shed some of them
back.

Two of these guns are being fired at us from a staging on the Palace
wall--sometimes regularly and persistently, sometimes as if they had
fallen under the influence of the conflicting factors which are
struggling to win the day in the Palace. If they bombarded us without
intermission for twenty-four hours, they would render the British
Legation almost untenable. Two or three more guns are on the Tartar
Wall; three or four are ranged against the Su wang-fu and French
lines; some are kept travelling round us searching for a weak spot.
They have no system or fire-discipline. Some use shrapnel and segment;
others fire solid round shot all covered with rust. Silent sometimes
with a mysterious silence for days at a time, they come to life again
suddenly in a blaze of activity, and wreak more ruin in a few minutes
than weeks of rifle fusillade and days of firing on the fringe of
outer buildings. And yet we cannot complain. We have so many walls,
so many houses, so many trees, so many obstructions of every kind,
that they cannot get a clear view of anything. These singing shells,
which might breach any one part, were the guns massed and their fire
continuous, are sneered at by most of us already. Provided you can lie
low, shell-fire soon loses even its moral effect.

XI

SNIPING

* * * * *

The siege has now become such a regular business with everyone that
there are almost rules and regulations, which, if not promulgated
among besieged and besiegers, are, at least, more or less understood
things. Thus, for instance, after one or two in the morning the
crashing of rifles around us is always quite stilled; the gunners have
long ceased paying us their attentions, and a certain placid calmness
comes over all. The moon may then be aloft in the skies; and if it is,
the Tartar Wall stands out clear and black, while the ruined
entrenchments about us are flooded in a silver light which makes the
sordidness of our surroundings instantly disappear in the enchantment
of night. Our little world is tired; we have all had enough; and even
though they may run the risk of being court-martialled, it is always
fairly certain that by three or four in the morning half the outposts
and the picquets will be dead asleep. It was not like that in the
beginning, for then nobody slept much night or day; and if one did, it
was only to awake with a moan, the result of some weird nightma