as they retreated, set fire to the houses on
all sides, and in the thick flames and smoke it was impossible to move
save back by the way they had come. Under cover of the smoke the
Chinese soldiery opened a tremendous fire on the sortie party, who
were picking up some of the rifles and swords with which the ground
was strewn, and seeing that our men could not possibly advance, the
enemy pushed forward boldly, rapidly firing more and more
energetically. The British captain received a terrible wound, but
refused to retire; a marine was shot through the groin and died in a
few minutes; bullets cut the men's tunics to pieces; and in a
hailstorm of fire, poured on them a few yards away, they retreated.
H---- covered the retreat all the way, wounded as he was, and shot
three men with his revolver, who were heading a last desperate rush at
his men as they made for the hole in the wall. Dripping with blood,
this brave man staggered all the way to the hospital alone, refusing
all support, and gripping his smoking revolver to the last. His
battered appearance so frightened all the miserables who swarm in the
British Legation that everyone was very gloomy until the next meal
had been eaten, and they had restored themselves by garrulous talk.
The German doctor says that H---- will probably die.

Meanwhile the Americans on the Wall are behaving more erratically than
ever. They have retired and reoccupied their position three or four
times since the siege began, and the men are now more than mutinous.
Yesterday they came down twice--no one could quite make out why--and
after a lapse of an hour or two in each case, they returned. Matters
reached a crisis this morning, and a council of war was called by the
British Minister, composed of all the officers commanding
detachments. The meeting took place under the American barricade on
the Tartar Wall itself, apparently to give confidence to the men and
to make them ashamed of themselves. But the most curious part of it
all was that our commander-in-chief excused himself on the diplomatic
ground that he was sick, and amid the smiles of all, Captain T----, the
Austrian, presided and laid down the law. This clearly shows how
absurd is our whole system. Everyone says the Americans were quite
ashamed of themselves when the meeting was over, for the general vote
of all the detachment officers was that the position was well
fortified, easy to retain, and absolutely essential to hold. They say
th