and square, all presented in a jumble to our wondering eyes.  The Kansu soldiery of Tung Fu-hsiang’s command were easy to pick out from among the milder looking Peking Banner troops.  Tanned almost to a colour of chocolate by years of campaigning in the sun, of sturdy and muscular physique, these men who desired to be our butchers showed by their aspect what little pity we should meet with if they were allowed to break in on us.  Men from all the Peking Banners seemed to be there with their plain and bordered jackets showing their divisions; but of Boxers there was not a sign.  Where had the famed Boxers vanished to?

Thus we stood for some time, the enemy gazing as eagerly at us as we at them.  Strict orders must have come from the Palace, for not a hostile sign was made.  It was almost worth five days of siege just to see that unique sight, which took one back to times when savage hordes were overrunning the world.  Peking is still so barbaric!

We sent back word that it might be possible to parley with the enemy, and to learn, perhaps, the reason for this sudden truce; and soon several members of the so-called general committee, whose organisation and duties I confess I do not clearly understand, came out from our lines and stood waving their handkerchiefs.  But it was some time before the gaudy-coated enemy would pay any attention to these advances, and finally one of our committeemen, to show that he was a man of peace and really wished to speak with them, went slowly forward with his hands held high above his head.  Then a thin, sallow Chinese, throwing a sword to the ground, advanced from the Palace walls, and finally these two were standing thirty or forty yards apart and within hail of one another.  Then a parley began which led to nothing, but gave us some news.  The board ordering firing to cease had been carried out under instructions from Jung Lu—­Jung Lu being the Generalissimo of the Peking field forces.  A despatch would certainly follow, because even now a Palace meeting was being held.  The Empress Dowager, the man continued, was much distressed, and had given orders to stop the fighting; the Boxers were fools....

Then the soldier waved a farewell, and retreated cautiously, picking his way back through the ruins and masses of debris.  Several times he stopped and raised the head of some dead man that lay there, victim to our rifles, and peered at the face to see whether it was recognisable.  In five days we have accounted for very many killed and wounded, and numbers still lie in the exposed positions where they fell.

The disappearing figure of that man was the end to the last clue we came across regarding the meaning of this sudden quiet.  The shadows gradually lengthened and night suddenly fell, and around us were nothing but these strangely silent ruins.  There was barricade for barricade, loophole for loophole, and sandbag for sandbag.  What has been levelled to the ground by fire has been heaped up once more so that the ruins themselves may bring more ruin!