saw that he had been scribbling some frenzied notes on the back of a
completed despatch, dealing with one of those petty little affairs
which were so important only the other day.

Ah, where are the dear little political situations of only a few weeks
ago; those safe little political situations which redounded so much to
the credit of those that made them and did not contain any of the
dread elements of our present very real and terrible one! Like
soldiers who have degenerated from the chasing of mere vagabonds of
mediocre importance, so have our Peking Ministers Plenipotentiary and
Envoys Extraordinary fallen from their proud estate to mere diplomatic
make-beliefs full of wind--wind-blown from much tilting at windmills,
with their Governments rescuing them Sancho Panza-like at the eleventh
hour....

But though for us there is still some hope, there is very little for
the wretched native Christians quartered in the palace grounds of
Prince Su, whom we have saved from the Boxers.

They soon heard the news, too, that the foreigner who has once saved
them is going--going away because he has been ordered to. All night
long there was an awful panic among these people which made one's
heart sick, for they understood better than us how quickly they would
be massacred once they left our care.

I shall never forget the night of the 19th of June, 1900, with all its
tragedy and tragi-comedy, though I live to be a hundred. It allowed me
to see something of real human nature in momentary flashes; of how
mean and full of fear we really are, how small and how easily
impressed. A hundred times I longed to have the time and the power to