WAR CLOUDS
China, in her ignorant self-confidence, and goaded to desperation by
foreign aggressions, was defying the world. Not only was she killing
missionaries, together with their converts, wherever found, and putting
to shameful death such of her own people, from highest mandarin to
lowest coolie, as dared lift a hand to save them or speak a word in
their behalf, but by imperial order Chinese troops were preparing to
attack foreign ministers in their own legations. Thus China deliberately
was about to commit the gravest of international crimes. For some
time the foreign ministers, foreseeing the dangers of the apparently
uncontrollable Boxer uprising, had been calling upon their respective
governments for protection. In response an ever-increasing fleet of
war-ships was gathered off the mouth of the Pei-ho, which was as near
as they could approach to Pekin. From those ships which first arrived
a mixed force of marines, four hundred in all, and representing eight
nations, was sent to the capital to act as legation guards, and the
train that brought them was the last to reach Pekin for many weeks.
These marines arrived on the first day of June, and forty-five of them
immediately were detailed to protect the great northern cathedral, while
twenty more were sent to the compound of the American Methodist Mission.
A week later the Empress Dowager returned to Pekin from her summer
palace in the Western Hills. From that moment the situation grew so
rapidly worse that the ministers again telegraphed the foreign fleet to
send at once a strong force for their further protection.
In response to this urgent request Captain McCalla, the senior American
naval officer with the fleet, declared that he should start for Pekin
the next day. The British admiral, Seymour, promptly proposed to join
him, and other commanding officers entered so heartily into the project
that on the following morning, when the expedition started by rail from
Tongku, the nearest landing-point, it comprised 2066 troops. Of these
112 were Americans, 915 British, 450 Germans, 312 Russians, 158 French,
54 Japanese, 40 Italians, and 25 Austrians.
This force, made up of sailors and marines, well provided with light
artillery and rapid-fire guns, set forth in high spirits, expecting to
reach Pekin that very night, or, at any rate, within twenty-four hours.
Nine days later saw them still twenty miles from their destination,
short of ammunition and food, encumbered with two hundred wounded men,
cut off from their base of supplies by the destruction of the railway
behind them, as well as in front, unable to communicate either with
Pekin or the outside world on account of the telegraph-line having
absolutely disappeared, while couriers with despatches were caught and
killed as fast as sent out.
From the beginning they had been harassed by hordes of Boxers, and now
they were confronted by five thousand imperial troops, including a
strong body of cavalry, armed with modern rifles and well supplied with
artillery. Under the circumstances a farther advance was impossible,
and a retreat was ordered. At the end of another week the unfortunate
expedition reached Tien-Tsin exhausted, demoralized, and sadly depleted
in numbers, but having learned the bitter lesson that no small force
of foreigners, no matter how brave and well-armed, could traverse the
interior of China against the wishes of the Chinese.
During the absence of this expedition the fleet of war-ships lying off
the Taku bar, at the mouth of the Pei-ho, had been strengthened by
numerous additions. The Taku forts had been captured after six hours of
fighting, and an army of ten thousand troops had advanced to the relief
of the foreign portion of Tien-Tsin, which was being besieged by Boxers
from the walled city of Tien-Tsin proper. Now the allied foreign troops
turned their attention to this stronghold and set about its capture; but
it held out for three weeks, and did not fall into their hands until the
14th of July.
But let us return to the middle of June and the city of Pekin, where a
handful of foreigners, cut off from all communication with the outside
world, were anxiously but confidently awaiting the coming of the
McCalla-Seymour relief expedition. All sorts of rumors were afloat
concerning its progress and position, and one of these so persistently
asserted that it would reach the city by the very evening on which Rob
and Jo entered Pekin that many persons ascended the city wall near
the American legation, and remained there for hours, straining their
eyes for a sight of the expected troops. But they did not come; and
as the sun, transformed to a blood-red ball by the smoke from many
conflagrations, disappeared in the lowering west, the disappointed ones
returned to their homes doubly weighted with anxiety.
