that tiny sword bobbing with them, he struggled to master the pain,
but the effort was too great for him, and he kept moaning in spite of
himself. A few feet from him sat a wounded Japanese sailor, who had
been struck in the knee by a soft-nosed bullet. His trousers had been
ripped up to put on a field dressing, and never have I before seen a
more ghastly wound. The bullet had drilled into his knee-cap in a neat
little hole, but the soft metal, striking the bony substance within,
had splashed as it progressed through, with the result that the hole
made on coming out was as big as the knee-cap itself. The sailor bore
his wound with a stoicism which seemed to me superhuman. The sweat was
pouring off his face in his agony, but he had stuffed a cap into his
mouth so that he might not disgrace himself by crying out, and even in
his agony he lay perfectly still, with staring eyes, as he waited to
be carried to the operating table.

Presently the captain died with a sudden stiffening, and news came in
from a number of other posts that men were falling, and we must detach
some of ours to reinforce threatened points. In utter gloom the day
ended, and miserably tired, we got hardly any sleep until the small
hours.

IX

AN INTERLUDE

8th July, 1900.

* * * * *

And yet in spite of such things there are plenty of interludes. For of
the nine hundred and more European men, women and children besieged in
the Legation lines, many are playing no part at all. There are, of
course, some four hundred marines and sailors, and more than two
hundred women and children. The first are naturally ranged in the
fighting line; the second can be but non-combatants. But of the
remainder, two hundred and more of whom are able-bodied, most are
shirking. There are less than eighty taking an active part in the
defence--the eighty being all young men. The others have claimed the
right of sanctuary, and will do nothing. At most they have been
induced to form themselves into a last reserve, which, I hope, may
never be employed. If it is.... The duties of this reserve consist in
mustering round the clanging bell of the Jubilee Tower in the British
Legation when a general alarm is rung. When the firing becomes very
heavy that bell begins clanging.

There was a general alarm the other night when I happened to be off
duty, and I stopped in front of the bell-tower to see it all. The last
reserve tumbled from the