the move.

off the time of action to September: our calculations were wrong, for already in May it had spread from Shantung, was overrunning Pecheli, and was following the railway line from Pao-ting-foo, the provincial capital, toward Peking itself. Chapels were destroyed, converts were massacred, railway stations were wrecked, railway and telegraph lines were Growth of damaged, excitement was spreading and yet, ment. although the state of the country all around grew more and more alarming, it still seemed to be a question whether the movement would roll back toward its source from Peking or take new shape there and gather new and onward impetus. Meantime, the Legations fortunately succeeded in getting up a few guards from the warships off Taku, so that there were from three to four hundred armed men in Peking for their protection-American, Austrian, British, French, Italian, Japanese, and Russian.

and alarms.

From the end of May the air was full of rumors and alarms, and all were on the alert, Rumors ladies and children spending the nights at the British Legation for safety; but the movement was still regarded as a Boxer movement, and we could not allow ourselves to believe that the government would permit it to create disorder in Peking; much less that the troops would join it and its doings be accepted and approved of by the Chinese authorities: in fact, the troops appeared at one time to be op

erating against the Boxers and protecting the Ma-chia-pu railway station from destruction, and thus helped to strengthen our old faith in the security of the capital; but to the eye of today that military movement was intended to obstruct the Admiral's force, and not to oppose the Boxers. On the 9th of June, the outlook was so threatening that the Customs and College people were called in from the scattered quarters; and from that date to the 20th all lived at the Inspectorate, and combined with their neighbors, Japanese, Austrians, and French, to keep watch day and night.

Up to the 20th of June we had only the Boxers to deal with, but on the 19th, we were Note from surprised by a Circular Note from the Yamên the Yamen. (Chinese Foreign Office), stating that the foreign naval authorities at Tien-tsin were about to seize the Taku forts, and ordering Legations to quit Peking within twenty-four hours. The Legations replied, and represented to the Yamên that they knew nothing of the Taku occurrence-that they regretted any misunderstanding-and that they could not possibly quit, or make transport arrangements, on such short notice. A proposal to visit the Yamên in a body was set aside, but on the morning of the 20th Baron von Ketteler, the German Minister, attended by his interpreter, Mr. Cordes, set off for the Yamên alone: his colleagues advised him not to go, but he felt that, having announced his visit, he must pay

Murder of

Ketteler.

it. Ten minutes after he left the Legation, his Chinese outriders galloped back saying Baron von that he had been shot when going up the Ha-ta-mên Street. His interpreter, badly wounded, managed to escape to the Methodist Mission, and was thence taken back to the German Legation. It had previously been decided, in case of attack, to hold all the Legations as long as possible, but to fall back on the British Legation when necessary for united defence and a final stand; the order to quit Peking, and the seemingly official murder of a Minister, rather precipitated matters, and before the twenty-four hours' limit had expired (4 P.M., 20th of June) all the ladies. and children were in the British Legation, and also the various foreign representatives.

attack the

Up to the 20th of June we had—as already stated-only Boxers armed with sword and spear to fear, but on that day rifles began to be used, and soldiers fired them-notably men Soldiers belonging to Tung Fuh Hsiang's Kan-suh Legations. command. Our longing for the appearance of Admiral Seymour grew intense, and night after night we buoyed ourselves up with calculations founded on the sound of heavy guns in the distance or the appearance of what experts pronounced to be search-lights in the sky: soon, however, we gave up all hope of the Admiral's party, but, supposing that the Taku forts had been taken on the 18th, we inferred that a few days later would see a

The

Legations

large force marching from Tien-tsin for our relief, and that within a fortnight it would be with us otherwise, why imperil us at Peking by such premature action at Taku?

We were under fire from the 20th to the 25th of June, from the 28th of June to the 18th besieged. of July, from the 28th of July to the 2d of August, and from the 4th to the 14th of August: night and day rifle bullets, cannon balls, and Krupp shells had been poured into the various Legations from the gate in front of the Palace itself, from the very wall of the Imperial City, as well as from numerous nearer points around us, and the assailants on all sides were Chinese soldiers; whether the quiet of the 26th and 27th of June and 19th to 27th of July was or was not ordered by the government we can not say, but the firing during the other periods, close as we were to the Palace, must have been by the orders of the government; and it cost our small number over sixty killed and a hundred wounded! That somebody intervened for our semi-protection seems, however, probable: attacks were not made by such numbers as the government had at its disposal-they were never pushed home, but always ceased just when we feared they would succeed-and, had the force round us really attacked with thoroughness and deExplana termination, we could not have held out a salvation. week, perhaps not even a day; and so the explanation that there was some kind of protec

tion of

tion that somebody, probably a wise man who knew what the destruction of the Legations would cost Empire and Dynasty, intervened between the issue of the order for our destruction and the execution of it, and so kept the soldiery playing with us as cats do with mice, the continued and seemingly heavy firing telling the Palace how fiercely we were attacked and how stubbornly we defended ourselves, while its curiously half-hearted character not only gave us the chance to live through it, but also gave any relief forces time to come and extricate us, and thus avert the national calamity which the Palace in its pride and conceit ignored, but which some one in authority in his wisdom foresaw and in his discretion sought how to push aside.

renewed.

On the 4th of August our assailants' rifles The attack again began to be troublesome, and the list of killed and wounded was added to. On the 7th some additional barricades isolated us even more than ever, and at the same time despatches from the Yamên announced that Li Hung Chang was appointed to arrange matters by telegram with the various Foreign Offices. On the 8th the firing was lighter, and letters of condolence came from the Yamên communicating the news of the deaths of the King of Italy and the Duke of Edinburgh; but on the 9th heavy firing was resumed, and grew heavier and heavier until the 14th, the nights of the 12th and 13th being specially