And what of S——­, what of the Peking Government—­what is everybody in the outside world doing—­the distant world of which we have so suddenly lost all trace, while we are passing through such times?  We do not know; we have no idea; we have almost forgotten to think about it.  S——­ was heard of twice some days ago from Langfang, a station only forty miles from Peking, but why he does not advance, why there is this intolerable delay, we do not know.  The Peking Government is still decreeing and counter-decreeing night and day according to the Government Gazettes.  The Ministers of our eleven Legations are meeting one another almost hourly, and are eternally discussing, but are doing nothing else.  We have blocked our roads with barricades and provided our servants and dependents with passes written in English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Chinese—­so that everyone can understand.  We are now sick of such a multitude of languages and wish all the world spoken Volapuk.

Thus with our rescued native Christians, our few butchered Boxers, our score and more of fires lighting the whole of the horizon, here in the middle of the night of the 16th of June we are no further forward in our political situation than we were two and a half weeks ago, when our Legation Guards arrived, and we esteemed ourselves so secure.  Two and a half weeks ago!  It seems at least two and a half months; but that is merely the direct fault of having to live nearly twice the proper number of hours in twenty-four.

XIII

A FEW CRUMBS

18th June, 1900.

* * * * *

It has just transpired that Hsu Tung, an infamous Manchu high official, who has been the Emperor’s tutor, and whose house is actually on Legation Street some fifty yards inside the lines of the Italian Legation, has been allowed to pass out of our barricaded quarter, going quite openly in his blue and red official chair.  This is a terrible mistake which we may pay for dearly.

Hsu Tung is a scoundrel who is at least thorough in his convictions as far as we are concerned.  It is he who has long been boasting—­and all Peking has been repeating his boast—­that in the near future he is going to line his sedan chair with the hides of foreign devils and fill his harem with their women; and it is he, above all other men, who should have been seized by us, held as hostage, and shot out of hand the very moment the Chinese Government gives its open official sanction to this insane Boxer policy.  Had we acted in this way and taken charge of a number of other high officials who live just around us, we might have shown the trembling government that a day of retribution is certain to come.  And yet listen what happened.  Either on the 15th or 16th Hsu Tung sent the majordomo of his household cringing to the French Legation for a passepartout.  He had already tried once to escape by way of the