Japanese
women's quarters at this northern front of the British Legation, when
they were halted for a few minutes to communicate some orders. One of
the volunteers, of an amorous disposition, noticed a buxom little
Japanese servant at work on a wash-tub in the gloom. An appointment
was made for the morrow....

The next night duly came. Once more the patrol halted, and once more
the young Russian told his companions to go on. The patrol moved away,
and the adventurous Russian tiptoed into the Japanese quarters.
Cautiously feeling his way down a corridor, he opened a door, which he
thought the right one; then the tragedy occurred. Suddenly a quiet
voice said to him in French out of the gloom:

"_Monsieur desire quelque chose? Je serai charmee de donner a Monsieur
ce qu'il voudra s'il veut bien rester a la porte_." The wretched
Russian student imagined he was lost; it was the wife of a Minister!
He hesitated a minute; then, gripping his rifle and with the perfect
Russian imperturbability coming to his rescue, he replied, with a deep
bow: "_Merci, Madame, Merci mille fois! Je cherchais seulement de la
vaseline pour mon fusil_!"

This phrase has become immortal among the besieged.

XIV

THE EVER-GROWING CASUALTY LIST

16th July, 1900.

* * * * *

And yet one is lucky if one can laugh at all. The rifle and cannon
fire continues; barricades are pushing closer and closer, more of our
men are falling--it is always the same monotonous chronicle. A few
days ago poor T----, the Austrian cruiser captain, who aspired to be
our commander-in-chief with such disastrous results, was killed in the
Su wan-fu while he was encouraging his men to stand firm and not
repeat some of their former performances. To-day little S----, the
British Minister's chief of the staff, has been mortally hit, and has
just died. It was a sad affair. In the morning a party from
headquarters was making a tour of inspection of the Su wang-fu posts,
in order to see exactly how much battering they could stand, and how
soon the Italian contention that already the hillock works were
untenable would become an undeniable fact. The Italian defences had
been inspected and the little party was crossing the ornamental
gardens, which are always swept by a storm of fire, when suddenly
S---- fell mortally wounded, M----, the correspondent, was badly hit
in the leg, the Japanese colonel alone escaping with a bullet-cut
tunic.