. The
great gate of the palace still held, in spite of all attacks. But the
ammunition of the defenders had at last all gone.

"Let us charge the Chinese with our bayonets," cried So. The Japanese
captain joyfully assented. But Takezoi now asserted his authority. He
pulled from his pocket his Imperial warrants giving him supreme command of
the Japanese in Korea and read them to the captain. "The Emperor has placed
you under my command," he declared. "Refuse to obey me and you refuse to
obey your Emperor. I command you to call your men together and let us all
make our way back to the Legation." There was nothing to do but obey.

While the Chinese were still hammering at the front gate, the Japanese and
reformers crept quietly around by the back wall towards the Legation. The
people in the building, hearing this mass of men approach in the dark,
unlit street, thought that they were the enemy, and opened fire on them. A
Japanese sergeant and an interpreter were shot down on either side of
General So. Not until a bugle was sounded did the Japanese inside the
building recognize their friends. The party staggered in behind the
barricades worn out. So, who had not closed his eyes for four days, dropped
to the ground exhausted and slept.

He did not awake until the next afternoon. He heard a voice calling him,
and started up to find that the Japanese were already leaving. They had
resolved to fight their way to the sea. "I do not know who it was called
me," said So, afterwards. "Certainly it was none of the men in the
Legation. I sometimes believe that it must have been a voice from the other
world." Had he wakened five minutes later, the mob would have caught him
and torn him to bits.

The Japanese blew up a mine, and, with women and children in the centre,
flung themselves into the maelstrom of the howling mob. The people of Seoul
were ready for them. They had already burned the houses of the Progressive
statesmen, Kim, Pak, So and Hong. They tried, time after time, to rush the
Japanese circle. The escaping party marched all through the night, fighting
as it marched. At one point it had to pass near a Chinese camp. A cannon
opened fire on it. At Chemulpo, the coast port twenty-seven miles from
Seoul, it found a small Japanese mail steamer, the _Chidose Maru_. The
Koreans who had escaped with the party were hidden. Before the _Chidose_
could sail a deputation from the King arrived, disclaiming all enmity
against the Japanes