252 REASONS FOR THE ATTACK. Chap. XT. 
posed to him in the beginning, when officers for 
his protection were appointed, their wish that a 
guard should be stationed, not only in the en- 
virons of the Legation, but even in the interior. 
“ But your Excellency was altogether dissatisfied 
with it ; so we left it to your will : hence the 
danger which has just happened.” And thus 
these worthies prove three things, apparently to 
their own satisfaction — 1st, that persons of high 
rank were not the instigators of the deed ; 2nd, that 
it was the work of prejudiced enthusiasts of low 
degree ; and 3rd, that, had the English Minister 
taken their advice, the thing would not have 
happened. 
Mr. Alcock, “after three weeks consumed in 
anxious inquiries as to the quarter from whence 
the blow had come and any future danger might 
be looked for,” believes he has at last got at the 
real facts. In a despatch to Earl Russell he says — 
“ It has come to me from divers sources that the 
Prince of Tsusima, hearing that a great chief of 
the foreigners was at Nagasaki on his way to Xedo 
overland, immediately despatehed emissaries to 
slay this chief on the road, and bring his head. 
• . . But I think the more recent versions [of 
the story] are also the more probable. These tell 
me that the Prince only sent a single emissary to 
follow me to Yedo, and there to find the fit instru- 
ments for his purpose (never far to seek, it seems), 
and bring him my head, after the massacre of 
every one about me. A plot to attack the Lega- 
