side they were at length over, and then their opponents took to flight
round the right-hand side of the hill. I stayed only to see this, and
plunged down the rear. It was growing dusk, and I had numerous narrow
escapes of breaking my neck in the deep and rugged hollows, some of
them almost ravines, which seam that side of the elevation.

The town was now at the mercy of the conquerors. The Chinese were
running from the Golden Hill fort as I descended, without an effort at
defending it, and the water beyond was covered with boats and small
craft filled with fugitives, mostly the dastardly troops, who threw
away arms and uniforms as they ran. For incompetence and cowardice
commend me for the future to Chinese soldiers. The twenty thousand of
them who occupied Port Arthur contrived to kill about sixty of their
antagonists on November 21, with all the best modern weapons at their
disposal. And these are the men who, according to Lord Wolseley and
other critics, are some day to start out to conquer the earth! Let,
says Lord Wolseley, a Napoleon arise amidst this vast people, and we
shall see. But is an essentially unwarlike nation at all likely to
breed a Napoleon, or to supply him with openings for a career? Who
ever heard of a Chinese conqueror? Have they ever appeared otherwise
than as the most self-centred and unenterprising people in the world,
displaying the least possible aptitude for the career of arms? And
from what source, after thousands of years of such characteristics,
are they to bring forth the material for this sudden burst of
conquering militarism?




CHAPTER VI