With the Allies to Pekin: A Tale of the Relief of the Legations

From that time forward, although they were exposed to great danger at times, the garrison was free from any anxiety about fire.

The next day was comparatively quiet. The lower veranda of the First Secretaryʼs house needed barricading, for several bullets had made their way in. That morning two of the ponies which had been shot there during the night were cut up and distributed. This was the first experience the besieged had of pony–meat, and at first they tasted it with considerable doubt. Henceforth, however, it became the regular fare, and was received with general approval. It made excellent soup, and though, when cooked in a joint, it was apt to be hard, it was very good with curry or rissoles.

In the afternoon the firing suddenly ceased and a man bearing a white flag took his place on the north bridge, with a board on which was written in Chinese: “Imperial command: To protect the Ministers and stop firing; a despatch will be sent to the bridge of the canal.”

This caused great excitement. Some suggested that the reinforcements might be at last at hand, others thought that it was a trap to throw us off our guard. The experienced were of opinion that it was merely a sign of the vacillation that existed among the Empress and her advisers, and that Prince Ching and Jung Lu had for the moment got the upper hand and persuaded the Empress of the madness of the course that was being taken. The day went on, however, and no despatch was sent in. The time was employed in strengthening barricades. The Chinese, too, made good use of the interval by erecting a barricade across Legation Street, facing that adjoining the Russian and American Legations. At midnight a tremendous fire was opened on the Legations from all sides. Shells frequently passed overhead, and the Legations were swept by a hail of bullets. Everyone was up and ready to repel an attack, but none was made, and after an hour the fire ceased as suddenly as it had begun. It was evident that the war party were again in the ascendant.

All sorts of reports were current the next day. The besieged had learned that the Taku Forts were captured on the eighteenth, and they began to calculate that the relieving force might arrive on the twenty–eighth.

Everywhere the native Christians worked unremittingly at the barricades, which were now so strengthened as to be very formidable obstacles to an attack. Orders were issued that bomb–proof shelters should be formed, and that the inmates of each house should construct them for themselves. Pits were dug out to a depth of four feet; these were roofed in with timbers on which earth was piled to a depth of some feet. Many of these shelters were completed, but the ladies almost unanimously agreed that they would prefer to run the risk of shells rather than bury themselves in such holes, for the tremendous rains that came on occasionally almost flooded the ground, and, running in at the entrances to the pits, converted the floors into sheets of liquid mud.

Rex managed every day to get half an hourʼs chat with his cousins. They were both employed as assistants in the hospital kitchen, carrying the soups, broth, and other food to the patients, of whom there were now some thirty or forty. These, thanks to the excellent medical attention, nursing, and cooking, were almost without exception doing well, and during the whole siege there was no single death due to disease generated by foul air or septic conditions.

The girls were both cheerful and enjoyed their work. Being the assistants of the lady who superintended and for the most part carried out the cooking, they occasionally got a share of dainty dishes which were sent back untasted, and so fared better than the majority. Their work allowed them but little time for thought or anxiety, and their only fear was that Rex might be wounded; but as they saw him coming in every day fresh and cheerful, even this fear gradually died out. His stories of the siege amused them, especially his accounts of the different ways in which different people took their misfortunes: some being always cheerful and ready to make fun of everything, while others grumbled at every petty hardship, and seemed to consider themselves as specially injured by the whole proceedings.

Rex himself had only had to fight on two or three occasions, for the barriers were all held by the marines and guards of the various Legations, while the civilians, although formed into corps, and ready in case of attack to rush to any threatened point, had so far not been called upon for service. At night, however, they took turns to keep watch at exposed positions, and during the day worked at whatever might be most required. The students were formed into a corps by themselves, and Rex acted with them. They occupied a crowded quarter, but were full of life and spirit, made light of their work, and at night formed quite a merry party.

“I am afraid you are very hard worked, Rex,” Jenny said one day.

“Not a bit of it,” he replied. “My hands were very much blistered the first two or three days, but they have got hard now, and my back has quite forgotten how to ache. As far as I am concerned I quite enjoy it, and I could not be living among a better set of fellows.”

