Passers-by, did I say?  But do not imagine from this that there are many of these, for the Chinese have been for days avoiding the Legation quarter as if it were plague-stricken, and sounds that were so roaring a few weeks ago are now daily becoming more and more scarce.  A blight is settling on us, for we are accursed by the whole population of North China, and who knows what will be the fate of those seen lurking near the foreigner?

And now when we wander even in our own streets—­that is, those abutting immediately on our compounds of the Legation area—­a new nickname salutes our ears.  No longer are we mere yang kuei-tzu, foreign devils; we have risen to the proud estate of ta mao-tzu, or long-haired ones of the first class. Mao-tzu is a term of some contemptuous strength, since mao is the hair of animals, and our barbarian heads are not even shaved.  The ta—­great or first class—­is also significant, because behind our own detested class press two others deserving of almost equal contempt at the hands of all believers in divine Boxerism.  These are ehr-mao-tzu and san mao-tzu, second and third class coarse-haired ones.  All good converts belong to the second class, and death awaits them, our servants say; while as to the third category, all having any sort of connection, direct or indirect with the foreigner and his works are lumped indiscriminately together in this one, and should be equally detested.  The small talk of the tea-shops now even says that officials having a few sticks of European furniture in their houses are san mao-tzu.  It is very significant, too, this open talk in the tea-shops, because in official Peking, the very centre of the enormous, loose-jointed Empire, political gossip is severely disliked and the four characters, “mo t’an kuo shih” (eschew political discussions), are skied in every public room.  People in the old days of last month heeded this four-character warning, for a bambooing at the nearest police-station, ting erh, was always a possibility.  Now everyone can do as he likes.

It is, therefore, becoming patent to the most blind that this is going to be something startling, something eclipsing any other anti-foreign movement ever heard of, because never before have the users of foreign imports and the mere friends of foreigners been labelled in a class just below that of the foreigners themselves.  And then as it became dark to-day, a fresh wave of excitement broke over the city and produced almost a panic.  The main body of Tung Fu-hsiang’s savage Kansu braves—­that is, his whole army—­re-entered the capital and rapidly encamped on the open places in front of the Temples of Heaven and Agriculture in the outer ring of Peking.  This settled it, I am glad to say.  At last all the Legations shivered, and urgent telegrams were sent to the British admiral for reinforcements to be rushed up at all costs.