The Siege of Pekin 



59 



himself slain by the enemy in the after- 

 noon of the same day. Had the enemy 

 followed up their advantage they might, 

 perhaps, in the midst of our first confu- 

 sion, have overwhelmed all the lega- 

 tions; but the}^ feared to come to close 

 quarters. 



Some of the outlying legations were 

 destroyed by fire, but most of them were 

 included within our line of defense. 

 None of them, however, except the 

 legation of Great Britain, was consid- 

 ered safe for the residence of a diplo- 

 matic family. 



Within the gates of the British lega- 

 tion, which covered six or seven acres 

 of ground and contained twenty onthirty 

 different buildings, were congregated 

 nearly one thousand foreigners, and 

 from this time for eight weeks we were 

 closely besieged, not by Boxers, but by 

 the soldiers of the Chinese government. 

 That very evening, at nightfall, the}^ 

 opened with a terrible fusillade, and 

 this was renewed da}^ after day, chiefly 

 under cover of night; so that we came 

 to speak of it rather contemptuously as 

 a "serenade." It was not, however, 

 altogether ineffective, for day by day 

 some of our men were killed or wounded, 

 and in the sorties, which were occasion- 

 ally made to drive our assailants back 

 or to silence their batteries, the casual- 

 ties were always serious. 



What we most dreaded was the fire- 

 brand, and when the ruthless enemy, 

 with more than vandal ferocity, set fire 

 to the library of the Imperial Academy, 

 for the purpose of burning us out, we 

 all had to assist in fighting the flames. 

 Women and children, including the 

 wives of ministers, passed buckets from 

 hand to hand. A change of wind came 

 to our aid, and the legation was saved. 

 At first the enemy assailed us only with 

 fire and small arms ; gradually, how- 

 ever, they got guns of considerable 

 calibre in position, -and at all hours of 

 the day attacked us with shell and 

 round shot. 



Mrs. Conger, wife of the minister, in 

 whose family I was kindly received as 

 a guest, had embraced the ideal philos- 

 ophy of Bishop Berkeley, and looked 

 on all this p3'rotechny as a play of the 

 imagination. I envied her the comfort- 

 ing delusion, for when I went out and 

 picked up a six-pound round shot, I 

 found it too heavy and solid to be re- 

 solved into a fanc^^ Whether owing 

 to her philosophy or to her Christian 

 faith, she is one of the most admirable 

 women I ever knew ; calm and unper- 

 turbed in the midst of danger, she real- 

 ized the description which Pope gave 

 200 years ago of his ideal woman, as 

 * ' Mistress of herself though China fall. ' ' 



Mr. Conger, an old soldier, who fought 

 through all the years of our civil war 

 and marched with Sherman from Atlanta 

 to the sea, met the trials and exigencies 

 of this occasion with becoming fortitude 

 and cool judgment. Diplomatist as well 

 as soldier, he knows how to deal with the 

 most serious questions that confront him 

 as negotiator in this Chinese problem. 

 His daughter. Miss Conger, had visited 

 many water cures in quest of health. 

 The fire cure to which she was now ex- 

 posed proved to be the required remedy. 

 On the first fire she threw herself weep- 

 ing into her father's arms; the next da}^ 

 she listened to it calmly, and then from 

 day to day she seemed to acquire new 

 strength, until she came out of the siege 

 restored to perfect health. 



If I be asked how we spent our time, 

 I answer, there was no frivolity and no 

 idleness. Every man had his post of 

 duty. Mine was to serve as inspector of 

 passes at the legation gate for Chinese 

 going back and forth between the lega- 

 tions within our lines. There it was my 

 sad lot to see many fine young men go 

 out full of life and hope, to come in 

 wounded, maimed, and dying. We lost 

 in all, killed and wounded, more than a 

 third of our number. 



If we are asked what we lived on, I 

 answer, the coarsest of bread and the 



