CHAPTER XVII
THE STORY OF THE SIEGE
After a short rest Sandwich continued his story.
“All day the Chinese kept coming up to our barricade. Many of themgot upon the roofs of the houses near and called out to us professingfriendship, and we were obliged to put up sign–boards, warning them inChinese against approaching too near to our outposts. Evidently thesoldiers themselves believed that there was an end to fighting, forsome of them actually sold their rifles and ammunition to the Japaneseat fifteen dollars apiece. Letters again passed between us and theChinese. Mr. Conger was allowed to send out a message in cypher. Hesaid that we had been besieged over a month, and that, unless strongmeasures were taken at once, we were all in danger of being massacred.”
“Well, that message really did get through,” Rex said. “It was thefirst positive information that was received in Tientsin that theLegations still held out. So convinced were the military authoritiesthat the Legations had fallen that there was no talk of sending arelief party, and it was proposed to wait till an army forty thousandor fifty thousand strong was collected. However, the receipt ofConger?s message made a great stir, and, as I told you, Gaselee andChaffee said that the English and Americans would go on whether theothers did or not, with the result that things were really pushed on inearnest from that moment.”
“The generals had no idea of the stuff we were made of,” saidSandwich. “However, to continue my story. The Chinese now requestedthat the foreign troops should stop hostilities and abandon the TartarWall. To this Sir Claude Macdonald replied by a recital of the eventsof the past month, and said that he could not retire from the wall,as the Chinese had repeatedly used it as a vantage–ground from whichto attack us. He repeated his assurance that the Chinese would not befired upon unless they first attacked us, and he added a request thatvendors of fruit and ice should be granted leave to sell their wares tous.
“We had all still very great doubts as to whether this state of thingswould continue, and the next morning there was a general expectationthat fighting would again begin. The Chinese soldiers, however,fearlessly approached our barricades, showing an absolute confidencethat we should observe the truce. One of their wounded soldiersactually came in and had his wound dressed by the foreign doctor.”
“During the day a secretary arrived from the yamen to interviewthe Ministers. He was received outside the gate. He said that thegovernment wished to protect foreigners, and that the German Minister?sbody had been recovered from the hands of those people who had murderedhim and enclosed in a valuable coffin.
“On that day a Chinaman who had been sent into the city returned withthe news that General Nieh was dead, and that on July 14th the foreigntroops took the native city at Tientsin. This news was duly posted.No doubt was felt that the armistice was the result of the capture ofTientsin. That completely explained matters. It had evidently beenregarded as certain that the Chinese troops at Tientsin would be ableto hold that city against all attacks, and prevent any foreign troopsfrom moving up towards Pekin. It must have been a frightful blow tothem to learn that a place which they considered impregnable had beencaptured after but one day?s fighting. It must have been an awful facerfor Prince Tung and the war party, and Ching and the moderates hadevidently again come to the front.
“The armistice continued. A few Chinese came in every day with eggs tosell, which they generally brought hidden in their clothes, declaringthat some people had been beheaded for dealing with us. As, however,they continued to come, this was considered only as a device forraising the price. The eggs were a great boon to the besieged, formany of the children suffered greatly from want of proper nourishment.Twice the yamen sent in a present of fruit and vegetables. These werean immense treat, and were divided with scrupulous fairness. Each timetwo melons fell to our share, and were eaten with solemn and almostreligious state. It was something like what I have heard takes placewhen a party of connoisseurs assemble to discuss two or three bottlesof Imperial Tokay of a famous year.
“But while this curious interlude lasted occasional shots were firedat us, and several men were wounded. The Chinese, moreover, thoughapparently so friendly, continued to strengthen and enlarge theirbarricades, and it was unsafe to move across open spaces in thedefended quarter.
“Now that our anxiety on our own account had lessened, we had time tothink of the defenders of the French cathedral. It was evident that thearmistice that we were enjoying was not shared by them, for from timeto time we could hear outbursts of distant firing. The French Ministerhad endeavoured in vain to communicate with his countrymen, and beyondthe fact that they still held out we knew nothing. Meanwhile letterswere constantly received from the yamen, all urging us to leave thecity and to retire to Tientsin, or at least to give up the Christianrefugees. To these requests answers were returned in language ofthe greatest moderation, explaining the difficulties of the course,pointing out that the attacks on the French cathedral continued, andthat shots were frequently fired on the Legation; never positivelyrefusing to do as the Chinese wished, but always making excuses for notdoing so. This method was in so far successful that the negotiationswere kept up until the allied army were within a day?s march of thecity.
