for
protection. The City Wall near the legations is held by our men,
but the Chinese are forcing them back and driving in our outposts.
The mortality in our ranks is very great; and unless relief comes
soon we must all perish. Our men have fought bravely, and our women
have shown sublime courage. May this terrible sacrifice prove not
to be in vain! We are the victims of pagan fanaticism. Let this
pagan empire be partitioned among Christian powers, and may a new
order of things open on China with a new century!

"The chief asylum for native Christians is the Roman Catholic Cathedral,
where Bishop Favier aided by forty marines gives protection to four
or five thousand. The perils of the siege have obliterated the lines
of creed and nation, making a unity, not merely of Christians, but
bringing the Japanese into brotherhood with us. To them the siege
is a step toward Christianity."

"(Signed) DR. W. A. P. MARTIN."]

[Page 177]
On August 14 Gen. Gaseles and his contingent entered the British
Legation. The Court, conscious of guilt, fled to the northwest,
leaving the city once more at the mercy of the hated foreigner;
and so the curtain falls on the closing scene.

What feats of heroism were performed in the course of those eventful
weeks; how delicate women rose to the height of the occasion in
patient endurance and helpful charity; how international jealousies
were merged in the one feeling of devotion to the common good--all
this and more I should like to relate for the honour of human nature.

How an unseen power appeared to hold our enemies in check and to
sustain the courage of the besieged, I would also like to place on
record, to the glory of the Most High; but space fails for dealing
with anything but general principles.[1]

[Footnote 1: See the author's "The Siege in Peking," New York: Fleming
H. Revell Company.]

On the day following our rescue, at a thanksgiving meeting, which
was largely attended, Dr. Arthur
[Page 178]
Smith pointed out ten instances--most of us agreed that he might
have made the number ten times ten--in which the providence of
God had intervened on our behalf.

It was a role of an ancient critic that a god should not be brought
on the stage unless the occasion were such as to require the presence
of a more than human power. _Nec deus intersit nisi dignus vindice
nodus._ How many such occasions we have had to notice in the
course of this narrative! What a theodicaea we have in the r