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Page 20
I was undecided enough how to proceed. I might pass out into the open
country north of the town, but if I did so I should probably either
die of starvation or get killed as a Japanese straggler. I began to
think my best course would be to return to the port, and take my
chance of getting away in some small vessel. First of all, however, I
resolved to complete my intention of seeing what was going on at the
inn, to which I was now quite close. I kept boldly on, and my disguise
answered admirably, not one of the soldiers seeming to suspect that I
was anything but a comrade. Now and then I would be greeted by wild
cries in their high, shrill voices, or one, waving his rifle, would
shout something as he passed. I returned the greetings in dumb show,
and hurried on. I do not know how it would have fared with me in broad
daylight; probably not nearly so well; but it was now nearly dark.
Most of the soldiers had provided themselves, to light the work of
slaughter and pillage, with one of those coloured lanterns which are
to be found in such profusion in Chinese towns, and their demoniac
aspect was greatly heightened by the illuminations they carried as
they flitted to and fro. The butchery was proceeding without the
least sign of abatement; shots, shouts, shrieks, and groans resounded
on every side; the streets presented a fearful spectacle; the ground
was saturated with blood, and everywhere strewn with horribly
mutilated corpses; some of the narrower avenues were positively choked
with carnage. The dead were mostly the townspeople; their valiant
defenders seemed to have been able to make themselves scarce; where
they all got to is a mystery to me; perhaps owing to the fact that
they got rid of their uniforms early in the proceedings in order not
to be identified as combatants, a dodge that must have served them
very little, as the conquerors killed everyone they came across.
At length I reached Sen's house, only to find that the destroyer had
been there. The place was in darkness; I took down the lantern from
over the outer gate, with the name of the inn and its proprietor's
written on it in the Chinese character, lit it, and began an
inspection. The first thing I saw was the corpse of my landlord
himself, lying in the covered court. His head was almost severed, and
he had been disembowelled. Most of the lower storey rooms had doors
opening into this court; across the threshold of one lay the corpse of
a female servant, mutilated in an unspeakable manner. The household
establishment consisted in all of some ten or twelve persons, and
eight of them I found lying murdered in different parts of the
premises. There was no sign of living presence anywhere. The place had
been thoroughly ransacked, and everything worth having carried off. My
blood boiled as I surveyed the scene of desolation and massacre, where
lately I had witnessed happiness and cheerful industry, and I felt
that I could willingly have died myself on the spot to obtain
vengeance on the murderers.
In one of the upper rooms there was a bamboo ladder and trap leading
on the roof, which was flat, and it occurred to me to ascend and look
round. It was quite dark, and there was little to be seen beyond the
limits of the street. Distant illuminations marked the positions of
the forts on the surrounding heights. The seaward ones were still in
possession of the Chinese. They fell easily on the following day, and
had been practically abandoned. I noticed that the sounds of violence
in the town were rapidly decreasing. As I walked slowly round, the dim
light of my lantern fell on two figures skulking in the shadow. They
retreated as I advanced, until they could back no further, and then
one of them fell on his knees before me, bowing his forehead on the
roof with abject cries. I held the lantern towards him, and to my
astonishment recognized Chung. He evidently did not know me, and no
wonder, considering the manner in which I had rigged myself out. He
seemed half out of his wits with fear, and I had some difficulty in
forcing the fact of my identity upon his conviction. Then his delight
was as great as his previous terror. His companion was a stranger to
him--a man of exceedingly gentlemanly and prepossessing appearance,
and clearly a person of condition, being, in fact, as I afterwards
found, a mandarin. His own residence had been sacked and his family
murdered. He and a brother had escaped into the street, were pursued,
and his relative shot in running away. Though with his left arm broken
by a bullet, he had run into the inn. When the soldiers entered it he
and Chung got on to the roof, where none of the Japanese thought of
looking for victims. His broken arm was causing him considerable
suffering, and having acquired during my knock-about life some rude
knowledge of surgery, I put the fracture together, and made a sling
with my neck-tie.
I explained my situation to Chung as well as I was able; he translated
to his countryman, who knew no English, and we held a council as to
future proceedings. The work of slaughter had apparently been
suspended; either the soldiers were tired of it or had been recalled.
The Japanese forces exceeded 20,000, and of these I do not think that
more than one half, perhaps not one third, were engaged in this first
evening's work, which was only the opening scene of the massacre.
Masses of the troops had been placed to occupy the forts, and
otherwise secure the conquest. We thought it likely, as indeed was the
case, that they would all withdraw to the camps outside as the night
advanced, and we resolved to attempt to gain the water-side, and seek
a last chance of escape, under cover of darkness. We searched the
place for food, but all we could find was a little bread, and a few
prepared sweetmeat cakes.
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