in this rambling account is the unbalanced condition. Except in two or
three places we can be rushed in ten minutes.




III

FIRES AND FOOD


24th June, 1900.

* * * * *

I am convinced that not only does everything come to him who knows how
to wait, but that sooner or later everybody meets with their deserts.

The British Legation, allowed to sink into a somewhat somnolent
condition owing to its immunity from direct attack, has been now
rudely awakened. Fires commencing in earnest yesterday, after a few
half-hearted attempts made previously, have been raging in half a
dozen different places in this huge compound; and one incendiary,
creeping in with the stealthiness of a cat, threw his torches so
skilfully that for at least an hour the fate of the Ministerial
residences hung in the balance, and Ministerial fears assumed alarming
proportions. Again I was satisfied; everybody should sooner or later
meet with their deserts.

I have already said how the British Legation is situated. Protected on