did not disgorge I would blow out his brains on the spot. I remember I
pushed my short barrel right into his face, and held it there grimly,
with my finger on the trigger. That at least he understood. There was
a moment of suspense, during which I had ample time to realise that I
would be bayonetted and shot to pieces by the others if I carried out
my threat. It was ugly; I did not like it. At the last moment,
fortunately, my fellow relented, and throwing sullenly what he had
taken to the ground, he shouldered his rifle and left the place. The
others followed with mutterings and grumbles, and the women being now
safe, began barricading the entrance of their house against other
marauders. They were green-white with fear. They feared these Indian
troops....

That same night, very late, a transport corps, composed of Japanese
coolies, in figured blue coats, belonging to some British regiment,
came in hauling a multitude of little carts; and within a few minutes
these men were offering for sale hundreds of rolls of splendid silks,
which they had gathered on their way through the city. You could get
them for nothing. Some one who had some gold in his pocket got an
enormous mass for a hundred francs. The next day he was offered ten
times the amount he had paid. In the dark he had purchased priceless
fabrics from the Hangchow looms, which fetch anything in Europe. Great
quantities of things were offered for sale after that as quickly as
they could be dragged from haversacks and knapsacks. Everybody had
things for sale. We heard then that everything had been looted by the
troops from the sea right up to Peking; that all the men had got
badly out of hand in the Tientsin native city, which had been picked
as clean as a bone; and that hundreds of terrible outrages had come to
light. Every village on the line of march from Tientsin had been
treated in the same way. Perhaps it was because there had been so