of our barricaded quarter, finally united their fumes until we were all fairly suffocated.  For we have either got to flee now or be butchered.  Mechanically all eyes were turned at once to the chiefs of the eleven missions to China, who have brought things to such a pass, and everybody demanded frantically that something should be done.  People lost control themselves and behaved insanely.  It was not long before the whole diplomatic body met—­in a terrible gloom—­at the Legation of the Spanish Minister, who is the doyen of the Corps, and soon a tremendous discussion was raging.  There were mutual recriminations, and proposal after proposal was taken up and rejected as being too dangerous.  Nobody had for a moment dreamed that such a menace would come so swiftly.  Expectant crowds soon gathered round the gates of the Spanish Legation, and attempted to find out what was being decided, but the only thing I could learn was that brave Von K——­ proposed at once that the Ministers should go in a body to the Yamen and force the Chinese Government to agree to an armistice.  This was vetoed by all, of course, and one gentleman openly wept at the idea.  In the end, at seven o’clock, when it was nearly dark, a joint Note was prepared, saying that the Ministers could only accept the demand made on them and prepare to leave Peking at once, but that twenty-four hours was too short a notice in which to pack their trunks, and that, besides, they must have some guarantees as to the ninety miles road to Tientsin, which were so swarming with bandits that communication had been completely interrupted.  That is to say, the Ministers were prepared to accept....

No sooner had this weak reply been despatched than a fresh wave of consternation passed over the whole Legation quarter, for we now number nearly a thousand white people in all, and we could never march that distance to Tientsin unbroken.  But beneath that wave of consternation a fiercer note steadily rose—­the note of revolt against the decrees of eleven men.  I cannot describe to you what an intensity of passion was suddenly revealed.  Muttering first, this revolt became quite open and almost unanimous.  All of us would have a fair fight behind barricades and entrenchments, but no massacre of a long, unending convoy.  For picture to yourself what this convoy would be crawling out of giant Peking in carts, on ponies and afoot, if it were forced to go; we would be a thousand white people with a vast trail of native Christians following us, and calling on us not to abandon them and their children.  Do you think we could run ahead, while a cowardly massacre by Boxers and savage soldiery was hourly thinning out the stragglers and defenceless people in the rear?  Never!

Hardly anybody thought of eating all that long evening.  Most of us were trying to find out whether some sensible understanding could not be arrived at; whether we could not prepare before it was too late.  But it was quite in vain to plan anything or attempt to think of anything.  Everything was so topsy-turvy, everybody so panic-stricken.