The object of this volume is to enable the reader in some degree to appreciate the difficulties, dangers, and triumphs of one of the most important marches ever made, and the only one of its kind recorded in history.<br><br>The sole excuse for undertaking the march with twenty thousand men fewer than military experts deemed necessary for the capture of Peking in the middle of the "rainy season" is to be found in the urgency of the situation. It was daring in the extreme, and had it ended in failure would have been characterised as a foolhardy undertaking. But we still believe that "one man with God is a majority"; and there were so many clear exhibitions of divine interposition during the march, that I give the glory to God for the saving of the eight hundred precious lives.