ir sleeping-places in various stages of
deshabille, all talking excitedly. The women had too much sense to
move a great deal, although the alarm might be a signal for anything.
A few of them got up, too, and came out into the open; but the
majority stayed where they were. Presently the commander-in chief
appeared in person in his pyjamas, twirling his moustaches, and
listened to the increasing fusillade and cannonade directed against
the outposts. The din and roar, judged by the din and roar of
every-day life, may have been nerve-breaking, but to any one who had
been so close to it for eighteen days it was nothing exceptional. The
night attack, which had been heralded after the usual manner by a
fierce blowing of trumpets, simply meant thousands of rifles crashing
off together, and as far as the British Legation was concerned, you
might stand just as safely there as on the Boulevard des Italiens or
in Piccadilly. There was a tremendous noise, and swarms of bullets
passing overhead, but that was all. The time had not arrived for
actual assaults to be delivered; there was too much open ground to be
covered.

The groups of reserves stood and listened in awe, the
commander-in-chief twirled his moustaches with composure, and two or
three other refugee Plenipotentiaries slipped out and nervously waited
the upshot of it all. It was a very curious scene. Well, the fusillade
soon reached the limit of its _crescendo_, and then with delighted
sighs, the _diminuendo_ could plainly be divined. The Chinese
riflemen, having blazed off many rounds of ammunition, and finding
their rifle barrels uncomfortably warm, were plainly pulling them out
of their loopholes and leaning them up against the barricades. The
_diminuendo_ became more and more marked, and finally, except for the
usual snipers' shots, all was over. So the reserves were dismissed and
went contentedly off to bed. As far as the actual defence was
concerned, this comedy might have been left unplayed. In the dense
gloom those men could never have been moved anywhere. Such a manoeuvre
would have brought about a panic at once, for there is little mutual
confidence, and nothing has been done to promote it.

At first, in the hurry and scurry and confusion of the initial
attacks, when everything and everybody was unprepared and upset, this
state of things escaped attention. Now all the fighting line is
becoming openly discontented. There is favouritism and incompetency in
everyt