[London,] 16 June 1876 
122 Regent’s Park Road 

My dear Mr Lavrov, 

A short while ago Liebknecht wrote asking me to inform you 
that R.© was under suspicion and, since I could not undertake such 
a mission without so much as a single fact to go on, I told him so 
outright. 

Here is his reply, which I pass on to you in strict confidence: 

‘Last winter R. tried in the most conspicuous way to get hold of a packet of 
letters that was due to be sent me in Berlin. He was tipsy and, in consequence, went 
about it clumsily so that he was caught out. For hours, befuddled as he was, he was 
obsessed by the thought of getting hold of the packet, and in this he succeeded, but 

was forced by his companions to drop it into the letter-box, which he did after an 
attempt to substitute it had failed. Those who were present on this occasion had, up 

a See next letter. - > ‘Russian Credit’, The Pall Mail Gazette, No. 3529, Vol. XXIII, 
10 June 1876. - © Dmitry Richter 

tll then, been absolutely convinced of his honesty, but now they began to wonder. 
Drunkenness, it is true, sometimes brings strange thoughts into a man’s head, but 
nothing that had not already been there when he was sober. In vino veritas? does 
after all have a modicum of truth in it. I shall not mention here other highly 
suspicious circumstances, these not being so grave as the one I have related. But it 
is noteworthy that R. should have repeatedly offered himself as intermediary in the 
carrying of letters and that he should have asked for introductions to all manner of 

I am sorry that repeated interruptions should have prevented 
my passing on this communication before now; I really don’t know 
what to make of the thing. 

I trust that this letter finds you in good health. My regards to 
Mr Smirnov. 

Yours ever, 

F. Engels