“I suppose you will get harder work shortly, but up to the present time there have been very few casualties.”

“It is quite certain now that we have regular troops fighting against us; that is shown by their new method of attack. Instead of making an onset on one point at a time, they now assail us from all points simultaneously. The fires all took place on the same day, and that tremendous bombardment two nights ago began all round at the same moment. That canʼt be the work of the Boxers.”

“Then it will be more serious?”

“No, I donʼt know that it will be much more serious, except that no doubt they will bring up their cannon and plant them closer than they are now. But this development shows that Prince Tungʼs party has not got the entire control over the Empress. A proclamation has been stuck up at the tower to–day appointing several Chinese generals to the command of the Boxers. It is certain now that we have got to depend entirely upon ourselves. It is also certain that Seymour has either been annihilated or obliged to fall back. I consider it absurd to calculate that, now that the Taku Forts have fallen, an army will come up from the coast and arrive here in a few days. After the now certain failure of Seymourʼs expedition it is evident that a much stronger column must be employed, and such a force can hardly have been gathered yet. Then the railway, which has no doubt been destroyed between Tientsin and the sea, will have to be repaired. As we know that the cathedral at that place has been burnt, there can be no doubt that the settlement has been besieged. The Boxers there are probably in great force, and these will have to be cleared out before any attempt can be made to relieve us. I certainly should not say so to anyone else, but my own opinion is that we shall be lucky if we see the head of the relieving party before another month.”

“A month! You donʼt mean to say that! Why, we shall all be starved out long before that!”

“It is wonderful how one can hold on if necessary,” Rex said. “No doubt we shall be put upon half–allowance, and the number of mouths to be fed is tremendous, but we still keep on discovering stores in the houses and shops within the line, and these have never been methodically searched yet. We have also got the ponies to eat. Fortunately the native Christians are not accustomed to a meat diet, so the ponies will last the Europeans a good long time. I donʼt know whether there are any rats in the Legations,” he said with a laugh. “According to the accounts of most sieges, when the garrison were reduced to an extremity they always seem to have maintained themselves on rats. I dare say they are not bad eating if one is driven to it.”

“I havenʼt seen any rats,” Jenny said with a little shudder, “and I hope I shanʼt see one, either alive or cooked. I am sure I could manage very well with a little rice or flour and tea.”

“I am afraid that tea would not sustain us long, but I agree with you that as long as the rice and flour hold out we can do so. We have, I believe, a pretty good stock of tinned food, sugar, tea, cocoa, and so on, and the pressure will come more upon the unfortunate coolies than upon us. It is only fair to them to say that they are working splendidly, and if we hold out it will be largely due to them, for almost all the barricade work has fallen on them. The fighting men are, of course, always on guard; the rest of us are all told off to work of some sort or other: sanitary work, the distribution of food and seeing to the wants of everyone, and, during the past two or three days, the erection of shell–proof shelters. The hard work falls to the Chinese. They are wonderfully patient, obedient, and hard–working, and expose themselves fearlessly everywhere. I am coming to have great respect for them. There is no giving way at all among them. They have lost everything they have in the world, but they show no signs of despondency. They take everything that comes as a matter of course, and sometimes, when I go among them when the fire is heavy, I hear them praying out aloud. Well, I must be off again.”

CHAPTER VIII

A PERILOUS ADVENTURE

As he went along Rex saw a Chinaman sitting down, weeping bitterly.

“Hillo!” he said, “what is the matter with you?”

The man stood up.

“I only got in at twilight this morning, sir,” he said. “I came in by the north bridge. I managed to make my way there and lay down underneath it. Just as it was getting light I made a run to come in. Many shots were fired at me, but I was not hit.”

“Then what are you crying about?”

