f the day. So, yawning and somewhat tired of the evening's
convivialities, we go our several ways home, in our Peking carts and
our official chairs, and are soon lost in sleep--dreaming, perhaps,
that we have been too long in this dry Northern climate, and that it
is really affecting one's nerves.

III

OVERCAST SKIES

28th May, 1900.

* * * * *

It is only four days since we discussed the Vicar Apostolic's letter,
and laughed somewhat at French excitability; but in four days what a
change! The cloud no bigger than your hand is now bigger than your
whole body, bigger, indeed, than the combined bodies of all your
neighbours, supposing you could spread them fantastically in great
layers across the skies. What, then, has happened?

It is that the Boxers, christened by us, as you will remember, but two
or three short weeks ago, have blossomed forth with such fierce growth
that they have become the men of the hour to the exclusion of
everything else, and were one to believe one tithe of the talk
babbling all around, the whole earth is shaking with them. Yet it is a
very local affair--a thing concerning only a tiny portion of a
half-known corner of the world. But for us it is sufficiently grave.
The Peking-Paotingfu railway is being rapidly destroyed; Fentai
station, but six miles from Peking--think of it, only six miles from
this Manchu holy of holies--has gone up in flames; a great steel
bridge has succumbed to the destroying energy of dynamite. All the
European engineers have fled into Peking; and, worst of all, the Boxer
banners have been unfurled; and lo and behold, as they floated in the
breeze, the four dread characters, "_Pao Ch'ing Mien Yang_," have been
read on blood-red bunting--"Death and destruction to the foreigner and
all his works and loyal support to the great Ching dynasty."

Is that sufficiently enthralling, or should I add that the
invulnerability of the Boxer has been officially and indisputably
tested by the Manchus, according to the gossip of the day? Proceeding
to the Boxer camp at Chochou, duly authorised officers of the Crown
have seen recruits, who have performed all the dread rites, and are
initiated, stand fearlessly in front of a full-fledged Boxer; have
seen that Boxer load up his blunderbuss with powder, ramming down a
wad on top; have witnessed a handful of iron buckshot added, but with
no wad to hold the charge in place; have noticed that the ma