In open-necked blue shirt, with bags under his eyes, the US ambassador, Mr James Sasser, emerged from his paint-spattered embassy in Beijing yesterday at the end of a siege which lasted three days and 19 hours.
Accompanied only by a group of officials he left by a side gate and walked wearily by the front of the neighbouring Irish Embassy, where dozens of green-uniformed police squatted on stools beneath tourism posters for Galway Bay.
I encountered him there by chance. As he strolled across the road in warm sunshine he told me this was his first time outside the embassy since the anti-NATO protesters appeared on Saturday afternoon to hurl abuse and rocks at the embassy.
They had stopped coming on Tuesday evening and he had emerged "because it looks like the situation is under much better control".
Of his time in the building he said: "We ate a lot of combat rations - the marine corps had those in there - and we stayed on the phone almost all the time. We were very busy."
The embassy was so badly damaged it would remain closed for a time. "There's got to be a lot of rehabilitation there," he said, "so I don't know."
We were joined by a Chinese reporter who came rushing up and asked for his comments on the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
"Well, we feel great remorse for the victims of the bombing," he told her, choosing his words carefully. "It's a source of great sadness, I think, for all of us, for Americans and Chinese. We wish to extend our sincere condolences, our most sincere apologies. It's a very tragic, terrible event. It was an awful mistake. And that's all we can say, we're just very, very sorry."
It emerged yesterday that the ambassador and his colleagues in the embassy had been provided with 19 sleeping bags by the British ambassador and that these were passed over the Irish Embassy garden wall early in the siege. Mr Sasser said he harboured no ill-will toward the students who showered stones, bottles, paint and occasional fire bombs on the embassy, though he had had some bad moments.
"There were times, especially on Sunday, when it appeared that the police lines might not hold and we were very anxious and very worried," he said. "But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to tell us that they would ensure our personal safety. I guess our real question was whether or not they were fully aware of the magnitude of the crowds and the intensity of the crowds."
The US embassy and all other NATO missions in Beijing flew their flags at half-mast yesterday as a mark of respect for the three victims of the NATO air strike whose ashes arrived in Beijing yesterday.
They were brought by special plane from Belgrade along with 20 wounded people, all but one of whom were able to walk along a red carpet to a fleet of ambulances for transport to a city hospital.
They were greeted by the VicePresident, Mr Hu Jintao, who shook hands with a man on a stretcher swathed in bandages.
"I welcome you back home on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council," he said, shaking the injured man's free hand.
Bereaved relatives, dressed in black with white flowers in their lapels, carried the flag-draped wooden coffins while a guard of honour with gleaming bayonets goose-stepped slowly in front of other relatives carrying portraits of the victims.
A banner at the airport read: "Strongly condemn the barbaric, violent attack on our embassy in Yugoslavia by US-led NATO".
The remains were taken through the city in a motorcade of black sedans without drawing much attention. The ashes of Mr Xu Xinghu (31) and his wife, Zhuying (28), who worked for the Guangming Daily, were taken to their Beijing home, and those of Ms Shao Yunhuan (48) to the Xinhua news agency which she represented. There the President, Mr Jiang Zemin, and other leaders attended a memorial service.
The authorities did not publish details of their arrival, signalling it was not to be an occasion for new demonstrations.
Beijing was calm yesterday, with a sense that the fury of the people had exhausted itself like a summer storm. Emotions are still running high, but foreigners are again able to walk the city streets.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, on a one-day visit, expressed profound regrets to the Chinese leaders but admitted that the incident had made it impossible for him to have meaningful discussions about the Balkans war with the Chinese side.