act of eating
something. He looked so ridiculous lying in a chair with his mouth
wide open and his sword and revolver mixed up with the things he had
been eating, that I began laughing loudly, and, aroused by this sound,
two more men appeared suddenly--Marquis P----, the cousin of the
Italian _charge_, and K----, the Dutch Minister. What they were doing
there I did not inquire. The Dutch Minister was in a frightful rage at
everything and everybody, and began talking so loudly that R---- woke
up, and commenced eating again in the most natural way in the world,
without saying a single word. As soon as he had finished he went to
sleep again. He was plainly a man of some character; the whole
position was so ridiculous and yet he paid no attention.

I soon got tired of this, as plenty of other people now came in, all
calling for food, and I was really so weary from lack of sleep and
proper rest that I could not remember what they were talking about two
seconds after they had finished speaking. Most of the men were angry
at the "muddle," as they called it, and said it was hopeless going on
this way. One of the Austrian midshipmen told me that there had been
altogether very little firing, and not more than a few dozen Chinese
skirmishers engaged, but that the whole northern and eastern fronts of
our square were so imperfectly garrisoned that they could be rushed in
a few minutes. Everybody agreed with him, but nobody appeared to know
who was in supreme command, or who was responsible for a distribution
of our defending forces, which would total at least six hundred or
seven hundred men if every able-bodied man was forced into the
fighting-line. Fortunately the Chinese Government appears to be
hesitating again; we have been all driven into our square and can be
safely left there for the time being--that seems to be the point of
view.

I now became anxious about a trunk containing a few valuables, which I
had sent into the British Legation, and I determined to go in person
and see how things were looking there. What confusion! I soon learned
that it had been very gay at the British Legation during the night. At
four o'clock of the previous afternoon, when the first shots had
already been dropping in at the northern and eastern defences, not a
thing had been done in the way of barricading and sandbagging--that
everybody admitted. The flood of people coming in from the other
Legations, almost weeping and wailing, had driven them