Two hours afterwards I found him still fanning himself and cooling himself.  He was quite alone; most people had rather he had never come.  Yet the message has been heeded.  The significant phrase is that we must keep ourselves in food.  Ponies are running short; there is only sufficient grain for three weeks’ rations; so if there is another month, it will be a fair chance that a great many die for lack of food.  Lists are therefore being made of everything eatable there is, and all private supplies are to be commandeered in a few days.  People are, of course, making false lists and hiding away a few things.  If there is another month of it there will be some very unpleasant scenes—­yes, some very unpleasant scenes.

XX

THE THIRD PHASE CONTINUES

30th July, 1900.

* * * * *

From the north that dull booming of guns ever continues.  The Pei-t’ang is still closely besieged, and no news comes as to how long Monseigneur F——­, with his few sailors and his many converts, can hold out, or why they are exempted from this strange armistice, which protects us temporarily.  Nothing can be learned about them.

And yet our own armistice, in spite of Tsung-li Yamen despatches and the mutual diplomatic assurances, cannot continue for ever.  Barricade building and mining prove that.  To-day the last openings have been closed in on us for some curious reason, and the stretch of street which runs along under the pink Palace walls and across the Northern canal bridge has been securely fortified with a very powerful barricade.  Outside the Water-Gate the Chinese sharpshooters have dug also a trench....

This last barricade was not built without some attempt on our part to stop such a menacing step, for we tried with all our might, by directing a heavy rifle-fire, and at last dragging the Italian gun and a machine-gun into position, to make the barricade-builders’ task impossible.  But it was all in vain, and now we are neatly encased in a vast circle of bricks and timber; we are absolutely enclosed and shut in, and we can never break through.

Of course this has been a violation of the armistice, for it was mutually agreed that neither side should continue offensive fortification work, or push closer, and that violation would entail a reopening of rifle and gun fire.  We reopened our fire for a short interval, but little good that did us.  We lost two men in the operation, for an Italian gunner was shot through the hand and made useless for weeks, and a volunteer was pinked in both shoulders, and may have to lose one arm.  After that we stopped firing, for those bleeding men showed us how soon our defence would have melted away had we not even this questionable armistice.