With a view to protect the foreign settlement at Tientsin, then threatened by Boxers, the combined naval forces stormed the forts at the mouth of the river, and advanced to that rich emporium.  The Court denounced this as an act of war, and ordered all foreigners to leave the capital within twenty-four hours.  That meant slaughter at the hands of the Boxers.  The foreign ministers protested, and [Page 176] endeavoured by prolonged negotiation to avoid compliance with the cruel order.

On June 20, the German minister, Baron von Ketteler, was on his way to the Foreign Office to obtain an extension of time, when he was shot dead in the street by a man in the uniform of a soldier.  His secretary, though wounded, gave the alarm; and all the legations, with all their respective countrymen, took refuge in the British Legation, with the exception of Bishop Favier and his people who, with the aid of forty marines, bravely defended themselves in the new cathedral.

In the evening we were fired on by the Government troops, and from that time we were closely besieged and exposed to murderous attacks day and night for eight weeks, when a combined force under the flags of eight nations carried the walls by storm, just in time to prevent such a massacre as the world has never seen.  Massacres on a larger scale have not been a rare spectacle; but never before in the history of the world had any government been seen attempting to destroy an entire diplomatic body, every member of whom is made sacred by the law of nations.[*]

[Footnote *:  AN APPEAL FROM THE LION’S DEN

(Written four weeks before the end of the siege, this appeal failed to reach the outside world.  It is now printed for the first time.  Nothing that I could now write would show the situation with half such vividness.  It reveals the scene as with a lightning flash.)

“British Legation, July 16, 1900.

“TO THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

“On the 19th ult. the Chinese declared war on account of the attack on the forts at Taku.  Since then we have been shut up in the British Legation and others adjacent, and bombarded day and night with shot and shell.  The defence has been magnificent.  About 1,000 foreigners (of both sexes) have held their ground against the forces of the Empire.  Some thousands of Chinese converts are dependent on us for protection.  The City Wall near the legations is held by our men, but the Chinese are forcing them back and driving in our outposts.  The mortality in our ranks is very great; and unless relief comes soon we must all perish.  Our men have fought bravely, and our women have shown sublime courage.  May this terrible sacrifice prove not to be in vain!  We are the victims of pagan fanaticism.  Let this pagan empire be partitioned among Christian powers, and may a new order of things open on China with a new century!

“The chief asylum for native Christians is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, where Bishop Favier aided by forty marines gives protection to four or five thousand.  The perils of the siege have obliterated the lines of creed and nation, making a unity, not merely of Christians, but bringing the Japanese into brotherhood with us.  To them the siege is a step toward Christianity.”