exactly what he can do and what he cannot.  After a search of many hours, I found here the first evidences of system.  This little man, working quietly, is reducing things to order, and in the few hours which have gone by since the dreadful occurrences of yesterday he has succeeded in attending to the thousand small details which demanded his attention.  He is organising his dependents into a little self-contained camp; he is making the hordes of converts come to his aid and strengthen his lines; in fact, he is doing everything that he should do.  Already I honour this little man; soon I feel I shall be his slave.

But not only is there order within these Japanese lines; attempts are being made to find out what is going on beyond—­that is, to discover what is being done in this deserted corner of the city, which is abandoned to the European.  Although all is quiet without, it is not possible that everyone has fled, because some rifle-firing is going on....  When I arrived the Japanese had already discovered that a Chinese camp had been quietly established less than a quarter of a mile away.  Half an hour afterwards a breathless Japanese sailor brought in a report that snipers had been seen stealthily approaching.  I was just in the nick of time, as Colonel S——­ immediately decided on a reconnaissance in force; any one who liked could go.  Would I go?

We slipped out under command of the colonel himself and worked through tortuous lanes down towards the abandoned Customs Inspectorate and the Austrian Legation.  We reached the rear of the Customs compounds without a sound being heard or a living thing seen.  All along hundreds of yards of twisting alleyways the native houses stood empty and silent, abandoned by their owners just as they are.  Even the Peking dog, a cur of great ferocity, who in peaceful times abounds everywhere and is the terror of our riding-parties, had fled, as if driven away by the fear of the coming storm.  In the distance, as we stealthily moved, we could hear an occasional rattle of musketry, probably directed against the French Legation and the Italian barricade, where it has been going on for twenty-four hours; but so isolated is one street in Peking from the rest by the high walls of the numberless compounds and the thick trees which intercept all sounds that we could be certain of nothing.  Perhaps the firing was not even the enemy at work, whoever he may be; it might be our men....

But directly in front of us all was still, and just as we thought of stealing on, a Japanese whispered “Hush,” and pointed a warning finger.  We flattened ourselves against houses and scurried into open doors.  Suddenly it was getting exciting.  Down another lane then came a noisy sound of feet, incautiously pattering on the hard ground to the accompaniment of some raucous talk.  It is the very devil in this network of lanes and blind alleys which twist round the Legations, and no force could properly patrol them....