592 JAPANESE WAR ARTISTS AT WORK AT THE FRONT.

CHAPTER X, THE CAPTURE OF THE TOV N AND WHAT FOLLOWED. BY half-past twelve the hills round Port Arthurwerein possession of the Japanese army. Their artillery was being dragged up to the summits to order to concentrate its fire on the Golden Hill. On all the forts on theridgeand theplateau exceptonetheJapanese flag was flying,andthat oneexception wasamass of blackened and smokingruins. The wayinto the town lay across the wide open space of the parade ground below the north ridge, a space partly surroundedby lowwalls;beyond,the road ran overalittle riverbya narrowbridge,beyond whichopenedthe main street of the town. The houses,light buildings,mostly withoutanupper storey,werecrowdedalongthefurther sideof the stream. High above them towered theGolden Hill, from which the Chinese gunners were making good practice at any Japanese that showed near the parade ground.

Across this open space the Japanese infantry were exchanging rifle fire with two bodies of Chinese, who held a couple of shelter trenches nearthe houses just beyondthe streamand onthe slope of " Cairn Hill" north of thesuburb. The Japanesestaff was anxious to do as little injury as possible to the town and dockyard. To have bombarded them would have been to risk a fire that might have destroyed the very workshops, stores and machinery they hoped to secure for the use of their own navy. So the guns were levelledonly against thehostile batteries on the Golden Hill, and to the infantry was assigned the task ofclearing the town of the enemy. The Second Regiment, which had not yet been engaged,wasordered to attack across theparade ground At first they made very little progress. So heavy was the fire of the Chinese, whoheld the approaches to the bridge, that it was thought they must be armedwith repeating rifles. But gradually, notwithstanding severe loss, tlae infantry men worked their way close up to the stream, advancing under some cover which they found to left or right of the open spaceof the parade,here slipping behind a low wall,there crawling along a ditch. So the rifle fire directed across the stream at the Chinese gradually increasedin intensity,as moreand moremencame up. A little before three a battalion extended across the parade ground and crossedit in alternaterushes, tlae men kneeling to fire. As they ne.ired the bridge they closed into a small column and dashed across. The Chinese did not waitfor them. They fled down the lanes of the