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.