---, the
dragonman, in a similar conveyance. There were only two Chinese
outriders with them, as Von K---- had refused to take any of his
guards. I remember Von K---- was smoking and leaning his arms on the
front bar of his sedan, for all the world as if he were going on a
picnic. The little _cortege_ soon turned a corner and was swallowed
up. I walked out some distance beyond our barricades with Baron R----,
of the Russian Legation, and we wondered how long he would take to
come back. We soon knew! How terrible that was! For not more than
fifteen minutes passed before, crashing their Manchu riding-sticks
terror-stricken on to their ponies' hides, the two outriders appeared
alone in a mad gallop and nearly rode us down. Through the barricades
they passed, yelling desperately. It was impossible to understand what
they were saying, but disaster was written in the air.

At this we started running after these two men, but when we reached
the corner of the French Legation the people there had already
understood, and said the German Minister had been shot down and was
stone-dead. Everybody was paralysed.

Meanwhile the outriders had reached the German Legation and had flung
themselves, disordered, from their sweating ponies. The men of the
Legation Guard were swarming round them and questioning them roughly
when I came up, but there was nothing further to be learned about Von
K----. A shot had passed through his chair and he had never moved
again, while other shots struck all round. C----, the dragonman,
dripping with blood, had run round a corner closely pursued by Chinese
riflemen. What happened to him they cannot say, for they, too, would
have been shot had they not fled. The tragedy was so simple, but so
crushing, that we all stood dazed. Our one man of character and
decision was dead--lost beyond recall!

A quarter of an hour after this half the German detachment was
marching rapidly down Customs Street, with fixed bayonets and an air
of desperation on their harsh Teutonic faces. They were determined to
try and at least save the body. I thought of going with them, too, but
a moment's thought told me there were other things which were now more
pressing. I went and gave some attention to the contents of
despatch-boxes which no one else had a right to see....

The detachment reached the scene of the murder led by a trembling
outrider. Drops of blood were found on the ground; the Peking dust was
scraped this way and tha