“I am crying, sir, for those I left behind me. There were twelve of us altogether, and we had been lying hidden since the people first rose. We were in a cellar. The house was burnt over us, but the cellars were in the back–yard, and though the houses were destroyed, and we were nearly smothered, we managed to live through it. A part of a wall fell across the entrance, and that saved us. There was some food stored in the cellar and we have lived upon it up to now, but it was nearly all gone when I left. We have known nothing that was passing outside. Yesterday we cleared away some of the bricks and I crawled out. We could hear the firing going on continuously, and knew that the people in the Legations must be fighting the Boxers, and it was agreed that I should try to make my way here and ask them to send out a rescue party. Now I find that the Legations are so surrounded, and attacked so fiercely, that it is impossible for them to save my comrades. I have been speaking to one of your chief officers, and he tells me that it is quite impossible for them to do so, and all my friends must perish. I have an old father and mother there, and a wife, and three sisters, and the rest are all friends.”

“How far are they away?”

“More than a mile, sir.”

“I will think it over,” Rex said. “I am afraid nothing can be done, but I will see. If you are here at seven oʼclock this evening I will tell you.”

As usual Ah Lo was not far off, and Rex went to him and told him what he had heard.

“It is bad,” Ah Lo said, “but what can be done, master? Many have been massacred; it is but twelve more.”

“Yes, but we could do nothing for the others. Indeed, most of them were massacred before we got in here. I mean to save these people if I can.”

“But how can it be done, master?”

“That is what I am thinking about, and I want you to think too, Ah Lo.”

“I am ready to die with you, master; and if you tell me to, I will try to get out and do all I can for these people, if you will but remain here.”

“No, Ah Lo, that I cannot hear of. You know we have done well together before, and it must be easier to get people out of a cellar than it was out of a governorʼs yamen.”

“It might not be so difficult to get them out, master; the question is how to get them away.”

“I quite see that.”

“Of course they are Christians, and people can know Christians directly by their dress and other things, though it is not so much by the dress as by something in their manner. Everyone can tell a Christian.”

“Well I must say I donʼt see anything different between the people working here and those we meet everywhere else. I will take your word for it, however, and if there is anything different they must do their best to change it. It seems to me that if we get them out we must hide them in some empty house, near one of the gates if possible, so that it will be handy for the wall. There are not likely to be guards on the wall at the other side of the town, and we might at night get them up there and lower them into the ditch; I believe at most places there is no water in it. Then we must get them round this side and haul them up that part of the wall we hold, and where we could, of course, make our way out.”

“It doesnʼt seem to me that there is anything very difficult about it,” said Ah Lo. “Of course we should put on Boxer clothes. The other day we got hold of lots of the cord they wear. Several Boxers have fallen near the north bridge, and lie there still; so we can take their coats. We can carry swords and pistols, but no rifles. If we should be discovered, the swords, of course, would be no good; we only want them to make us look like Boxers. Well, I donʼt see why we shouldnʼt be able to do it. Of course there is some risk in it, but if we could manage in the way you say, it ought not to be very great. Of course we must take with us the man who brought the news in, to show us the place, and we may as well get a Boxer coat and sword for him too. In fact if we can get half a dozen we will take them; the more we can dress as Boxers the better.”

Rex went to his room and wrote some letters, which he gave to Sandwich when they met at six oʼclock.

“Look here, Sandwich,” he said, “I want you to take care of these letters. I have heard of a party who are shut up in a cellar in the city. There are twelve of them, I believe, and they have exhausted their provisions, and must come out if not relieved in the course of a day or so. I mean to go out and try to bring them in here.”

“Eh? what? are you out of your mind, Bateman?”

“No, I donʼt think there is much risk in it. I shall get the Americans to let me down over the part of the wall they hold, and of course I myself and Ah Lo, who will go with me, will dress in Boxer clothes. I shall go round the wall and get in again by one of the gates at the other end. I donʼt suppose any guard will be posted there. At any rate if there is a guard they wonʼt interfere with me. Then I shall go and get these people out, and shall either let them down over the wall at once, or hide them till to–morrow night in some empty house close to it; all will depend on the time. It really seems a very simple thing.”

