vigour. The Boxers, having passed two miles of neutral territory, had
reached the belt of abandoned foreign houses and grounds belonging to
the foreign Customs, to missionaries, and to some other people.
Pillaging and burning and unopposed, they were spreading everywhere.
Flames were now leaping up from a dozen different quarters, ever
higher and higher. The night was inky black, and these points of fire,
gathering strength as their progress was unchecked, soon met and
formed a vast line of flame half a mile long. There is nothing which
can make such a splendid but fearful spectacle as fire at night. The
wind, which had been blowing gently from the north, veered to the
east, as if the god's wished us to realise our plight; and on the
breeze leading towards the Legations, some sound of the vast tumult
and excitement was wafted to us. The whole city seemed now to be alive
with hoarse noises, which spoke of the force of disorder unloosed.
Orders for every man to stand by and for reinforcements to be massed
near the Austrian quarter were issued, and impatient, yet impotent, we
waited the upshot of it all. Chinese officialdom gave no sign; not a
single word did or could the Chinese Government dare to send us. We
were abandoned to our own resources, as was inevitable.

Suddenly a tremor passed over all who were watching the brilliant
scene. The flames, which till then had been confined to a broad belt
at least three thousand yards from our eastern picquets, began leaping
up a mile nearer. The Boxers, having destroyed all the foreign houses
in the Tsung-li Yamen quarter, were advancing up rapidly on the Tung
T'ang--the Roman Catholic Eastern Cathedral, which was but fifteen
minutes' walk from our lines. We knew that hundreds of native
Christians lived around the cathedral, and that as soon as their lives
were threatened they would at once seek refuge in their church, and we
knew, also, what that would mean.