(We have been kindly permitted to publish the following extracts from the jetter of a young lady who was in the British Legation throughout the recent siege.)
low many months was it that we wore besieged? "My mental fuculties that I ever possessed have left ma entirely and I cannot think. Never mind, yor Know. I suppose the tension has been so great. Not that we felt it at all at che time; in fact, I felt exactly as I did ordinarily, if hot better, but I suppose there was nervous excitement, even in me, for the night after we were relieved I never slept a wink, though I had done my full share, through heavy firing, in that respect Esuppose we none of us ought to have turned up ally but you see we were a singularly Ji lection of people. To begin Claude xs a child hud been through the Tndian Muti: y and lived to be Britis! Minister to China! A missionary and wife had been successfully through fteo other sieges, Alexandria, and one other somewhere in Africs. Dr. Morris n had survived thin.s ordinary mortals would never have corns out of, Many hed been I never felt in my bones that anything seas going to happen to me, or in fact that we were hot coming ort of it all sutely—never when things socket pretty black despondent as they did occasionally; it all seemed to me t+ be the natural sequence of events! One gets very hard, I think. Do you know it seemed quite unnatural to have the silence after the constant daily sniping—though one got so accustomed to the noise that one day I actually had to listen, to see if there was firing Snme days by evening I think that we could all have sereumed ft-m the effect of the incessant whiz, bang, smut, ssu nst the walls and roofs on all day, on our nerves, but inst went and elnrzed ea inly Ese di very necessary opera in, for Dive o ver my: lite, days," bee y the end cly! twa thas of us who could t dinner tidied up a bit, hut the poor men, who had been working like slaves all day, used sometimes—rory rarely though—to come in und sit down as they were! But that was chiefly, I think, because the washermen had gone, Afterwards the Chinexe Eh fagees were turned on to the lundey work, Me. Brazier being manner. It was very fanny; you inds up your bundle, pinned your name and the number o tides On it, shouldered it—for if anything had to be carried you had of course to do it yourself—and walked down to the Isundry, hich was one of the Macdinald' ow'livuses in the hack quarter. Tuere Mr. Brazier was seated on a board placed on two inverted buckets, with a child's copybook in which he entered your nam", told you the number you were on his list, and handed your bundle over to the heyd washerman. "The next day or day after, according to your standing on the list,"you marched down again and received hack your own, clean certainly—starchel only towards the end when some had ben dissevered somewhere, Mr. Brazier was at home" every afternoon there, where he held his 4 to decide disputes between Germans, Swedes, French, and other in velligible creatures who invariably spoke nothing but their own langaszes. The French, of course, were plain sailing with, but how he managed the others I cannot think. However, they were always satisfied with him," and" invar-inlily went away ug.
How sick one got of making sandbags Everything was sicriticed to them.—A!l the curtains, bedhangings, rolls of new stuff, everything oven to table linen which some of thes" zoo. hoys of students sve from their stock. Sheets and bed linen were reserved for the hospital.
The first days of the size we were kept alive by fires, first at the south and then at the north end of the Legation, the latter being thy Hanlin, which was set fire to by the Chinese as a last attempt to fire out! Forrunately and most providentially, what might have been our greatest danger was converted by the timely change of the wind to our greatest safeguard and blessing The building nearest to the north stables of the Legation in the Hanlin had been ignited and was burning fiercely, when, as T said, the wind veered and instead' of being 'a menace ta us turned the flames ok on the Ha lin itself. By that time being the thied fire scare the fir"
had gat. to know its business well), s_ playing on the nearest Lozatiao roof. AMI of us had to help to clear the bouring plies of inflemm=bl+ {staffs and T don't know how we dia it. but {haze packing-cases were token out all the way round the Macdonalds' house and plumpe? on the lwn, You sce, all the men were busy, cutting away, and generally doing fire drill. All the windows and doors of the outhouses were taken off, and so we women folk who were not in the line for passing buckets had to clear the stables! Fortunately, the the-sets had been pi IV eursile the tion in the Fu after the fire near the South stables, so there was no fear of a stampede. All this time there was sniping going on, Dut our men worked heroically, thinking only of getting the fire down, They, were ow rods and te exposed, yet fortunately not one was hit!
This was only one day's experience, and Tdun'ckuow how Tdlristed mre telling it! was one most exciting—after that came the harder task for us non-fearfully-busy nes of seeing the others working hard and not having so much todo. What I meant to say was that we had no startling excitement after that! The missionaries did wonders in organising Committees for different things, and the ladies—doctors too—beeane nurses in the h-spital. where they were always too well occupied. Mr. Norris, as everyone knew he would, turned out tramps, working hard as all the men did at barricades, keeping watch, sitting up at night with fever patients, and all through doing his own especial duty in spite of fatigue, Mr. Allen also was wonderful. He is not at all strong, but slaved as long as he was allowed to at filling and carrying sandboys, ete. until he got knocked up: as soon as he was better be went and helped in the hospital. But the people who did well, all did, and so willingly. working hard' all day at perfectly Inck breaking work, and keeping watch at night. When T said that the fire at the Hanlin turned out to be our greatest bless-me. T ferret to add that it was heeanse throuch the burning of the houses there the Chinese, having no cover, had to keep to the further flouses, and we took that portion of the Hanlin, and thus enlarged and pushed forward our points of defence, also getting access to another well.
Mftor the other Lewations hai moved into the British Miss Brazier moved to the Miedonals, She was vt once made house keeper and had to cater for 34 people Ry no means an easy taste in' piping times of pence—imagine what it was in sieqo times when half rations" was the order of the day, with hungry men coming in from veritable hard labour. Sha was wonderfully clever in organising changes pony flesh, For future quidance—only T hope yon will never go through a though fam sure if yen only knew the excitement and interest you have Just yon would agree with mein saving that it is nota thing to he missed for worlds—riggales are the hest way of conking it. Fancy arranging mens without not custards as in the adyer-fisement, for we had "bird powder," but: that way kept for the sick nenple and children. By the by, we learnt the difference between the two words ennuyer" and "fatiguer" most thoroughly: we never had time to feel the first, and the second never gave us time not to feel it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.