hings down and
cast them in the dirt to show, as a reply, that there was to be no
quarter if they could help it. These grim notes limned speakingly on
everything, made it plain that a movement was in the air which could
hardly be arrested. It made one feel a little insane and intoxicated
to see it all; and as one's blood rushed through one's veins, after
that long captivity, one had, too, the desire to add a little more
destruction, to break down places and to shoot for the amusement of
the thing. You could not help it; it was in the air, I say. It was a
subtle poison which could not be analysed, but which kept on coursing
through one's veins and heating the blood to fever-pitch. The vast
open streets needed filling up with noise and rapid movements, one
thought; the inhabitants must be galvanised to life again, one
felt....

My men needed every kind of wearing apparel, for they had been in rags
althrough the siege, and as soon as possible they showed that they
appreciated the situation, and did not intend to stand on ceremony.
They set to work as soon as they saw what they wanted. A huge Chinese
boot, gaudily painted on a swinging sign-board, proclaimed a
boot-shop, where in ordinary times they could buy every kind of
foot-covering. But now it was no good attempting such methods. So they
tilted straight at the shop-door without hesitation, and beating a
wild rataplan of blows on the wooden shutters, demanded an entry in a
roar of voices. Otherwise they would shoot, they added. In very few
seconds, at this clamour, some shuffling steps were heard and
trembling hands unbarred in haste, fearing a worse fate. We then saw
two blanched and trembling shopkeepers, whose dirtied clothes and
dishevelled hair showed that they had had days and nights of the most
wretched existence. Shakingly they asked what we wanted, adding that
they had not a piece of silver or yet a string of cash left. The
Boxers had taken everything weeks before; now honourable foreign
soldiery were beating them because they were so poor. My men did not
trouble to answer; they went to work. They wanted boots and shoes,
and plenty of them, since there were plenty to take, and so they
searched and picked and chose. But presently one man gave vent to an
oath, and them, in his surprise, laughed coarsely. He had discovered
that there were only boots and shoes for the left foot. There was
nothing for the right foot, not a single boot, not a single shoe! Once
agai