It was all the guards' fault. Telegrams despatched in the morning from Tientsin distinctly told us that the guards were entraining; later news said the guards had actually started; and yet when we were almost through dinner, and it was nearly ten o'clock, there was not a sign of them. That was the distressing point, and in the end, as it thrust itself more and more on people's attention, the first great valour began to ooze. For although the Guardian of the Nine Gates--a species of Manchu warden or grand constable of Peking--has been officially warned that foreign guards, whose arrival has been duly authorised by the Tsung-li Yamen, may be a little late and that consequently the Ch'ien Men, or the Middle Gate, should be kept open a couple of hours longer, the chief guardian may become nervous and irate and incontinently shut the gates. This alone might provoke an outbreak. This train of thought once started, we busily followed it up, and soon all the wives were sighing in unison more heavily than ever. I shall always remember what happened at that psychological moment. A strip of red-lined native writing-paper was placed in somebody's hands with a long list of the different detachments which had just passed in through the Main Gate. At last the guards had arrived. Speedily we became very valorous again. P---- afterwards said that he knew something which he had not dared to tell any one--not even his secretaries. From this little list, it was soon clear that the British, French, Russian, American, Italian, and Japanese detachments had arrived. The Germans and the Austrians were missing, but we concluded that they would arrive by another train within very few hours. The important point was that men had been allowed to come through--that the Chinese Government, in spite of its enormous capacity for mischief, could not yet have made up its mind how to act. That consoled us. After this, a faint-hearted attempt was made to continue our talk. But it was no good. We soon discovered that each one of us had been simulating a false interest in our never-ending discussion. We really wished to see with our own eyes these Legation Guards who might still save the situation. Strolling out in the warm night, just as we were, we first came on them in the French Legation. The French detachment were merely sailors belonging to what they call their _Compagnies de debarquement_, and they were all brushing each other down and cursing the _sacree poussiere_. Such a leading _motif_ has this Peking dust become that the very sailors notice it. Also we found two priests from Monseigneur F----'s Cathedral, sitting in the garden and patiently waiting for the Minister's return. I heard afterwards that they would not move until P---- decided that twenty-five sailors should march the next day to the Cathedral--in fact at daylight.