Some go mad, too, during the fighting.  It is always those who have too much imagination.  Thus, during a lull in the attacks against the French lines, a Russian volunteer, with rifle and bandolier across his back and a bottle of spirits in his hand, charged furiously at the Chinese barriers with insane cries.  No effort could be made to save him, because hundreds of Chinese riflemen were merely waiting for an opportunity to pick off our men.  So the doomed Russian reached the first Chinese barricade unmolested, put a leg over, and then fell back with a terrible cry as a dozen rifles were emptied into his body.  By a miracle he picked himself up even in his dying condition, and made another frantic effort to climb the obstacle.  But more rifles were then discharged, and finally the wretched man fell back quite lifeless.  Then over his body a fierce duel took place.  Chinese commanders having placed a price on European heads, these riflemen were determined not to lose their reward.  Man after man attempted to drag in that dead body; but each time our men were too quick for them, and a Chinese brave rolled over.  In the end they hooked the corpse in with long poles and it was seen no more.

A yet more blood-curdling case is that of a British marine, who has been hopelessly mad for weeks now.  He shot and bayonetted a man in the early part of the siege, and the details must have horrified him.  They say he first drove his bayonet in right up to the hilt through a soldier’s chest; and then, without withdrawing, emptied the whole of the contents of his magazine into his victim, muttering all the time.  Now he lies repeating hour after hour, “How it splashes! how it splashes!” and at night he shrieks and cries....  In that miserable Chancery hospital, swept by rifle-fire and full of such cries and groans, the nights have become dreaded, until it is a wonder the wounded still live....

Still, with all this, the Yamen messengers continue to come and go with clockwork regularity.  Yesterday the Chinese Government excelled itself, and made some who have still a sense of humour left laugh cynically.  In an original official despatch—­that is, not a mere covering despatch—­it politely informed the Italian Charge d’Affaires that King Humbert had been assassinated by a lunatic, and it begged to convey the news with its most profound condolences!  Perhaps, however, there was a wish to point a moral—­a subtle moral such as Chinese scholars love.  Yes, on second thoughts that was rather a clever despatch; in diplomacy the Chinese have nothing to learn....

XXV

THE PLOT AGAIN THICKENS

8th August, 1900.

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