“On July 27 the yamen tried to induce the Ministers to send all theChinese converts out of the Legations. Pekin, they said, was perfectlypeaceful, and as so large a number of converts crowded into so small aspace in the hot weather must be causing us considerable inconvenience,they advised that they should now return to their homes in peace andresume their usual occupations. As the coolies, however, had renderedinvaluable service during the siege, exposing themselves frequently todanger and labouring with unwavering zeal until evidently exhausted, itwas, of course, out of the question that they could be abandoned, andthe chief replied that as shots were still fired into the Legations,and the North Cathedral was still being attacked, he could notunderstand the assertions of the yamen that it would be safe for theChristians to leave the Legations, and asked for further information.
“The time passed very slowly with us. Colonel Shiba had bribed oneof the Imperial guards and he supplied us daily with news, whichafterwards turned out to be a pack of lies. On July 26th he reportedthat the allied troops had reached Yang–Tsun on the eighteenth, andthat on the twenty–fourth they had fought a battle ten miles south ofTsai–Tsun in which the Boxers were defeated. On the twenty–fifth theforce was at Ho–Hsi–Wu and had fought a battle lasting five hours, theChinese losing in killed and wounded twelve hundred men. Reports onthe twenty–seventh confirmed that news and said that there was a panicat Tung–Chow. All this of course caused a lot of excitement, but on thetwenty–eighth a rumour spread through the Legations that a messengerhad arrived with a letter from the British Consul at Tientsin. Ofcourse everyone went to the Bell Tower to hear the contents of thisletter. It said that twenty–four thousand troops had landed and thatthere were nineteen thousand at Tientsin, that the Boxer power hadexploded there and that there were plenty of troops on the way if wecould keep ourselves in food. You never saw such a mad crowd as wereassembled on that tower. Here were we expecting to be relieved in twoor three days, and now no one could say when the relief would arrive.The abuse poured on the British consul was absolutely unbounded. Weafterwards learned that we had reasons to be grateful rather thanthe reverse. Had he told us the truth, that the officers at Tientsinwere at that moment actually discussing whether it was possible tomake any advance until the rainy season was over, had he sent thisnews, there is no saying what would have happened. The disappointmentwould have been so great that we should probably have attempted somedesperate action, with the result that all the Europeans would havebeen massacred and also the Christian Chinese, to whom the handful offighting–men available would have been absolutely unable to affordprotection. Fortunately, however, we did not know this, and spent ourindignation upon the unfortunate consul, who, I hope, is none the worsefor the objurgations heaped upon his head.
“But though the
disappointment was great, the news woke us up, and anorder was at once issued for every household to send in a list of allthe stores in its possession, of tea, sugar, white rice, and otherluxuries. Up to that time, as you know, only rice, flour, and meat hadbeen supplied from the general store, every household having used whatit had collected at the beginning of the siege.
“On the same day the Chinese government issued an edict condemningtwo of the progressive members of the yamen to death. There was somefighting also, the Chinese persisting in erecting barricades acrossthe north bridge, which enabled them to enfilade the canal. We did notsucceed in preventing them from doing this. All sorts of rumours camein, but what they all meant no one could tell; some of the reportswere of the wildest nature. The only certain news we got was thatportions of the regular army had left, to aid in repulsing the reliefcolumn. Another effort was made by the Chinese to get Sir Robert Hartto telegraph to reassure the Foreign Minister as to the situation inPekin. This he refused to do, as such reassuring news might inducethem to pause before sending out a relief force. On the 1st of AugustColonel Shiba received a letter from Tientsin which changed the wholeaspect of affairs. It was dated Tientsin, and said that the advance ofthe troops was delayed by difficulties of transport, but that the startwould be made in two or three days.
