t, as if it had only been made an accomplice
unwillingly and with a violent struggle too; but the sedan-chairs, the
bearers, the murderous soldiers, and every other trace had vanished
completely. To question people was impossible, since everyone was
keeping closely indoors and barred entrances everywhere met the eye.
The Peking streets have become so lonely and deserted that not even a
dog allows himself to be entrapped in the open. Later I heard that
C---- had escaped, although terribly wounded.

The detachment tramped back stolidly, and would not answer a word when
spoken to, for German despair is very gloomy. The remaining
Plenipotentiaries at last understood the nature of the game that was
being played, and realised that we were down to the naked and crude
facts of life and death. Their confounded vacillation has alone
brought us to this pass. They do realise it now, and they are made to
realise it more and more by the savage looks everyone has been giving
them....

The departure for Tientsin half-acquiesced in but fifteen short hours
ago is no longer thought of, for what the Ministers propose to do now
interests no one. After impotently attempting to deal with questions
for which they were in no wise fitted they have resigned themselves to
the inevitable, and have become mere pawns like the rest of us.
Fortunately the men who are men begin to work with frenzied energy,
rushing about collecting food and materials. S----, the first
Secretary of the American Legation, began it, and soon stood out with
some insistence. He guesses with no one contradicting him that rice is
useful, that flour is still more useful, and that every pound we can
find in the native shops should be taken. The obvious is often
somewhat obscure in times like these, and the men who act are very
laudable. There is no denying it that on this 20th the Americans
showed more energy than anybody else, and pushed everybody to sending
out their carts and bringing in tons upon tons of food. Every shop
containing grain was raided, payment being made in some cases and in
others postponed to a more propitious moment. The American
missionaries concentrated in a fortified missionary compound a couple
of miles from us, and the last people to remain outside were hastily
sent for, given twenty minutes in which to pack their things, and
marched in as quickly as possible by a guard of American marines.
There were seventy white men, women and children, and countle