understand the complexity of the
situation around us. The Shansi levies and Tung Fu-hsiang's men--that
is, all the soldiery from the provinces--had but little idea of why
they were attacking us; they had been sent, they said, to prevent us
from breaking into the Palace and killing their Emperor.

If the foreigners had not brought so many foreign soldiers into
Peking, there would have been no fighting. They did not want to
fight.... They did not want to be killed....

Somebody tried to explain to them that the Boxers had brought it all
on. But to this they answered that the Boxers were finished, driven
away, discredited; there were none left in Peking, and why did we not
send our own soldiers away, who had been killing so many of them. Such
things they repeated time without number; it was their only point of
view.

The morning passed away in this wise, but there were several
_contretemps_ which nearly led to the spilling of blood. In one case,
an English marine tried to take a watermelon from a soldier, who was
very anxious to sell it; but as the latter would not give it up
without immediate payment, the marine thumped his head and then
knocked him over. Everyone rushed for their rifles, but some of us
shouted for silence, and going over to the marine, whispered to him to
keep quiet while we tied up his hands. We told him to march back into
our lines, and informed our audience that he would be beaten, and that
the man who had been knocked over would get a dollar. We managed by
this crude acting to save an open rupture, but it was plain that the
rank and file must not be allowed to mix. We managed eventually to
restore a semblance of good-fellowship by purchasing at very heavy
prices a great number of eggs. The women, the children, and the
wounded have been long in want of eggs and fresh food, and we knew
that these would do a great many people good.

Late in the afternoon, as a result of this extraordinary fraternising,
a very singular thing occurred along the French front, where the
bitter fighting has rebounded into a hot friendship. A French
volunteer, who is as dare-devil as many of his friends, suddenly
climbed over the Chinese barricades and shouted back that he was going
away on a visit. They tried to make him return, but in spite of a
little hesitation, he went on climbing and getting farther and farther
away. Then he suddenly disappeared for good. Nobody expected to see
him alive again, and everybody put it