een seen or heard of
since the rifles began to speak. There are lots of that sort, all well
nourished and timorous, while dozens of poor missionary women are
suffering great hardships. Several people who had relations in Paris
thirty years ago tell me it was the same thing then, and that it will
always be the same thing. This story of the eggs, however, has had one
immediate result. People are hiding away more provisions and marking
them off on their lists as eaten. What is the use of depriving one's
self for the common good later on under such circumstances? What,
indeed!

There is another sign which is not pleasing any one. An official diary
is being now written up under orders of the headquarters. It will be
full of our Peking diplomatic half-truths. But, worst of all, our only
correspondent, M----, who was shot the other day and is getting
convalescent, has been taken under the wing of our commander-in-chief,
and his lips will be sealed by the time we get out--if ever we get
out. With an official history and a discreet independent version, no
one will ever understand what bungling there has been, and what
culpability. It is our chicken-hearted chiefs, and they alone, who
should be discredited. With a few exceptions, they are more afraid
than the women, and never venture beyond the British Legation.
Everything is left to the younger men, whose economic value is
smaller! I hope I may live to see the official accounts....

XXII

THE WORLD BEYOND OUR BRICKS

2nd August, 1900.

* * * * *

A new month has dawned, and with it have come shoals of letters
bringing us exact tidings from the outer world. Yesterday one
messenger slipped in bearing three letters. To-day another has arrived
with six missives--making nine letters in all for those who have had
nothing at all except a couple of cipher messages for two entire
months. Those nine letters meant as much to us as a winter's mail by
the overland route in the old days....

For as each one confirms and adds to the news of the others, we can
now form a complete and well-connected story of almost everything that
has taken place. We even begin to understand why S---- and his two
thousand sailors never reached us. There have been so many things
doing.

But all minor details are forgotten in the fact that there is absolute
and definite news of the relief columns--news which is repeated and
confirmed nine times over and cannot be