Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/459

 British Embassy and to make arrests if necessary. Accompanied by Commissaire Polisensko and his assistants, Hiller arrived at the Embassy at five o'clock in the evening. They surrounded the building and gained access to the ground floor. But when they proceeded on their way to the floor above, shots were fired from there. Shenkman, one of the Commissaire's assistants, fell with a wound in his chest. Lisson, a scout, was killed on the spot. Hiller with a detachment of scouts forced his way into the rooms on the second floor and arrested the men he found there, all of them held up their hands. The fight went on in the corridor, the scouts returned the fire, killing one of the men they had come to arrest. It was learned later that he was the naval attache Cromie, who had fired the first shot. Among the prisoners is Prince Shakhovskoy.

In the course of the search letters were found which contain damaging evidence against the British Embassy, and also a large number of weapons.

It was planned to seize the People's Commissaires at one of the Council's meetings at which important questions were to be discussed. The guards of the Kremlin were to receive bribes in consideration of which they would allow themselves to be also arrested. The members of the People's Council were to be sent to Archangel. At least such was the first plan. Soon afterward, Reilly expressed doubts about the advisability of sending Lenin to Archangel. Through his ability to make friends with simple people, Lenin might on the way to Archangel win the sympathy of his guards and prevail upon them to let him escape. Reilly declared it would be safer to shoot Lenin and Trotzky as soon as they were arrested.

During the night of August 31, members of the investigating commission entered the plotters' meeting place. Among the men who were arrested there was an Englishman who refused to give his name. Brought before the commission he declared that he was Lockhart. After Peters had verified the truth of that assertion he asked Lockhart to explais the attempt made to bribe the commander of the Soviet's troops. Lockhart denied categorically having ever had anything to do with that officer. When the exact dates on which he had met him were mentioned and other documents were produced, Lockhart declared excitedly that as a diplomatic representative he contd not be subjected to any examination. It was then explained to him that the question had been put to hum to enable him to prove that the Lockhart who had organized the plot and the English representative of the same name were two different persons.

The Fried brothers, one a major, the other a colonel, who were also arrested, were in the employ of the Soviet government. They had for some time been stealing documents and reports on conditions at the front and the movements of troops. Their reports were made in several copies and delivered to the English and French missions. An actress of the Art Theatre acted as go-between.