“During all this time we had not been idle. We had strengthened thewall round the Legation and had dug a deep trench inside the west wall,to cut any mines that the Chinese might attempt to drive from thatquarter. We omitted one spot, however—the kitchen of the students?mess—and it was precisely at this spot that the Chinese afterwardsdrove a mine. One of the customs staff declared that he heard mendigging in that quarter, but no one believed him, Another defensivemeasure was the occupying and barricading of the ruins of the houses onthe Legation side of the market. A mail came in with several letterson the 2nd of August. The reports were contradictory, but it reallyseemed that the column was at last starting. The supplies had beenall stopped now and we were beginning to feel famine, especially theChristian Chinese, who were fed on a mixture of a little grain, choppedstraw, and other fodder. It was a very bad time. Except the buildingof the new defences there was nothing to be done. A good deal ofsharp–shooting was kept up, but the want of work made the delay hardto bear. The nurses were now suffering from sickness brought on fromoverwork.
“At five o?clock on August 10th a messenger arrived bearing lettersfrom General Gaselee to Sir Claude and from General Fukushima forColonel Shiba. Both letters were very brief. They were dated August8. ?A strong force of allies is advancing,? one said, ?twice defeatedenemy. Keep up your spirits.? The other confirmed this news, andmentioned the thirteenth or fourteenth as the probable date of theirarrival at Pekin.
“You may imagine the enthusiasm that this news excited. It was thefirst intimation we had received that the column had left Tientsin. Theattacks now became much more vigorous, and on the eleventh the attackon the French and German Legations was more severe than anything we hadexperienced. The attack on the Mongol Market was also very warm. Andall the time this was going on, the Chinese government were writingletters complaining of the attacks made upon them by the defenders.Towards evening the firing became even more furious; there was ageneral call to arms, and every man turned out. The fusillade died awaya little at midnight. At half–past two the boom of heavy guns and therattle of musketry were heard, and every man and woman in the Legationgot up to hear the welcome sound which told that the relief force hadarrived outside the city.”
“The enemy then made a last desperate attack. Everyone rushed to hispost again, but although the firing was tremendous and we could hearthe Chinese officers shouting to their men to charge, nothing cameof it, and towards morning the fire died away to the usual desultorysniping. Everyone remained in a state of expectancy until, as you know,at two o?clock the troops made their entry. There, I think, Bateman, Ihave given you a very full account, and shall expect as detailed a onefrom you.”
“You certainly deserve it,” Rex said with a laugh, and he then toldin full detail the story of his entry into Tientsin, the situationthere, the account he had received of the taking of the Taku Forts,the defence of the city, the capture of Tientsin, and the march of therelief column. “There,” he said when he concluded, “I think we haveboth a pretty good idea of what has taken place since we last met.Now I must go out and see for myself the points where the fightinghas been fiercest.” Wandering about, Rex learned more of the fightingof the past two days. The fire kept up was something tremendous, butthe Chinese troops could not be persuaded to leave their shelters.Their officers in vain shouted: “We are many, they are a mere handful;come on!” But the soldiers shouted back in return: “No good.” Everyword could be plainly heard, for the barricades held by the Customsvolunteers in the Mongol Market were only ten or fifteen yards from theChinese. In the Fu the same thing was going on. Positions held by theItalians and Japs were each of them only twenty yards, and the extremeoutpost held by Customs volunteers was but ten yards, from the Chinesebarricades.
In the Fu they had hit on a happy expedient. They got a huge supply ofempty petroleum–tins, and when the Chinese attack was at its hottest,they set the Christian Chinese to hammer on them with sticks. Thedin was something tremendous, and the Italians added to it with wildshouts. Astounded at this terrible uproar, and ignorant of what newweapon of destruction was being brought against them, the Chinese firedropped at once, and did not reopen for some time.
In the Mongol Market five Customs volunteers stood behind theirloopholes, close up to the Chinese position, and as they watchedthe Chinese officers trying in vain to urge their men forward, theychaffed them with invitations to come in and see the place, and then,when they did not come, advised them to go home and nurse the babies.Nevertheless, fighting with the enemy both in the Fu and in the MongolMarket was a matter of grim earnest. If the barricades there hadbeen carried, those positions must also have been abandoned, and allcommunication between the British and Russian Legations would have beencut off.
