Peking. All
the officials high and low will welcome us. Whoever is afraid let
him quickly escape for his life."]

With a view to protect the foreign settlement at Tientsin, then
threatened by Boxers, the combined naval forces stormed the forts
at the mouth of the river, and advanced to that rich emporium. The
Court denounced this as an act of war, and ordered all foreigners
to leave the capital within twenty-four hours. That meant slaughter
at the hands of the Boxers. The foreign ministers protested, and
[Page 176]
endeavoured by prolonged negotiation to avoid compliance with the
cruel order.

On June 20, the German minister, Baron von Ketteler, was on his
way to the Foreign Office to obtain an extension of time, when he
was shot dead in the street by a man in the uniform of a soldier.
His secretary, though wounded, gave the alarm; and all the legations,
with all their respective countrymen, took refuge in the British
Legation, with the exception of Bishop Favier and his people who,
with the aid of forty marines, bravely defended themselves in the
new cathedral.

In the evening we were fired on by the Government troops, and from
that time we were closely besieged and exposed to murderous attacks
day and night for eight weeks, when a combined force under the
flags of eight nations carried the walls by storm, just in time
to prevent such a massacre as the world has never seen. Massacres
on a larger scale have not been a rare spectacle; but never before
in the history of the world had any government been seen attempting
to destroy an entire diplomatic body, every member of whom is made
sacred by the law of nations.[*]

[Footnote *: AN APPEAL FROM THE LION'S DEN

(Written four weeks before the end of the siege, this appeal failed
to reach the outside world. It is now printed for the first time.
Nothing that I could now write would show the situation with half
such vividness. It reveals the scene as with a lightning flash.)

"British Legation, July 16, 1900.

"TO THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

"On the 19th ult. the Chinese declared war on account of the attack
on the forts at Taku. Since then we have been shut up in the British
Legation and others adjacent, and bombarded day and night with shot
and shell. The defence has been magnificent. About 1,000 foreigners
(of both sexes) have held their ground against the forces of the
Empire. Some thousands of Chinese converts are dependent on us