racted by a roar of flames, and indifferent to any dangers which
might lurk near by, we followed up the trail of smoke hanging on the
skies to see what was taking place. One's interest never ceased, yet
it was only the same thing. French soldiers, some drunk and some
merely savage, had found their way here by some strange fate, and
being quite-alone had evidently looted and then set fire to a big pile
of buildings. They were discharging their rifles, too; for as we
approached, bullets whistled overhead, and sobbing townspeople, driven
from their hiding-places, began rushing away in every direction. This
was strange.

Our arrival was only the signal for a fresh discharge of rifles, and
then there was no doubt who was attracting the fire. The men were
deliberately aiming at us to drive us away! We halted behind cover,
and then with the same callousness as they displayed, we gave them a
volley back, as a note of warning. It was my insane companion who
drove us to do that; but, forthwith, on the sound of that well-knit
discharge, there was more firing on every side, some shots coming from
houses quite close to us and some from the open streets. With the
growing roar and crackle of the flames these shots made very
insignificant popping and attracted but little attention. Yet I soon
saw that this continuous firing could not come from the rifles of
European soldiery, unless there were whole companies of them, and that
perhaps we had been mistaken for other people. And soon my suspicions
were confirmed by a confused shouting in the vernacular, and a rush of
men from lanes not a hundred yards away. Then there were some
half-suppressed blasts on the hideous Chinese trumpet and--Chinese
soldiery....

They came out with a mad rush and charged straight at the drunken
French marauders, firing quickly as they ran after the old manner
which we knew so well. As we gazed, the men from the relief columns
fell back in disorder without any hesitation--indeed, fled madly to
the nearest houses and began pelting their assailants with lead in
return. Suppressed trumpet-blasts came again, rallying the attackers;
more and more men rushed out from all sorts of places, and as this was
no affair of ours, and our retreat would certainly be cut off if we
dallied, we retreated at full gallop farther and farther to the west.
We were going straight away to where might be our damnation.

I do not remember clearly how far we rode, or why we galloped, bu