assurances of the dear Allies. That was plain!
For, even as I had almost finished trotting up to the Dynastic Gate, I
came on a large body of Italian sailors, who had evidently just
entered Peking, and who, marching with the quick step of the
Bersaglieri, were being led by C----, the lank Secretary of Legation,
right up to the last line of gates. They were in an enormous hurry,
and looked about them with eager eyes. C---- and some others called
out to me as I passed, and wanted to know whether it was true that the
Americans and the French had already got in, and had sacked half the
place, and whether fire had been set to the buildings. I answered with
no compunction that it appeared to be so, and that the Russians and
the Japanese had burst in also through the north, and had actually
fired on the others coming from the south, thinking they were Manchu
soldiery.... I told them that they were too late; that every point of
importance had already been seized. That set them moving faster than
ever. It was truly comical and ridiculous. Beyond this there were more
troops of other nationalities that had just arrived, and were now
looking about them in bewilderment. No wonder. With no orders and no
maps, and surrounded by these immense ruins, and still more immense
squares, they could not understand it at all. What confusion!

As I paused, debating what I should do, once again something else
speedily attracted my attention. This time big groups of American
soldiery, whom I had not observed before, were gathering like swarms
of flies at the door of one of the Chinese guard-houses, which line
the enclosing walls of the Palace. They were evidently much excited by
some discovery. Wishing to learn what it was, I dismounted and pushed
in. Grovelling on the ground lay an elderly Chinese, whose peculiar
aspect and general demeanour made it clear what he was. He was a
Palace eunuch, left here by some strange luck. The man was in a
paroxysm of fear, and, pointing into the guard-house behind him, he
was beseeching the soldiery with words and gestures not to treat him
as those inside had been handled. Through the open door I could see a
confused mass of dead bodies--men who had been bayonetted to death in
the early morning--and from a rafter hung a miserable wretch, who had
destroyed himself in his agony to escape the terror of cold steel. As
the details became clear, the scene was hideous. Never, indeed, shall
I forget that horrid little v