The morning after the troops entered, two mines heavily charged werefired. If the troops had been one day later, there is no saying whatthe consequences might have been. All with whom Rex had chatted were ofopinion that the Chinese were deterred from attacking, not by our riflefire, but by a superstitious fear that we were keeping some secretmeans of destruction in reserve. Whether it was that we had mined theground everywhere, and would blow them all into the air as soon as theycrossed our barricades, or whether they feared some unknown, but evenmore terrible form of death, could not be said, but the men who wereready to endure the deadly fire of our rifles could not be got to makea rush against a position where only some fifteen or twenty men facedthem. The Chinese kept up their straggling fire all day, and amongothers one English lady was hit in the arm, this being the first timethat a woman had been struck since the siege began. Rex learned thatout of a total strength of nineteen officers and three hundred andeighty–eight men, including volunteers, thirteen officers were killedand wounded, and sixty–seven men killed and a hundred and sixty–sevenwounded. Fighting still went on, but great surprise was expressedthat the French did not make any attempt to go to the relief of theircountrymen in the North Cathedral.
In the evening, Rex went into the Fu, where the Japanese were for themost part quartered, and enquired of General Fukushima if there wasanything that he could do.
“No, I do not think there is anything at present. When we once get outinto the city I shall be very glad of your services again. You can, ifyou like, go with a force I am sending out in the morning to relievethe French missionaries. We know they must be in extreme danger, andit would be a scandal if we allowed them to be massacred after we haveentered the city.”
Accordingly the next morning Rex started with the Japanese. They madea long detour and approached the cathedral from the other side. Theyattacked and drove off the Chinese on that side and really raised thesiege, but at the same time they heard heavy firing on
the other side,and found that the French and Russians had arrived there. Fukushimatherefore halted his men, being willing to give the French theopportunity of being the first to relieve their countrymen.
The garrison had had indeed a terrible time, and in spite of the entryof the allied force, the attack had been maintained up to the verymoment of their relief. The Japanese had met with resistance on comingthrough the gate that separated the cathedral quarter from the palaceof the Empress. Here they came upon a number of Boxers, who were sooccupied by their attack upon the cathedral that they had scarcelynoticed the arrival of the relieving force. Taken by surprise, agood many of them were hemmed in, and a machine–gun was trained uponthem with terrible effect. Fighting was kept up through the variousstreets, and continued until they reached the cathedral. The garrisonat first refused to admit this unknown band of swarthy warriors, andsome explanations had to be exchanged before they could be brought tounderstand that they had been relieved.
The Catholics would never have remained in possession of the cathedralhad not the Chinese municipal officers assured them that they wouldbe altogether undisturbed. When the Boxers first appeared near thecathedral, the governor asserted that he had special orders to protectthe cathedral. The regular troops there consisted only of thirty Frenchand twelve Italian marines, who at the last moment, when the danger ofthe situation could no longer be winked at, had been spared from theslender garrison of the Legations to aid in the defence. This was theforce that was called upon to defend the circuit of the walls of thegreat French establishment, whose circumference amounted to nearly amile. Within this circle there were no fewer than three thousand fivehundred people, the larger portion of whom consisted of children fromthe orphanages. The adults were formed by the fathers into a body,and armed with spears made by fastening knives to the ends of longpoles. The eight muskets, which were all the firearms they had, weredistributed among the different sections.
The Chinese authorities threw off the mask on the 10th of June, and onthat day the Chinese regulars and Boxers surrounded the place, cut thetelegraph wires, and completely isolated it.
At the head of the defence was Mgr. Favier, the heroic bishop, whoby his courage, self–devotion, and zeal, kept up the spirits of thedefenders through the darkest days of the siege. He was the soul ofthe resistance. Under him were six priests, who organized the work ofdefence and set a noble example to the others. The converts were setto work with pick and spade to assist in the defence, and the wholedefensible area was quickly surrounded with trenches and barricades.Ammunition was unfortunately very short, but the priests set someof the converts to manufacture powder and bullets. The shot was notdifficult to make, as lead and pewter could be obtained from the roofsand vessels, but both sulphur and charcoal were very scarce. Aftermany failures, however, some thousands of rounds were manufactured.These would have been of no use for distant fighting, but they weresufficient for what at times was almost hand–to–hand work.
The Boxers burnt all the houses in the neighbourhood, threw inflammablepots into the convent and upon the roof of the cathedral, andmaintained a continuous fire of musketry and artillery. Fortunately thefire was principally directed against the cathedral, and though thatbuilding was sorely battered, but little harm was done to the defenders.
