in which they had taken refuge; that they had had enough of all these alarums and excursions; and that so long as they were left in peace they did not care about the rest.  What mean little people we are in this world!  The French, the Russian, the Italian and the Japanese Ministers were the first to act thus, and as they represented a majority of the detachments, the others who had Legation Guards had pretty well to follow suit, whether they liked it or not, and some did not like it, as I shall show hereafter.  M——­ had been hinting very plainly that he had been in a kilted regiment, and that the British Legation was the hub of the defence—­the asylum for all; and so with a satisfied smile, he was pleased to accept the proffered appointment.  Yet it was one only in name.  For just as he was writing out his first ordre du jour the various Plenipotentiaries showed their appreciation of the office they had conferred on him by ordering, each one of them separately, their respective detachments to return to their respective Legations so hurriedly abandoned.  So the sailors and the marines, and the fighting volunteers who bear them company, bundled back to the outer lines and barricades again, finding all just as it had been before, except that the Italian Legation was in flames and the Italian barricades therefore useless.  The snipers had found that they could suddenly work in peace, and had thrown blazing torches.  Four Legations are now destroyed and abandoned, for the Belgian, the Austrian and the Dutch have all gone up in flames at different times during the last days.  Seven Legations remain and ten Ministers.

The defence is thus getting into reasonable limits and so long as our attacks are confined to what they have been up till now, we may really pull through.  Incendiary fires round the outer lines, lighted by means of torches stuck on long poles, a heavy rifle-fire poured into the most exposed barricades by an unseen enemy, and very occasionally a faint-hearted rush forward, which a fusillade on our part turns into a rout—­these have so far been the dangers with which we have had to contend.  But the very worst feature of the defence is that no one trusts the neighbouring detachment sufficiently to believe that it will stand firm under all circumstances and not abandon its ground; consequently this fear that a sudden breakdown along some barricades will allow of an inrush of Chinese troops and Boxers makes men fight all the time with their eyes over their shoulders, which is the very worst way of fighting I can possibly imagine.  And another hardly less important point is that the burden is not evenly apportioned, and that the men know it.  For instance, the British Legation, which is as yet not in the slightest exposed, is full of able-bodied men doing nothing—­whereas on the outer lines of the other Legations many men are so dead with sleep that they can hardly sit awake two hours.  It can easily be seen from the rude sketches I have made and re-made, what I mean.  I have been over every inch on my own legs; there can be no mistake.