughing heartily for some days to come, at the “capture of the Shan-Hai-Kwan forts”.