“Passing along the sunken road between the city wall and some high ground on which houses were built, I could hear the shouts of Russians mingled with screams proceeding from the houses. There was a sheer drop of considerable height between the walls of the houses and the stony road below. At the base of the cliff two Chinese girls were lying. Their legs were bundled under them in a way that showed they had jumped from the height above. From their richly embroidered silken tunics and trousers, their elaborate coiffure and their compressed ( feet, they were evidently ladies. They were moaning piteously, and one of them appeared to be on the point of death. Their legs or hips had apparently been broken or dislocated by their jump. As I went towards them, the one who appeared least injured, shrank from me with an expression of loathing and horror, until I offered her a drink out of my water-bottle. Her delicate, childish, little hand trembled violently on mine as she drank eagerly from it. The other was almost too far gone to swallow. The hoarse cries of the soldiers, mingled occasionally with a sobbing scream, came from the houses above, telling what they had tried so desperately to escape from. They lay there helpless, evidently in excruciating pain under a brazen sun that beat down on the deserted, dusty road. There was no one within reach to come to their assistance. And there was nothing for it but to leave them there, as many under similar circumstances had had to be left during our previous march of several days. This scene was typical rather than singular.”