“It may seem a very simple thing, Bateman, but it strikes me as being a mightily dangerous one. Still, if I spoke Chinese as you do, I would volunteer to go with you.”

“It would be of no advantage, Sandwich. If we are detected it will make no difference whether there are twelve of us or a hundred and twenty; we should certainly be killed. It is simply a question of being found out, and therefore the fewer of us there are the better. Of course if only a solitary man detected us, we should cut him down without any hesitation, but at that time of night it is not likely that there will be anyone about to see us. They are so busy all day that I fancy all who are not engaged in worrying us at night would be glad enough to sleep. A good many dead Boxers are lying near the north gate, and I was thinking of sending my man to get the clothes of some of them. Now I think of it I remember that the Americans and Germans, when they captured the wall yesterday, threw the bodies of the men that they had killed over the parapet into the moat, so we can get the things when we go out, without running any risk.

“I should not have said anything about this to you, only I have written letters to my cousins and my father and mother, so that you can hand the one to the girls in two or three days if I do not get back, and send the other down to my father after you are relieved. I do it as a measure of precaution, but I really do not think that there is any great chance of my coming to grief. Of course if the worst comes to the worst, and we are surprised, I shall bolt for it with Ah Lo. I am ready to run some risk to get these poor people out, but I donʼt mean to throw away my life, and, as I say, shall make a bolt for it if we are found out. In those deserted streets, with no end of empty houses, I fancy we could soon throw them off our scent, and should then be able to find our way back again quietly to the foot of the walls.”

“Well, I hope you will do so, Bateman. I tell you fairly that I think you are running a very foolish risk. Still, it is a noble thing to attempt.”

“Oh, bosh!” said Rex, “it seems to me a very simple affair, and it is certainly well worth running certain risks to save the lives of those poor people.”

“When do you start?”

“As soon as it gets dark enough for us to move along near the wall without being seen. I want to go as soon as I can, because I should like to pass out through the gate of the China town before my doing so would excite any attention. I donʼt think it is likely that they will have guards there. If we find that there are, and I see that they are watchful, I will hide up till the morning, when people are sure to go out to cultivate the fields.”

Rex now found Ah Lo and told him that he need not go out to get the Boxer clothes as there were plenty to be had in the moat outside the wall.

“That will certainly be better, master.”

As it was getting dusk they started with the Chinaman who had brought in the report, made their way through the Russian Legation into the American, then climbed the wall. Rex was well known to the officer who commanded the party there.

“Good–evening, Mr. Bateman!” the officer said, “have you any message for us?”

“No, I am going out on my own account. This Chinaman with me is one of a party who have been hidden in a cellar since the massacre. They knew nothing of what had been going on, and he came to ask if a party would go out to their assistance. That, of course, is impossible, but it seems to me that there will be no difficulty in me and my man managing it. We have got ropes for letting ourselves down from the wall here, and at the other side of the town, where the fugitives are hidden. I hope to arrive at the foot of the wall here not later than to–morrow night.”

“It seems a very wild scheme, Bateman.”

“I donʼt think so. When we get down to the wall we are going to dress up in the clothes of those Boxers you threw over after your recent fight, and I shall take four or five extra suits for the use of the fugitives. In that way we are likely to pass along without being questioned. The streets will probably be nearly deserted by eleven or twelve oʼclock, and if we have luck we shall be able to get them over the wall without much loss of time. If there is no guard at the gate of the China wall we may possibly be here before daylight to–morrow morning.”

“Well, I wish you luck, but I canʼt help thinking that you are acting very rashly.”

“You must remember that I and my man have already travelled some hundred miles in disguise, and by this means have already got in here twice, and out of Tientsin once. I really donʼt see that there is any appreciable risk in the thing whatever. If it is after daylight when we arrive here, you and your men will be able to keep the people in the Chinese town from attacking us while we are coming up.”

“I think we can promise to do that,” the officer said; “we never see a soul pass along this road.”

“Very well, we shall be here in an hourʼs time.”

Rex went to the storekeeper and obtained from him a length of rope sufficient for climbing the wall, and then with Ah Lo and the Chinaman he set out. It was dark when they got to the wall again, and they were without delay lowered down one after the other by the American marines.

