MITFORD'S JAPAN: Memories & Recollections 1866-1906, edited and introduced by Hugh Cortazzi. Japan Library, 2002 (revised edition), 307 pp., paper ($33)

"I jumped out of my palanquin more quickly than I ever in my life jumped out of anything, and rushed forward. There were pools of blood in the street, and I saw the murderer coming at me, by this time himself wounded, but not seriously, and full of fight. His sword was dripping and his face bleeding. I knew enough of Japanese swordsmanship to be aware that it was no use to try and avoid his blow so I rushed underneath his guard and wrenched the bleeding sword out of his grip."

And so by the grace of God and good reflexes, Algernon Betram Mitford lived to a ripe old age instead of dying in the streets of 19th-century Kyoto.

Mitford, later known as the first Lord Redesdale, watched the tumultuous Meiji Restoration unfold as a British diplomat serving in Japan from 1866 to 1870.