wing down walls to clear their way. As I ambled
along, seeking a way out, a couple of officers galloped up to me, and,
touching their helmets, begged me in the name of goodness to tell them
what was being done. What were the general orders, they wanted to
know. I explained to them that nobody knew anything; that as far as I
could see, the Americans had stopped attacking for good; that the
Indian troops were already marching out into the Chinese city; and
that nothing more was to be done, as the other columns had been
completely lost touch with.

"_Toujours cette confusion, toujours pas d'ordres,"_ the French
officers angrily commented, and in a few words they told me rapidly
how from the very start at Tientsin it had been like this, each column
racing against the others, while they openly pretended to co-operate;
with everyone jealous and discontented. Where were the Russians, the
Italians, and the Germans? I answered that I had not the slightest
idea, and that nobody knew, or appeared to care at all. I personally
was going on; I had had enough of it....

To my surprise, as I turned to go, I found that the men of the
Infanterie Coloniale, in their dirty-blue suits, had pushed up as
close as possible to overhear what was being said, and now surrounded
us. One private indeed boldly asked the officers whether they were
going to be able to enter the Palace at once; and when he got an angry
negative, he and his comrades took to such cursing and swearing, that
it seemed incredible that this was a disciplined army. The men wanted
to know why they had been dragged forward like animals in this burning
heat and stifling dust, day after day, until they could walk no
longer, if they were to have no reward--if there was to be nothing to
take in this cursed country. In the hot air the sullen complaints of
these sweating men rang out brutally. They wanted to loot; to break
through all locked doors and work their wills on everything.
Otherwise, why had they been brought? These men knew the history of
1860.

I turned in disgust, and went slowly back the way I had come, only to
find all unchanged.... Everything had obviously been stopped by
explicit orders; there was no doubt about that now; diplomacy, afraid
to allow any one to enter the inner Palaces for fear of what would
follow, and how much one Power might triumph over another, had called
an absolute halt. But no one was taking any chances, or placing too
much confidence in the