At length Waldersee has arrived.  He made a sort of entry which seemed to me farcical.  I only noticed that he was very old, and that the hats that have been served out to the special German expeditionary corps are absurd.  They are made of straw and are shaped after the manner of the Colonial hats used in South Africa.  They have also a cockade of the German colours sewn to the turned-up edge.  This must be some Berlin tailor’s idea of an appropriate head-dress for a summer and autumn campaign in the East.  The hat is quite useless, and had it been a month earlier all the men would certainly have died of sunstroke.

Of course, now with Waldersee in Peking, something more has to be done, and the rumour is to-day that the Court has begun fleeing yet farther to the West.  The rulers of China are being kept accurately informed of every move by some one, and any indication of a pursuit will see them penetrate farther and farther towards the vast regions of Central Asia.  It seems to me that it would be almost amusing (would not the consequences be so tragic) to begin this pursuit and really to attempt to push the Court so far away that it finally lost touch with all the rest of China.  Then something beneficial to everyone might come.  An ultimatum, to which attention would be paid, might be served, and guarantees exacted which would do service for a number of years.  At present the flight has done no harm whatever to China.  The Court is not even ridiculous in the eyes of the populace.  It is merely terribly unfortunate—­a really luckless Court, which deserves to be commiserated with and wept over rather than upbraided.  For it is plain to everyone that the first and last reason for all this is the foreigner and no one else.  Everything the foreigner does is always a source of trouble.

Even the machinery of government has not been disturbed by the fact that vast Peking, the vaunted capital, is in the hands of ruthless invaders.  At first everyone thought that with the Palace empty, and all the great Boards and offices made mere camping-places for thousands of hostile soldiery, the government of the whole empire would be paralysed—­sterilised.  Yet that has not happened.  The government goes on much the same as ever.  We know that now.  For as the Court flees it issues edicts, receives reports and accounts, is met with tribute from provincial governors and viceroys, is clothed and banqueted, makes fresh appointments, does its day’s work while it runs.  I cannot understand, therefore, how this is to end.  It is beyond the keenest intellects in Peking, and people are now simply waiting for things to happen and to accept facts as they may be dealt out by the Fates.  It is an inevitable policy.  For you must always accept facts when you cannot mould them.

XV

THE CLIMAX

October, 1900.

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