converts, on seeing the gallant defenders of the outer lines rushing
in on them at a fast trot, and then falling into line and standing
very much at ease awaiting the next move. I may be brutal, but I
relished that scene a little; it was a lesson that was sadly needed.
It was the British Minister who remained the most calm; perhaps he
immediately understood that the game was now in his hands. But the
other Ministers, I wish you could have but seen them! They crowded
round his British Excellency in an adoring and trembling ring, and
without subterfuge offered him the supreme command; that was exactly
what we had been expecting. Underneath their manner you could easily
see they meant to say that they knew it was the British Legation 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