out any warning two men came round the corner, peering everywhere
with sharp eyes and bobbing up and down. Simultaneously with the sob
of surprise they gave our rifles crashed off. And this time, owing to
the short range and the Japanese warning, we got them fair and square,
and both of them rolled over. But no, one fellow jumped to his feet
again, and before we could stop him was down another lane like a flash
of lighting. We promptly gave chase, yelling blue murder in an
incautious manner, which might have brought hundreds of the enemy on
our heels. But we did not care. Round a corner, as we followed the man
up, a high wall rose sheer, but nothing daunted, the fellow took a
tremendous leap, and by the aid of the lattice-work on a window,
climbed to a roof. Then bang, bang, bang, seven shots went at him
rapidly, one after another. In spite of the volley the man still
crawled upwards, but as he reached the top of the low house and passed
his legs over he gave a feeble moan and then.... _flopper-ti flop,
flopper-ti flop_, he crashed down the other side and ended with a dull
thud on the ground. On the other side there he was dead as a door-nail
and all covered with blood. It was our first proper work. But he was
not a soldier, he was a Boxer; and in place of the former incomplete
attire of red sashes and strings, this true patriot wore a long red
tunic edged with blue, and had his head tied up in the regulation
_bonnet rouge_ of the French Revolution. Round his waist he had also
girded on a blue cartridge-belt of cloth, with great thick Martini
bullets jammed into the thumb holes. This we thought very curious at
the time, as the Boxers were supposed to laugh at firearms. Elated by
this little affair, we pushed on, and came upon other men working
round our lines in small bands, and exchanged shots with them. All
were Boxers in this new uniform; but although we tried to entice them
on and corner them in houses, they were too cunning for us, and broke
back each time. In the end we had so stirred up this hornet's nest
that the scattered firing became more and more persistent, and stern
orders came for us to fall back.

We came in feeling elated, but Colonel S---- was looking serious, for
he had discovered that the extent of Prince Su's outer walls, which
have to be held in their entirety, is so much greater than was
expected, and every part can be so easily attacked from the outside,
that the task is desperate. There are less