had been reached!  They had that curious half-laugh on their faces which signifies an intense nervousness being politely concealed.  Up to three o’clock these complaisant shopmen were still selling things at a purely nominal price, which was not entered in the books, but quietly pocketed by them for their own benefit.  Having completed my own arrangements, I began idly watching their actions, they were so curious.  At three o’clock sharp the last shutters went up, the last shopman pasted a diamond-shaped Fu, or Happiness, of red paper over the wooden bars, and vanished silently and mysteriously.  It was for all the world once again exactly like the telegraph-operator in “Michael Strogoff,” when the Tartars smash in the front doors of his office and seize the person of the hero, while the clerk coolly takes up his hat and disappears through a back door.  These Chinese had done business in the very same way, until the very last moment—­the very last.

And not only are the few shopmen slipping away, but also numbers of others within our lines who had been half-imprisoned during the past week by our barricades and incessant patrolling.  Men, women, and children, each with a single blue-cloth bundle tied across their backs containing a few belongings, slip away; gliding, as it were, rapidly across the open spaces where a shot could reach them, and scuttling down mysterious back alleys and holes in the walls, the existence of which has been unknown to most of us.  This time the rats are leaving the sinking ship quietly and silently, for a quiet word passed round had informed everyone of what is coming, and no one wishes to be caught.  This is the sort of silent play I love to watch.

Just before this, however, down beyond the Austrian Legation came a flourish of hoarse-throated trumpets—­those wonderful Chinese trumpets.  Blare, blare, in a half-chorus they first hang on a high note; then suddenly tumbling an octave, they roar a bassoon-like challenge in unison like a lot of enraged bulls.  Nearer and nearer, as if challenging us with these hoarse sounds, came a large body of soldiery; we could distinctly see the bright cluster of banners round the squadron commander.  Pushing through the clouds of dust which floated high above them, the horses and their riders appeared and skirted the edge of our square.  We noted the colour of their tunics and the blackness of the turbans.  Two horsemen who dismounted for some reason, swung themselves rapidly into their saddles, carbine in hand, and galloped madly to rejoin their comrades in a very significant way.  For a moment they half turned and waved their Mannlichers at us, showing their breast-circle of characters.  They were the soldiers of savage Tung Fu-hsiang, and were going west—­that is, into the Imperial city.  The manner in which they so coolly rode past fifty yards away must have frightened some one, for when I passed here an hour later the Austrian Legation and its street defences