Continual messages were shouted to the converts calling upon them tocome out. One note, which was thrown into the trenches on an arrow, ranas follows: “You Christians shut up in the Peitang, reduced to die inmisery, eating the leaves of trees, why do you so obstinately resist?We have cannon and mines, and can blow you all up in no time. You aredeceived by the devils of Europe. Return to the ancient religion of theFu, hand over Mgr. Favier and the rest, and your lives shall be savedand we will supply you with food. If you do not do this, your women andchildren will be cut to pieces.”
But although these attempts continued throughout the siege not one ofthe converts evinced the slightest desire to give in. The worst formof attack was that of mining. The enemy successfully exploded one hugemine, blowing up several buildings, and killing no fewer than eightychildren and injuring a still greater number. Four tons of gunpowderwere said to have been used, and the result was a huge round holelike the crater of a small volcano, measuring in diameter, from bankto bank, fully ninety feet. Even this did not shake the courage ofthe defenders, but it warned them of what they had to expect, and allavailable hands were at once set to work digging very deep trenches toprevent the Chinese from mining under the buildings. In spite of theseefforts, however, four mines were exploded inside the compound, butanother, which would have been almost as formidable as the first, wasprevented from doing the damage that it would otherwise have done byone of the other trenches, though over seventy people were injured bythe explosion.
Several other mines besides those exploded were met by counterminesdriven by the besieged. One mine, however, had escaped observation.This was driven under the foundations of the cathedral, and had therelief been delayed but a day or two longer it would have been firedand would probably have caused the death of a vast number of people,for the building was throughout the siege used as a hospital.
Towards the end of the siege the garrison was greatly annoyed byrockets. These were fired by an ingenious gun, and directed by theChinese themselves. They rendered any passage across the enclosuredangerous, and set fire to many buildings. Once a brilliant sortie wasorganized and carried out by the handful of marines and a number ofspear–armed converts. They succeeded in capturing a field–piece andsome ammunition, the latter being invaluable during the siege.
But the greatest enemy with whom the garrison had to contend washunger. Gradually the ration of rice served out to the converts wasreduced, and at the end, although but two ounces of rice was all thatcould be allowed to the Chinese converts, even this would have failedin the course of another two or three days. This miserable ration waseked out in every way. Every green thing, every blade of grass, waspulled up, cooked, and eaten. The last few starving animals, beforethey were killed, had stripped the bark off the trees as high as theycould reach.
The little party of marines had lost heavily. The captain had beenkilled early in the siege. The lieutenant fell on the 30th of July. Hewas but twenty–three, but his cheerfulness and devotion had done muchto maintain the spirits of the besieged. He had worked night and day,and his death caused the deepest regret among the garrison. Eleven ofthe soldiers were also killed and most of the others were wounded.
Mgr. Favier wrote: “We wept but once during the siege, and it was onthis day. So terrible was the pinch of hunger that half–wild dogs whichfell upon the dead Boxers lying round the entrenchments were killed andeaten.” The suffering was so great that one has to go back to the siegeof Leyden for a parallel. The defenders, when relief arrived, werealmost skeletons, living spectres scarce able to drag themselves along,and their rescuers, on viewing the shattered defences, the numerouspits made by the exploded mines, and the worn and pallid forms of thedefenders, were astonished that they had been able to hold out so longagainst a horde of well–armed and determined assailants. Gallant as wasthe defence of the Legations, there could be no doubt whatever that itwas as nothing compared with that of the cathedral.
As things began to settle down a little the pressure in the Legationswas relaxed, the Chinese converts in the Fu and in the British Legationmoved out and established themselves in the deserted houses near.Supplies began to come in, especially to the British Legation, wherethe natives quickly learned that they would be fairly treated. TheJapanese were also well supplied, but no native would enter the Russianquarter. The attempts of Russia to pose now as the friend of Chinawere wholly fruitless. Putting aside the atrocities the Russians hadcommitted there, the natives had become well aware of the horriblemassacres they had perpetrated in Manchuria, and their occupation ofthat province had excited so deep a feeling of animosity that even hadtheir behaviour been good at Pekin they would still have been regardedwith the greatest mistrust.