emark to drop that the
position did not please him--_ca ne me dit rien_ is the exact
expression he used--and that his defence was too thin to be capable of
resisting a single determined rush. The abandoned Italian barricade,
with the Italian Legation still smouldering behind it, is indeed now
filling up with more and more Chinese sharpshooters, who continually
pour in a hot fire only fifty feet from the French lines. Occasionally
a reckless Chinese brave dashes across from the hiding-place he has
selected to cover his advance into the nest of Chinese houses which
are only separated by a twenty-foot lane from the French Legation
wall, and coolly applies the torch. Then puff; first there is a small
cloud of smoke, then a volley of crackling wood, and finally flames
leaping skyward. You can see this here at all hours. Aided by fire and
rifle-shots the Chinese are pushing nearer and nearer the French. It
is clear that they will have a worse time than the Japanese if the
situation develops as quietly but as rapidly as it has been doing....

Across Legation Street connection with the Germans is now had by means
of more loopholed barricades; for the Germans link hands with the
French and Austrians, just as they on their part link up with the
little colonel of the Su wang-fu. But the Germans are not in force at
their own Legation; they are merely using it as their base, for it is
only by means of the Peking Club, whose grounds run sheer back, that
they touch the priceless Tartar Wall. Spread-eagled along a very
indifferently barricaded line, the marines of the German Sea Battalion
now lie in an angry frame of mind dangerous for everyone. They have
felt hurt ever since the loss of their Minister, and the men are
recklessly desperate. On the Tartar Wall itself they are exposed to a
dusting fire from the great Ha-ta Towers that loom up half a mile from
them, and men are already falling. A three-inch gun commenced firing
in the morning--nobody but the Wall posts noticed it at first--and now
overhead whiz with that odd shaking of the air so hard to explain
these light but dangerous projectiles. Happily it is rather a modern
gun, and the Chinese, unaccustomed to the flat trajectory, are firing
far too high. I noticed as I crept along that the shells fell
screaming into the Imperial city a mile or two away. If they only get
the range!

Far along the Tartar Wall, towards the Ch'ien Men Gate, yellow dots
could be indistinctly seen. Th