row going on at the Ha-ta Gate, because it was still locked and the
key was gone. It now transpired that a party of volunteers, led by the
Swiss hotel-keeper of the place and his wife, had marched down to the
gate after the Boxers had rushed in, had locked it, and taken the key
home to bed, so that no one else could pay us their attentions from
this quarter. This is the simplest and the most sensible thing which
has been yet done, and it shows how we will have to take the law into
our own hands if we are to survive.

In this fashion the Boxers were ushered in on us. Most of us kept
awake until ten or eleven in the morning for fear that by sleeping we
might miss some incidents. But even the Boxers had apparently become
tired, for there was not a sign of a disturbance after midnight. In
spite of the quiet, however, the streets remain absolutely deserted,
and we have no means of knowing what is going to happen next.




X

BARRICADES AND RELIEFS


16th June, 1900.

* * * * *

We have entered quite naturally in these unnatural times on a new
phase of existence. It is the time of barricades and punitive