THE MASSACRE. 593 town, throwing away their weapons. About the same time the fire ceased from the Golden Hill, and the fort was abandoned. Only the sea forts on the promontory of the " Tiger's Tail" still flew the dragon flag of China, and exchanged a slow fire at long range with the fleet.

Port Arthur,notwithstanding all its elaborate fortifications, had been taken in less than nine hours, and with a loss of life that, considering the nature of the enterprise,might be described as trifling. It was a glorious day for the Japanese arms, but now unhappily began a scene which, whateverexcuse may be made for the soldiers, sadly dimmed the fame of their victory. On O'Brien (the military attaches), with three correspondents,watchedthis firing from aheight overlooking the town, from which every street and alley lay as in a map before them. These gentlemen saw no opposition to the troops, nor were there any shots fired from the houses on Oyama's soldiers. The unfortunate shopkeepers andcitizens, standing at their doors, by virtueof Oyama's pacific proclamations, ready to receive the soldiers with expressions of welcome, were ruthlessly shot down on their very thresholds. . . . At Port Arthur the citizens, in virtue of Oyama's proclamation, were looking forward to theoccupation of the town with equanimity. Shopkeepers were killed in the act of kowthe 19th, as the Japanese marched towards Port Arthur, they had found beside the road some headless and mutilated bodies of comrades who had falleninto the hands of the Chinese in the skirmish of the day before, in which the cavalry of the advanced guard had been so unfortunate. Ominous threats of vengeance to be taken on the Chinese were uttered bv the men who found them, andnow they were sadly reminded of the treatment their comrades towing. The smile of welcome yet lingered on their pallid faces. Mr. Hart,ofReuter'sAgency, wasinstrumental inallaying the fears of many of the inhabitants,and persuading them to remain in the city, for he had heardof themercifultreatment of unarmed people by the Japanese. But the cutting and carving craze had seized the troops, and no mercy was shown."

The foreign attaches and the correspondents, comparing notes in the LIEUT.-GENERAL VISCOUNT N0DZU.

had undergone, for, as the Second Regiment rushed the bridge, they saw a Japanese head nailed by the car to the side of a house, and some other trophies of the same ghastly kind hanging from a tree, fastened by a string passed through their lips. Infuriated by the sight, the men of the Second Regiment gave no quarter to the Chinese soldiers, who, once the bridge was stormed, made no further attempt at resistance. But this was not all. Not only werethe soldierskilled— shot, or bayonetted or sabred— wherever they were found, even when they had thrown away their arms andput oncivilian attire, but the people of the town weremercilessly slaughtered.

"The soldiers." writes Mr. Frederic Villiers, " presumably maddened by the ghastly sight of the mutilated heads of their comrades,lost touch ot their officers and commenced shooting every living thing they met in the streets. Captain Du Boulay, Colonel Taylor, and Lieutenant evening, generally adopted the view that these horrible scenes were the unfortunate result of the troops getting out of hand in the excitement of their victory, and in their indignation at the barbarous way in which their comrades had been treated. But next morning they were horrified at finding that the butchery was still going on, and that Oyama andhis generals were making no effort to stop it. Some of the friends of Japan have tried to make out that the story of the massacre was a wildexaggeration, due to the sensationalism of the warcorrespondents; butunhappily there can beno doubt that,if anything,thecorrespondents, who had experienced much courtesy at the hands of the Japanese officers, and who were themselves inspired with most friendly feelings towardsJapan,kept the most revolting features of what happened in the background,and wrote with studied moderation. To have been silent on the subject would havebeen to do no service 38