through which glanced
the flash of the cannon, all round the great semi-circle. The scream
of shells, and the blaze and detonation with which they burst, were
incessant. Away on the right the sea was covered with warships, which
seemed to have nothing to do, and certainly were not assailing the
coast defences. Some of the seaward forts were able to get their guns
to bear on the positions of the Japanese armies, and were blazing
away, though I don't think they could do much damage.

Some minor outlying fortifications had been captured the previous
afternoon, and the Japanese had divided into two bodies for the main
assaults on the north-west and north-east. The Chinese in these two
sections appeared to have no combination, and by a feint at the
north-east the Japanese kept that part diverted until the west forts
had been carried. It is a fact that they fell about an hour and a half
after the cannonade commenced. The Japanese infantry advanced against
them, and the valiant troops holding them ran away at the sight. The
Chinese forts on the other side now began to fire away across the
intervening valley, as if that could remedy the disaster. Upon them
then became concentrated the whole Japanese fire. The Chinamen here
made a far better show, and the fire was vigorous and sustained. About
eleven o'clock, with a terrific blast of flame and thunder, which
seemed to shake the ground far and near to the shores of the sea,
their largest fort, the Shoju, or Pine Tree Hill, blew up; a shell
must have alighted in the magazine. At noon the whole Japanese line
advanced to the charge, and here, too, the Celestials never waited for
the assault, but fled precipitately. There was no fighting at all at
close quarters; not a solitary Chinaman stood for a bayonet thrust.
Thus pusillanimously were abandoned these two great masses of
fortifications, placed in the most commanding situations, on steep
mountain heights where attacking forces could keep no sort of regular
formation, and could have been mowed down in thousands by competent
gunners as they struggled up the impregnable inclines. It was with a
feeling of bewilderment that I beheld such powerful defences lost in
such a manner, and realized that after three or four hours'
bombardment on one side, without a shot fired against the tremendous
coast defences, it was all up with Port Arthur.

The victors next turned their attention to the redoubts and walled
camps on the lower ground, wi