Under the Dragon Flag / My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War

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 unt

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

ies of their victims. It was fearful to see those gory forms struggling in the agitated water, those who still lived endeavouring to extricate themselves from the mass of corpses, falling fast, but often rising again with their last energies, streaming with water and blood, and uttering piteous cries and appeals for mercy, which were mocked by the fiends around them. Many women were amongst them; one I noticed carrying a little child, which, struggling forward, she held up to the soldiers as if in appeal. As she reached the bank, one of the wretches struck her t

soldiers with a number of unfortunates whom they had tied back to back in a batch. With volley after volley they despatched them, and proceeded to mutilate their bodies in the usual horrible fashion. Nobody was spared,

rter of an hour, and then, judging that the Jap must have left when unable to find me, I prepared to sally forth again, as it was rather more dangerous to be in the houses than in the streets, the soldiers entering and pillaging them one by one, and of course slaughtering anybody they found within. No sooner, however, had I got to the front, than I unexpectedly encountered the very man who had driven me in, retiring laden with booty. He dropped his plunder at once upon seeing me, and handled his bayonet to run me throug

n to have an uneasy feeling that it would be a miracle if I escaped destruction anyhow. I immediately acted on the inspiration. The soldier, I have said, was nearly of my own height (5 ft. 6 in.), but I was a good deal broader across the shoulders, and I made an extensive split up the back of his tunic in struggling into it. That, however, was no great matter, and I was soon equipped in all his outer casement, except his

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,

s 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 p

y 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 clear

,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 wa

n the rooms close below us, with the ghastly probability, almost the certainty, that another hour or two would join us in their horrid fate. To myself, the reckless, wasted past presented itself, in that situation of appalling terrors, in all its enormity. There was I, after throwing away the high advantages of fortune and prosperity, a ruined and degraded man, about to meet an appropriate end

e-lit, and Chung, who knew the way best, took it and went ahead. I still wore the soldier's dress; if met and challenged, I proposed to make it ap

all remember, with unfading horror, the aspect of those remnants of mortality, in all the hideousness stamped upon them by the unnamable atrocities practised during that diabolical orgy of murder and mutilation, rape, lust, and rapine. This is war! Away, in the splendid pavilion of the vanquished, the conquering marshal, surrounded by his generals and officers, was installed in triumph, secure of his country's applause and his emperor's favour; but here, amid these desolated homes, these mutilated heaps of d

traversed, the half-naked body of a woman, which had been split open from the abdomen to the chest. The elder man glared upon me, in the dim light, with the expression of a tiger, and drawing a long curved knife from his breast, and pointing at me, shouted something t

where it was impossible that its glimmer could be seen from the street. Crouching in the deep shadow, we anxiously awaited the passing of the soldiers, whose voices we heard momentarily approaching, shouting at their full pitch a discordant song, accompanied by a loud ringing sound which at first I mistook for that of some instrument. They were soon abreast of us, some twenty or thirty in number. I scarcely breathed as the ferocious band went trooping past. Their appearance was ghastly and terrible beyond conception. They were literally reeking from the shambles of inhuman butchery; their clothes and weapons were smeared and clotted with blood; some held human heads aloft on their bayonets; the lanterns which most of them carried, and swung to and fro

the entrails of the mutilated bodies. The arms and legs as well as heads had been hacked off some of them and flung about the place. Altogether a more hideous and revolting spectacle than this chamber of horrors can never have been presented to mortal gaze. Such a scene, and the sickening smell of blood, drove us out again almost immediately. At that moment another party of the Japanese passed our hiding-place. An infantry soldier in advance carried a large uncovered flambeau, which threw a broad, red, steady glare over all surrounding objects. I at once saw that these were all officers, excepting two or three; smart, well-got-up, gentlemanly-looking little men in the extreme; returning, perhaps, from calling off the last of their bloody war-dogs, or making sure that all resistance had ceased. They were laughing and chatting gaily, as if the massacre were rather a pleasant affair than otherwise. When they had gone by, we issued into the street, but had proceeded only a few paces when we saw a man carrying a lantern appear round the abrupt bend before mentioned. He looked like another Japanese hurrying after his companions who had just passed. We returned with all haste to the doorway; and as we judged that he had probably seen us, we re-entered the inner slaughter-house and closed the door. We were right in thinking we had been seen, and in about a minute we heard steps outside the door, which was presently thrust violently open and the soldier entered, a low, sinister figure, holding a drawn sword in what seemed to me a curiously white hand. He peered into the obscurity, perceived me, and doubtless taking me, in the uncertain light, for a Japanese, from the clothes I wore, lowered his weapon and addressed me in a harsh authoritative tone. The sound of the language was singularly like that of Italian. He pointed to the Chinamen, probably asking what they were. I took advantage of his unguarded pause to plunge my bayonet in his body, with a thrust so rapid that he had not time to make the least movement to avoid it. He fell at once where he stood, but attempted t

d simultaneously the apparent corpse rose up, a tall, blood-besmeared figure, which stared horribly upon me for a moment and then, with another loud and horrid groan, fell prone on his back, his arms widely extended. I lost no time in scrambling past him after my companions, who had run away, and small blame to them, for it was like the rising of a corpse suddenly endowed with volition. Both were by this time in what has been forcibly and picturesquely described as a "blue funk"; they trembled ceaselessly; their teeth ch

en pursued down to where the junk lay, and slaughtered before they could get it off. It struck me that what we were looking for, a boat, might in all probability be found on board the fatal vessel. It lay heeled over broadside to the beach, and I waded out to it through the shallow water. I gained the upper deck with some difficulty and stood amidst the mass of carnage. Rifle-balls had done the work of death. Many of the bodies were in army uniforms. I could find only two boats. One, a mere cockle-shell, had been perforated by bullets and rendered useless. Another lay inboard on the quarter-deck, but it was so filled and covered with corpses that at first I did not notice it. It seemed in fair condition, but the task of ridding it of its horrible freight was so repugnant that I

e very unlike anything else in the world and need some practice to use. We were, however, close to the entrance of the port, which being defended by torpedoes and mines, we ran little risk of encountering Japanese vess

in Port Arthur, and that our only chance, slender as it seemed at best, consisted in getting as far away

nt. We had painfully made a couple of miles from the estuary of the harbour, when we came upon a large junk stranded on a sand-bank. There were no lights showing on board her; in the obscurity we could see nobody; yet she did not look like a wreck, and at first we did not know what to make of it. After a consultation, it was decided to fire a shot from the rifle and see what it would lead to. No sooner had the report rung out, than there was a bustle and stir on the vessel's decks, which appeared suddenly to swarm with men, and became illuminated by lanterns. I told Chung to hail. He did so, and a voice replied in Chinese. We drew close abreast, and my companions held a parley with those on board. Our situa

unk's side. I slept far into the day, and when I emerged found that she had been successfully fl