an ever. Our men became intoxicated by this terrible clamour, and
many of them, infuriated by splinters of brick and stone that broke
off in clouds from the barricades and stung us from head to foot,
sometimes even inflicting cruel wounds, could no longer be held in
check. By two o'clock every rifle that could be brought in line was
replying to the enemy's fire. If this continued, in a couple of hours
our ammunition would be exhausted, and we would have only our bayonets
to rely on. I passed down my line, and furiously attempted to stop
this firing, but it was in vain. In two places the Chinese had pushed
so close, that hand-to-hand fighting had taken place. This gives a
lust that is uncontrollable.... Everything was being taken out of our
hands....

Suddenly above the clamour of rifle-fire a distant boom to the far
east broke on my ears, as I was shouting madly at my men. I held my
breath and tried to think, but before I could decide, boom! came an
answering big gun miles away. I dug my teeth into my lips to keep
myself calm, but icy shivers ran down my back. They came faster and
faster, those shivers.... You will never know that feeling. Then,
boom! before I had calmed myself came a third shock; and then ten
seconds afterwards, three booms, one, two, three, properly spaced. I
understood, although the sounds only shivered in the air. It was a
battery of six guns coming into action somewhere very far off. It must
be true! I rose to my feet and shook myself. Then, in answer to the
heavy guns, came such an immense rolling of machine-gun fire, that it
sounded faintly, but distinctly, above the storm around us. Great
forces must be engaged in the open....

I had been so ardently listening to these sounds that the enemy's fire
had imperceptibly faded away in front of me unnoticed, until it had
become almost completely stilled. Single rifles now alone cracked off;
all the other men must be listening too--listening and wondering what
this distant rumble meant. Far away the Chinese fire still continued
to rage as fiercely--but near us, by some strange chance, these
distant echoes had claimed attention.

Again the booming dully shook the air. Again the machine-guns beat
their replying rataplan. Now every rifle near by suddenly was stilled,
and a Chinese stretcher-party behind me murmured, "_Ta ping lai tao
liao_"--"the armies arrived." Somebody took this up, and then we began
shouting it across in Chinese to our enemy, shouti