enclosures, where no one might penetrate. What a pity it had been
stopped....

I rode off, bearing away some flags and swords, and, making due east,
as last reached some broad avenues near the Eastern Gates of this
Forbidden City.... Fresh masses of moving men now appeared. The main
body of French infantry I had seen a couple of hours before were being
marched in here, while smaller bodies were tramping off to the north,
and sappers were blowing down walls to clear their way. As I ambled
along, seeking a way out, a couple of officers galloped up to me, and,
touching their helmets, begged me in the name of goodness to tell them
what was being done. What were the general orders, they wanted to
know. I explained to them that nobody knew anything; that as far as I
could see, the Americans had stopped attacking for good; that the
Indian troops were already marching out into the Chinese city; and
that nothing more was to be done, as the other columns had been
completely lost touch with.

"_Toujours cette confusion, toujours pas d'ordres,"_ the French
officers angrily commented, and in a few words they told me rapidly
how from the very start at Tientsin it had been like this, each column
racing against the others, while they openly pretended to co-operate;
with everyone jealous and discontented. Where were the Russians, the
Italians, and the Germans? I answered that I had not the slightest
idea, and that nobody knew, or appeared to care at all. I personally
was going on; I had had enough of it....

To my surprise, as I turned to go, I found that the men of the
Infanterie Coloniale, in their dirty-blue suits, had pushed up as
close as possible to overhear what was being said, and now surrounded