“We shall keep a sharp look–out for you towards morning,” the officer said; “do you want to take this rope away with you?”

“No, I have another length with me.”

Their first step was to strip the garments from nine of the dead Boxers. Three of these they put on, and the rest they fastened in a bundle, which the Chinaman took. For a quarter of a mile they followed the road by the moat, and then turned into the town. They saw but few lights, and went without attracting any observation through the gate. As Rex had expected, this was unguarded. They crossed the moat beyond it, and then walked on quickly. An hourʼs brisk walking took them to the gate in the Tartar wall. This was open and they passed through unquestioned. Then they dived into a lane, and in a quarter of an hour reached a space covered with ruins. Through these the Chinaman led the way, and presently stopped by the side of a fallen wall.

“This is the place,” he said, and, advancing, he cleared away some bricks, and suddenly disappeared into the bowels of the earth.

“It is I,” he said, “and a white officer and his servant have come out to rescue you.”

An exclamation of thankfulness followed his words, and Rex descended with Ah Lo at his heels. Striking a light, he saw seven men and five women. The people gave a cry of terror as they saw the Boxer garments.

“Do not be afraid,” Rex said, “these are only disguises. We have brought some more with us, which the men must put on.”

He struck match after match while this was being done.

“Now,” he said, “you women must make some little changes in your dress, so as to resemble ordinary native women, and then we will sally out.”

Five minutes later they started. They had gone but fifty yards beyond the burnt area when three men came from a house and accosted them.

“Who are you?” they said.

“We are your brethren,” Ah Lo answered.

“Give us the sign, that we may know you are Boxers,” one of the men said.

“Give us the sign,” Ah Lo replied.

“We called for it first,” the man said.

“Very well, this is the only sign that you will get from us,” and Ah Lo struck him a tremendous blow with his sword.

Rex cut down another, and the third took to his heels, shouting.

“This way,” the Chinaman said, running down a narrow alley. “We can get out at the other end, where there is a net–work of lanes.”

They hurried at full speed down the lane, then turned again, and in five minutes were a quarter of a mile from the scene of the fray.

“Now,” Rex said, “let us make for the wall. That man may have given the alarm, and it will not be safe to try the gate.”

They kept on until the wall rose before them, then they followed it till they came to steps leading to the top. When they reached the summit, Ah Lo unwound a rope from his waist.

“Now,” he said to one of the men, “you go down first. If you find that the water is too deep to wade across, stop where you are.”

One by one the men and women were lowered down by Ah Lo, and Rex was the last to descend. Just as he reached the water, steps were heard running along the wall.

“Keep quiet,” Rex said, “let them go by before we try to cross. They wonʼt notice the rope in the dark.”

Some fifty men ran along the top of the wall, leaving one here and there to watch. One was halted immediately above Rex and his companions.

“Now,” Rex asked in a whisper, “how many of you can swim?”

Three of the men said they could do so.

“Very well,” said Rex, “we must carry across those who cannot; the women first. Swim as noiselessly as you can; that fellow above will hear the least noise.”

The first party crossed without noise, but as the second lot were being taken over one of the Chinamen made a splash. There was an immediate shout from above, and a man leaning over the parapet fired a musket. The swimmers and their burdens, however, reached the other side of the moat without mishap.

“It will be five minutes before they gather again here,” said Rex, “and then they will have to get to the gate, which must take them nearly ten minutes. Let us get well out into the country, and then make for the China town. Let each man help a woman along.”

Fortunately all the women had, on becoming Christians, given up the absurd practice of deforming their feet, and were now able to walk with comparative freedom. Nevertheless, they would have made but slow progress but for the assistance of the men. After a time they changed their course, but, hearing a number of men running and shouting, they took refuge in some high grain until they had passed. When their pursuers were well out of sight and hearing, they continued till they reached the gate in the Chinese wall. Here they waited for a quarter of an hour, and then Ah Lo approached the gate.