firm, but though this ancient defence against other barbarians was an
effective protection for us, it could not long remain immune itself.
The _lou_, or square pagoda-like tower facing the Chinese city side,
caught some of the thousands and tens of thousands of sparks flying
skywards, and it was not long before the vast pile was burning as
fiercely as the rest. The great rafters of Burmese teak, brought by
Mongol Khans six centuries before to Peking, were as dry as tinder
with the dryness of ages; and thus almost before we had noted that
the bottom of the tower was well alight the flames were shooting
through the roof and out through the hundreds of little square windows
which in olden days were lined by archers. Higher and higher the
flames leaped, until the top of the longest tongues of fire, pouring
out through a funnel of brick, was hundreds of feet above the ground
level. Only Vereschagin could have done justice to this holocaust; I
have never seen anything so barbarically splendid.

Meanwhile below this in the Chinese city all had become quiet, except
for the increasing and growing roar of the all-devouring flames. The
Boxers, as if appalled by their own handiwork and the mournful sight
of the capital in flames, had retreated into their haunts and had left
the unfortunate townfolk to battle with this disaster as they could.
From the top of the wall, which I hastily climbed as soon as I
obtained permission to leave my post, thousands and tens of thousands
of figures could be seen moving hurriedly about laden with
merchandise, which they were attempting to save. Busy as ants, these
wonderful Chinese traders were rescuing as much of their invested
capital from the very embrace of the flames as they could at a moment
when the Boxer patriots, menacing and killing them with sword and
spears as _san mao-tzu,_ or third-class barbarians who sold the cursed
foreigners' stuffs and products, had hardly disappeared.