Similar ghastly spectacles were to be seen in other parts, both inside the town and beyond it.  Nor was this the worst; the walls exhibited placards, in the sacred imperial yellow, inciting to these atrocities.  This I know by means of Chung, whom I usually took out with me.  The tenor, as he translated, was this:—­“To the soldiers and subjects of the Celestial Lord of the Dragon Throne.  So much for every Japanese dog alive.  So much for his head or hand.  In the name of the Sacred Son of Heaven,” etc.  Then came the date and the signature of the Taotai.  The exact amount of the rewards I forget.  I think it was fifty taels for a live prisoner, and a less amount for heads or hands.  The bodies of the Japanese soldiers killed in encounters with the enemy as they closed on the place, were often found minus the head or right hand, sometimes both, besides being ferociously gashed and slashed.  Corpses were still hanging on the trees when the fortress fell, and it is not surprising that their former comrades should have been maddened by the sight, though of course the officers are greatly to blame for permitting the fearful retaliation which ensued to be carried to such lengths.  The massacre seems to have been allowed to continue unchecked until no more victims could be found.

This, however, is to anticipate.  On the 19th the enemy were close upon the forts, and everything was bustle and commotion.  Business was suspended nearly everywhere, and the movements of the troops were the chief attraction.  Great crowds gathered in the vicinity of the general’s pavilion overlooking the parade-ground, where a council was held in the afternoon.  A strong armed force held back the mob.  All the principal military officers arrived from their posts at the head of their staffs one by one.  The Taotai was brought from his residence in a magnificent sedan-chair, carried by ten or twelve bearers.  The pavilion itself is a splendid structure, adorned with the most gaudy and brilliant colours, and covered with Chinese characters beautifully worked in gold.  The consultation lasted for at least three hours.  I had only a distant view of Kung over the heads of the soldiers.  The fighting outside continued, and on the next day more Japanese corpses had been brought in by the vengeful soldiery, and left for the rabble to amuse themselves with.  I do not think that any Japanese was brought into the town alive.

Towards noon the next day (20th) the first guns were heard.  Cannon rumbled away in the distance all the afternoon, ceasing as night came on.  A wild and anxious night it was.  There was no certain news of the fighting, and the most contradictory rumours were prevalent.  Excited crowds filled the streets, which blazed with great coloured paper lanterns, of which nearly every individual carried one; indeed, the person who is seen outside without a lantern after dark becomes an object of suspicion to the police watch.