risk them too close.  There was a short lull, while immense scaling ladders, made by the Americans for attacking the city walls in case the relief had failed to get in any other way, were rushed up.  The idea was evidently to storm the walls and batter in the gates, line upon line, until the Imperial residences were reached and the inmost square taken.  It might take many hours if there was much resistance.  The area to be covered was immense.  To the north a faint booming proclaimed that other forces, perhaps the Russians and the Japanese still in rivalry, were at work on this huge Forbidden City, racing once more to see that neither got the advantage of the other. ...  All this meant slow work without startling developments.  Everybody was moving very deliberately, as if time was of no value.  A new idea came into my head.  It was impossible to cover such distances continually on foot without becoming exhausted.  Already I was tired out.  I must seize a mount somewhere before it was too late.  I must go back.

Trotting quickly, I reached the Legation area to find that the scene had changed.  The ruined streets were once again filled with troops.  The transport and fighting trains of a number of Indian regiments, which had spent the night somewhere in the outer Chinese city, had evidently been hurriedly pushed forward at daylight to be ready for any eventualities.  Ambulance corps and some very heavy artillery were mixed with all these moving men and kicking animals in hopeless confusion, and rude shouts and curses filled the air as all tried to push forward.  Among these countless animals and their jostling drivers it was almost impossible to fight one’s way; but with a struggle I reached the dry canal, and, once more jumping down, I had a road to myself.  I went straight along it.

Under the Tartar Wall, as I climbed again to the ground-level, I met the head of fresh columns of men.  This time they were white troops—­French Infanterie Coloniale, in dusty blue suits of torn and discoloured Nankeen.  There must have been thousands of them, for after some delay they got into movement, and, enveloped in thick clouds of dust, these solid companies of blue uniforms, crowned with dirty-white helmets, started filing past me in an endless stream.  The officers were riding up and down the line, calling on the men to exert themselves, and to hurry, hurry, hurry.  But the rank and file were pitifully exhausted, and their white, drawn faces spoke only of the fever-haunted swamps of Tonkin, whence they had been summoned to participate in this frantic march on the capital.  They had always been behind, I heard, and had only been hurried up by constant forced marching, which left the men mutinous and valueless.  Once again they were being hurried not to be too late....

I only lost these troops to find myself crushed in by long lines of mountain artillery carried on mules, and led by strange-looking Annamites.  In a thin line they stretched away until I could only divine how many there were.  These batteries, however, were not going forward, and to my surprise I found the guns being suddenly loaded and hauled to the top of the Tartar Wall up one of the ramparts which had been our salvation.  This was a new development, and in my interest, forgetting my pony, I ran up, too.