ant irritation that there are no Englishmen
doing well; it is merely that the ponderous atmosphere of the British
Legation is such that very few men who live habitually there can shake
themselves free from it even in such times as these. I know that half
of them are much upset at the _role_ they are being forced to play,
but who can help them?

We are progressing more quietly now that the big fires are out; but
still there is scant reason for any congratulations. S----, for
instance, is quite forgotten, I assure you, for I mentioned his name
to P----, the French Minister, only an hour ago, and the only reply he
made was to spread out his hands in front of him and give vent to an
immense sigh. Then he muttered as he went away, "_II a disparu
completement--entierement; c'est la fin_."...

All relief is now felt to be out of the question. Men are also beginning to
fall with regularity, and are carried in bloodstained, as evidence that
this is really a serious business. The British Chancery is now the
hospital; despatch tables have been washed and covered with surgical cloth;
cases are dropping in (seventeen up to date, I hear), and doctors are busy.
Already in the night smothered cries burst from the walls of these
torture-rooms, and make one conscious that it may be one's turn next. I
have always felt that it is all right up in the firing line, but it is that
dreadful afterwards on the operating-table.... But nurses and doctors are
doing valiantly. There is a German army doctor who knows his business very
well, they say; and his reputation has already spread so far among the men
of our all-nation sailors and marines that they all ask for him. I have
heard that request in four languages already.

To me it seems that by incontestable laws each actor is taking his
proper place, and that each nationality is pushing out its best to the
proper perspective. Ah! a siege is evidently the testing-room of the
gods. If we could only in ordinary life apply the great siege test,
what mistakes would be avoided, what reputations would be saved from
being shattered! Because no weak man would ever be given advancement.

IV

THE BONDS TIGHTEN

25th June, 1900.

* * * * *

On all sides our position has become less secure, less enviable, and
the enemy more menacing, more daring and more intent in breaking in on
us. The few dropping shots which opened the ball on the 20th have now
duly blossomed