The shell holes and number of shells fired are also being counted up.  The little Hotel de Pekin, standing high up just behind the French lines, has been the most struck.  It is simply torn to pieces and has hundreds of holes in it.  Altogether some three thousand shells have been thrown at us and found a lodgment.  The wreckage round the outer fringe is appalling, and in this present calm scarcely believable.  Another three thousand shells will bring everything flat to the ground.

XVII

DIPLOMACY CONTINUES

24th July, 1900.

* * * * *

The situation is practically unchanged, and there is devilish little to write about.  During the last two or three days no Chinese soldiers have been coming in to parley with us, except in one or two isolated instances.  Cautious reconnaissances of two or three men creeping out at a time, pushing out as far as possible, have discovered that the enemy is nothing like as numerous as he was at the beginning of this armistice.

Some of his barricades seem even abandoned, and stand lonely and quite silent without any of the gaudily clothed soldiery to enliven them by occasionally standing up and waving us their doubtful greetings.  But, curious contradiction, although some barricades have been practically abandoned, others are being erected very cautiously, very quietly, and without any ostentation, as if the enemy were preparing for eventualities which he knows must inevitably occur.  Sometimes, too, there is even a little crackle of musketry in some remote corner, which remains quite unexplained.  A secret traffic in eggs and ammunition is still going on with renegade soldiery from Tung Fu-hsiang’s camp; but no longer can these things be purchased openly, for a Chinese commander has beheaded several men for this treachery, and threatens to resume fighting if his soldiers are tampered with.

But there is another piece of curious news.  A spy has come in and offered to report the movements of the European army of relief, which he alleges has already left Tientsin and is pushing back dense bodies of Chinese troops.  This offer has been accepted, and the man has been given a sackful of dollars from Prince Su’s treasure-rooms.  He is to report every day, and to be paid as richly as he cares if he gives us the truth.  Some people say he can only be a liar, who will trim his sails to whatever breezes he meets.  But the Japanese, who have arranged with him, are not so sceptical; they think that something of importance may be learned.

Down near the Water-Gate, which runs under the Tartar Wall, the miserable natives imprisoned by our warfare are in a terrible state of starvation.  Their bones are cracking through their skin; their eyes have an insane look; yet nothing is being done for them.  They are afraid to attempt escape even in this quiet, as the Water-Gate is watched on the outside night and day by Chinese sharpshooters.  It is the last gap leading to the outer world which is still left open.  Tortured by the sight of these starving wretches, who moan and mutter night and day, the posts near by shoot down dogs and cows and drag them there.  They say everything is devoured raw with cannibal-like cries....