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Page 18
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
I directed my retreat towards the dockyards, with a view to getting
round to the south part of the town, as far as possible from the
quarter by which the Japanese were entering it. The idea of a general
massacre never entered my mind, and I only thought of getting back to
my inn, there to stay until things quieted down. My prevailing feeling
was one of satisfaction that I should not after all have to face a
long residence in a beleaguered town. I therefore paid little
attention at first to the fact that people were flying on every hand,
and I did not suppose that there could be any good reason for flight,
beyond the desirability of getting out of the way of the conquering
troops until the ardour of victory had cooled down. I was not long to
be left undeceived. A deadly work of vengeance and slaughter had
commenced Down the panic-crowded streets, louder and louder as I
advanced, came ringing the volleys of the rifle-fire, the shouts of
the infuriated soldiers, and the death-shrieks of their victims. I
knew that all armed resistance had been broken, and as these sounds of
terror increased, an idea of what might be imminent crossed my mind. I
recollected what so often follows the fall of a place carried by
storm; I remembered the atrocities committed on the Japanese
prisoners; and I remembered, too, the general character of all
Oriental soldiers. I paused to consider my situation. I had passed
round by the water-side until outside the dock basin, and then turned
into the streets, striking across in the direction of the inn, with
the route from which to the East Port I was well enough acquainted.
There was a rush and hurry of fugitives all around me, and now for the
first time I saw the Japanese soldiers in pursuit, pressing on the
fleeing throng, and using rifle and bayonet furiously on all and
sundry, stabbing and hacking fiendishly at those who fell. I was
knocked down in the rush and trampled upon, and it was some time
before I could rise. A Japanese soldier was near me as I staggered to
my feet, and took aim at me with his rifle. The barrel was within a
foot of me, and I struck it aside just in time to escape getting a
bullet through my body. I had no weapon but those of nature, but in
their use I was, like most of the Anglo-Saxon breed, something of an
artist, and before the Jap could recover his piece I gave him a good,
straight, British right-hander between the eyes, which sent him down
like a nine-pin. In all human probability it was the first sample of
the article that had ever come under his notice; he was clearly unused
to the method of attack, and lay quite flat as if to think it over,
whilst I retreated as fast as my legs could carry me. I resolved to
hold on for the inn, thinking that if I succeeded in reaching it, I
should be comparatively safe, as perhaps the outbreak of fury might
confine itself to the streets. I knew, too, that I had not much
farther to go. I made little progress, nevertheless, being frequently
turned out of the road by the necessity of avoiding the soldiers, who
were spreading fast across the town, shooting down all whom they
encountered. One began to stumble over corpses in nearly every street,
and the risk of encountering parties of the murderers increased, every
minute. Again and again I came into the midst of the work of butchery,
and every now and then ran the gauntlet of a flight of bullets fired
down the narrow avenues. At length I lost my way completely, and
wandered about through the pandemonium around, thinking that each
minute would be my last. At length, in emerging from a dark lane
leading up an ascent, I came upon a sheet of water. I immediately
recognized it as a large shallow fresh-water lake in the rear of the
dock basin, and it thus appeared that I had strayed back nearly to the
point where I had re-entered the town on descending from White
Boulders.
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