ie, however well planned, can dislodge him. He
will make our best defences his parallels--and in a week he will be
able to split us in half. These things made immediate action really
advisable, and soon the word was passed round that a big sortie was to
be made at once.

Once more all the morning was spent in making preparations. Marines
and volunteer reserves were brought over from the British Legation to
line the trenches and barricades, and cover the advance with a heavy
rifle fire; the Italians, who were to co-operate by jumping down off
their northwestern hillock and rushing forward, were warned for duty,
and had fresh ammunition served out to them; and finally volunteers
were called for, and the command of the sortie handed over to a
Japanese officer, Captain A----.

When everything was ready, we stood for a minute massed together while
some parting instructions were given. We presented a curious and
unique spectacle. There were fifteen Japanese sailors in the dirty
remains of their blue uniforms, without caps or jumpers, with broken
boots and begrimed faces; and alongside of them were twenty-five
miscellaneous volunteers, some with bayonets to their rifles, some
with none--but all determined to get home on the enemy at all costs
this time. There had been sixteen days' incessant work at the trenches
and barricades with next to no sleep. Mud and brickwork clung to us
all with an insistence which no amount of rough dusting would remove.
We were a tattered and disreputable crowd.

There was little time to reflect or to cast one's eyes around,
however, for no sooner had Captain A---- received his last
instructions than his bugler sounded the charge, and from the Italian
lines, eight hundred feet away, which were hidden from us by walls and
trees, came an answering blast. The Italians were ready. I gripped my
rifle and took the flank of my detachment.

We tumbled forward in silence, forty effectives in all, with a couple
dozen native converts behind us, who had been provided with some of
the captured rifles and swords. As soon as we were clear, Captain
A----, who was a tiny man, even among a tiny race, drew a little
sword, and pointing to the enemy's barricades now looming up very
close, ordered his bugler to sound the charge once more. The notes
ripped out, and giving a mixed attempt at a European cheer, we
quickened our pace, running as rapidly as we could over the rubbish
which covered the ground and taking adv