But this very
defence, which should be so determined, is the most half-hearted thing
imaginable. It has no real leader, and merely resolves itself into
the old policy of each Legation holding its own in an irregular
half-circle round the British Legation, which itself is a mass of
disorder. I feel certain that if we have a night attack at once the
Chinese will break in with the greatest ease, and then.... _Tant pis!_

The last thing I saw in the British Legation was M----, the great
correspondent, sitting on a great stack of his books, looking wearily
around him. His former energy and resolution have all departed, sapped
by the spectacle of extraordinary incompetence around him. Of what
good has all that rescuing of native Christians been--all that energy
in dragging them more dead than alive into our lines in the face of
Ministerial opposition, when we cannot even protect ourselves? But
just when I began this moralising, the hundred and fifty mules and
ponies that have been collected together all broke loose, frightened
by some stray shots, and went careering madly around us. It was pitch
dark and most gloomy before they had been all tied up again, and
although firing became heavier and heavier as Chinese snipers found
they could approach our outer lines in safety, I finally sought out a
spot for myself and fell asleep with my rifle on my chest--cursing
everybody. It is a sign of the times--my nerves are becoming
Ministerial!

II

THE RETREAT AND THE RETURN

23rd June, 1900.

* * * * *

Yesterday the inevitable happened, and only Heaven and the foolishness
of the attacking forces, who are only playing with us, and do not seem
to have settled down to their work, saved us from complete
annihilation. Without a word of explanation, Captain T----, the
Austrian commander, suddenly ordered all the French, Italians and
Austrians to fall back on the British Legation, sending word meanwhile
to the Japanese and the Germans to follow his example. This meant that
the whole vast semicircle to the northeast and the southeast was being
thrown up. The result was that for ten minutes armed men of all
nationalities poured into the British Legation, until every
rifle-bearing effective was standing there, all jabbering in a mass,
and not knowing what it was all about. The Americans, who had
established themselves on the Tartar Wall as the main point in the
western defence, guessed they were