the ground, and, although very distant, from the commanding height of the Tartar Wall they offered a splendid mark.  The rifles rattled at them as hard as possible, but the practice was as poor as ever.  Of the first batch a dozen fell and began crawling and staggering away; but the next lot, although they ran and halted at first like dazed men under the sleet of nickel, rapidly became more cunning.  All fell as if by some sudden signal on the ground, and crawling and jumping forward, they soon managed to push through without losing a single man, and immediately after this there was a droll incident such as only occurs at such times as these.

These bunches of men had ceased falling back in their sudden rout, and the firing of our men was being concentrated on some distant walls flanking the Palace enclosures, when a solitary Chinese rifleman, who had evidently been forgotten in the turmoil, trotted peacefully out.  Then, seeing he was almost in the hands of his enemies, he ran like a hunted deer straight across a vast open, which lies directly in front of the Dynastic Gate—­never seeking cover, but running like a madman in the open.  It was wonderful.

A roar went up from our whole line when he was seen, but the infantry did not attempt to bring him down.  A single machine-gun started rapping at him....  The man ran faster and faster as the swish of bullets hurtled around him, until his legs were twinkling so rapidly that he seemed to be fairly flying.  The machine-gun went on rapping and clanging ever quicker as it followed him up, and it seemed at length impossible that he should get through.  With a natural impulse, everybody’s attention became concentrated on this fugitive:  would he reach cover in safety?  The answer came almost before one had thought the question, for with sudden disgust the machine-gun stopped dead; the man ran a few seconds longer, and then with a last bound he had disappeared—­a tiny dot of blue and red flicking vaguely away behind some wall.  Instinctively, then, some one began laughing; the next man took it up, and soon a roar of hoarse-throated laughter came from the hundreds of Indian soldiery who had witnessed the scene.  It was like a scene in a theatre from that height, and I remember that this laughter of free men resounded in my ears for a long time—­the laughter of free men who have never been enslaved in bricks.  It came from straight off the chest, without any nervous nasal twanging or sudden stopping....

Soon after this the firing dropped and dwindled away to nothing, as if by common consent.  Everybody was dog-tired, and as night fell both sides felt that nothing could be gained or materially changed until another day had dawned.  I wandered round for the last time.  Our lines, so carefully and painfully built up during those long never-ending weeks, had crumbled to pieces in half as many hours.  The barricades and trenches obstructing the streets had been thrown all in a lump and sent to join the huge