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272 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
were crouching, and the machine guns lying in
wait to do their deadly work. It was a sight to
send a shiver through the bravest man.
After Lieutenant-General Tsuchiya was seriously
wounded in the battle of November 26th, the
nth Division got a new commander. His name
was Sameyeda. He was a general of engineers,
attached to the general staff in Tokyo, and had
originally been sent here to report on the progress
of the engineering works in front of Port Arthur.
He was a rather queer-looking fellow, very short
of stature even for a Japanese, with a spare,
wiry frame, long-armed, and with strong, sinewy
hands, and an odd, old face, all wrinkled and
furrowed, with skin like parchment, but with a
pair of young, watchful eyes, looking keen as
daggers. His officers had the greatest respect
for him.
“ He is very strong,” they told me ;
“ he can
still throw the best of us, and he is very brave.”
This man had made up his mind that he would
take North Kikuan fort, or die in the attempt.
On the day of the attack he had bathed and
washed, put on clean underwear, and donned his
best uniform, with all his orders and medals. It
is an old saying amongst the Japanese that, as
they always fight like gentlemen, they want to
die as gentlemen, dressed like gentlemen. This
scrupulous toilet was therefore to his subordinates
the outward sign of his firm determination.
When the men of the 22nd regiment were
drawn up under the parapet ready for the assault.
General Sameyeda made a tour of inspection
along their lines. The appearance of the men
did not satisfy him.
“ I read fear in their faces,” he said to me later,
“ so I ordered them back.”
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