as at a distance of more than two miles from
headquarters, upon an outlying spur of the Nanshan Heights, and quite
alone, save for the companionship of a solitary assistant signaller,
with only occasional curt orders from the General in reference to the
signals which he wished me to transmit to our ships in the offing, I was
naturally ignorant as to the critical pass at which we had arrived, and
could only draw my conclusions from what I actually saw happening. What
occurred at staff headquarters during this momentous day, and especially
at this momentous hour, I did not learn until several hours later, but,
so far as is possible, I propose to relate events in their chronological
order, that the proper continuity of my narrative may be maintained; I
will therefore briefly state here that when the General received the
artillery commander's message that his ammunition was practically
exhausted, he summoned a few of his principal officers, and held a brief
council of war. What was to be done, under the circumstances? It was
now five o'clock in the afternoon, and the bringing up of further
supplies of ammunition would involve a delay of at least two hours, and
probably more, while to suspend all action meanwhile would practically
be to defer the assault until the next day. Certain of the officers
present strongly advocated this postponement, giving it as their opinion
that to attempt to storm the heights unsupported by adequate gun-fire
was merely to make a useless sacrifice of whole brigades of sorely
needed men; one or two officers, indeed, ventured to express their
conviction that the heights were impregnable.

The discussion lasted about a quarter of an hour, at the end of which
time General Oku, who had been listening but saying nothing, abruptly
broke up the council by announcing his determination to risk everything
upon a single cast of the die; the gunners were to expend their reserve
rounds of ammunition upon a slow, carefully considered, deadly
bombardment of the heights, while the entire infantry force was to move
forward simultaneously to the assault. The officers who had ventured to
advise delay shook their heads doubtfully, but at once proceeded to
their stations, fully prepared to loyally support the General to their
last breath.

When the news of the General's decision was communicated to the troops,
it was only with the utmost difficulty that they could be restrained
from cheering, and so putting the