,
they must have some guarantees as to the ninety miles road to
Tientsin, which were so swarming with bandits that communication had
been completely interrupted. That is to say, the Ministers were
prepared to accept....

No sooner had this weak reply been despatched than a fresh wave of
consternation passed over the whole Legation quarter, for we now
number nearly a thousand white people in all, and we could never march
that distance to Tientsin unbroken. But beneath that wave of
consternation a fiercer note steadily rose--the note of revolt against
the decrees of eleven men. I cannot describe to you what an intensity
of passion was suddenly revealed. Muttering first, this revolt became
quite open and almost unanimous. All of us would have a fair fight
behind barricades and entrenchments, but no massacre of a long,
unending convoy. For picture to yourself what this convoy would be
crawling out of giant Peking in carts, on ponies and afoot, if it were
forced to go; we would be a thousand white people with a vast trail of
native Christians following us, and calling on us not to abandon them
and their children. Do you think we could run ahead, while a cowardly
massacre by Boxers and savage soldiery was hourly thinning out the
stragglers and defenceless people in the rear? Never!

Hardly anybody thought of eating all that long evening. Most of us
were trying to find out whether some sensible understanding could not
be arrived at; whether we could not prepare before it was too late.
But it was quite in vain to plan anything or attempt to think of
anything. Everything was so topsy-turvy, everybody so panic-stricken.

But as the night grew later and later, some people began busying
themselves packing boxes, still deluding themselves that they were
going to leave comfortably on the morrow as if nothing had happened.
Yet the world is really upside down as far as we are concerned, and it
is quite absolutely impossible that the situation should end so
normally as to find us quietly retreating down the Tientsin road.
Others kept sending out servants to discover at what price carts would
undertake to drive the whole way down to the sea, or at least to
Tientsin. Forty, fifty, and even one hundred taels were demanded for
three days' work; and then, although the carters said they would come
if the government sends proper escorts of soldiers as has been
promised, Heaven only knows if they will ever dare to move near our
stricken qua