Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/444

 the capital, the deliverance of the besieged, and the occupation of Peking. It is not possible to give a detailed narrative these events, but it will illustrate the inveterate and all-embracing hostility of the Chinese to note the experience of two of the persons who underwent the dangers and privations of the siege. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, an American, and Sir Robert Hart, an Englishman, had each spent more than fifty years in China, the greater portion of this time in the service of the Chinese government. Martin was a scholar of rare attainments, who had translated various works on international law and kindred topics into Chinese, and for many years had presided over the Imperial University. He was pronounced by Minister Denby "the foremost American in China." Sir Robert Hart had taken charge of the Chinese customs service, brought order out of confusion, supplanted wholesale corruption with strict honesty and accountability; had from insignificant proportions made its resources largely support the government and pay its foreign indebtedness; and had been the trusted and able adviser of the cabinet and the most useful official in China. But when the storm broke upon the capital the angry mob of Boxers and soldiers, thirsting for the blood of the despised foreigner, assaulted, plundered, and burned to ashes the residences of those two public servants, Martin and Hart escaping only with their lives and the clothes on their backs to the legation quarters. All their services to the government counted as nothing with the infuriated demons.