to safety below.  It cannot be said that the Americans are afraid; they have merely realised from the beginning what a few of us have understood.  The motley crowd gathered in the British Legation, as well as our commander-in-chief, were much stirred by the American retirement, for they already saw themselves directly bombarded from the menacing height of the city walls—­a prospect which can enchant no one, as the confusion already reigning would have been worse confounded had all the elderly persons been given a taste of what the outworks are experiencing.  So a council of war was hastily convened very much after the style of the Boer commandoes, with everybody talking at once, and it was at once decided that the blessed Tartar Wall must be at once reoccupied at any cost.  A mixed force, under the command of the American captain, stormed back again, and with a rush found themselves back in their old quarters with everything intact.  The representation of the American marines had at last made themselves felt, for British marines took the places of half the Americans, who were given duty elsewhere.  We thought that that had solved the question.

But this was on the 1st of the month.  To-day, the 3rd of the month, the position became once more untenable, for the Chinese now being able to attack the wall defences from both sides, were pushing their barricades rapidly closer and closer until only a few feet separated them from their prey.  So more men were called for, and this morning, after a short harangue, a storming-party, numbering sixty bayonets and composed of British, Americans and Russians, dashed over into the Chinese lines killing thirty of the enemy and driving the rest back in great confusion.  It was a brilliant little affair and well conducted, but unfortunately Captain M——­, who commanded, was wounded in the foot, and the Americans have no officer now fit to lead them.  It is a curious fact worth recording that owing to wounds and staff work, neither the British nor Americans have any good officers left.  It is only many days of this close-quarter fighting that shows you that without good officers no men care for moving out of shelter.  Unless there are men who will sacrifice themselves, the ordinary rank and file feel under no obligation to do anything more arduous than to lie comfortably firing at the enemy.  You can have no idea how hard it is to get men to make sorties; on the slightest provocation, once they have left their own barricades, they rush back to safety....

Fortunately with all these events, we have been given something else to think about, and it is a thing of this sort which re-establishes confidence more than any warlike deeds.  I mention it because it is the simple truth.  It is also a pretty commentary on la bete humaine.