After we were all in we asked the soldiers on guard to let us go once more through the house set aside for the Chinese. We feared some might have been left behind. At first they said no, but finally gave us five minutes, and we fairly flew from court to court and room to room. At last we reached one of the schoolrooms, and there in the dark, crouched among the seats, were two women and four little children. “Why are you here, did you not get the message? Hurry, hurry, or we shall be too late!” were our questions and exclamations. “Yes,” they said, “we did, but we were afraid our children would cry and endanger all the others. Our babies are sick and cry all the time and we thought it better that we die outside than to make others suffer with us.” It [[91]]took but a moment to get the story, get them out from under the seat, and on the way to the chapel. We promised to help them with their little ones and their look of gratitude was most touching. The fathers of these children were out protecting the courts, and the two brave women were ready to die rather than seek shelter when in so doing they might endanger and bring disaster upon others. When they decided to stay outside they were as true martyrs as any who went to the block. They gave up their lives in order, as they thought, to save others. “Greater love hath no man than this.”
“For such Death’s portal opens not in gloom,
But its pure crystal, hinged on solid gold,
Shows avenues interminable—shows
Amaranth and palm quivering in sweet accord
Of human, mingled with angelic, song.”
[[92]]
LITERARY GLORY
“Give me the grace to bear my burden so