After dinner that evening two guests sat with the United States minister
and his wife, earnestly discussing the situation. They were an American
tourist and his daughter, who, not realizing the danger of their
position, had lingered one day too long in Pekin, and then, owing to
the sudden destruction of the railway, found it impossible to leave.
The subject of their present conversation was a note from the Tsung Li
Yamen (Chinese State Department) received by the minister a few hours
earlier. It declared the situation in Pekin to have reached such a stage
that the authorities could not undertake to protect the ministers longer
than twenty-four hours from the date of the note, which also urged their
departure, under Chinese escort, for Tien-Tsin.
"Are you going to accept that proposition?" asked the tourist.
"Frankly, I don't know," replied the minister. "Certainly we cannot
leave within the time limit specified. It won't do for us to abandon the
missionaries, and they declare they will not desert their converts, whom
we, of course, could not take with us."
"What means of transportation should we have if you did decide to leave,
now that the railway is no longer in operation?"
"We have demanded carts, boats, provisions, and that a member of the
Tsung Li Yamen high in authority shall accompany us. This, of course,
is playing for delay, that we may have more time in which to hear from
Seymour's expedition. It is now four days since the last word came from
it, and we must know its position before starting. No, I don't believe
we will leave within twenty-four hours, though some of my colleagues
think differently and already are packing their effects."
"My daughter and I will not try to carry out anything but our hand-bags,
which can be made ready at a moment's notice," said the tourist.
"You are wise. I shall attempt to carry very little myself, and my
baggage will consist largely of state papers, which already are packed
for transportation."
"Then you are pretty certain that we will go sooner or later?"
"Yes, sooner or later, for the city is growing untenable. The hour of
our departure probably will be decided by the morning advices from the
Tsung Li Yamen. If no word should come from them, Von Ketteler, who
does not agree that it is necessary for us to leave Pekin, declares he
will go to them and demand satisfactory guarantees for our safety."
"It will be a bold thing to do."
"Yes, it will, especially as Von Ketteler recently incurred the
additional ill-will of all Boxers by personally beating with his stick
one of them whom he caught parading Legation Street in the full regalia
of his infamous society. He is a brave man, but, unfortunately, he
regards the Chinese with a contempt that will, I fear, lead him into
difficulties."
At this moment a servant announced Lieutenant Hibbard.
"Excuse me, sir, for disturbing you," said this individual, after he
had saluted those present, "but it seemed best to report a rather
peculiar case. Two young Chinese, wearing the Boxer uniform, have just
been arrested, and are now held by the guard at the gate. They demand
an interview with the American minister, and, curiously enough, both of
them speak English remarkably well--at least, so the corporal of the
guard says, for I have not yet seen them myself."
"Are they armed?" asked the minister.
"Yes, sir. That is, they were armed with revolvers, but, of course,
those were taken from them."
"Very well, let these English-speaking Boxers be brought in, under
guard, and we will hear what they have to say for themselves--unless
this young lady objects to their presence," he added.
"Oh no, sir; of course I don't!" exclaimed the girl, who hitherto had
listened in silence, but with intense interest, to the conversation
between her father and the minister. "I want ever so much to see a Boxer
whom I can be certain really is one."
In another minute the prisoners, guarded by two heavily armed marines,
were ushered into the room. "Pretty tough-looking characters, aren't
they?" asked the lieutenant of the girl, by whose side he had taken a
position as though to protect her in case of trouble.
"Yes," she replied, hesitatingly. "But do you know," she added, in a low
tone, "the face of one of them seems very familiar. I mean the one with
the queue."
"Oh, all Chinamen look alike," replied the officer, carelessly. "I've
seen a hundred that you'd think were twin brothers of the other one, the
tougher of the two. I expect he has murdered more converts than he could
count."
Just here the minister, who had stepped for a moment into his office,
returned, and at once proceeded to question the prisoners.
"I am told that you speak English; who are you, and why do you come
here?" he asked.
"Are you the American minister?" cautiously inquired the one whom the
lieutenant had indicated as being the tougher-looking of the two.
"I am."
"Well, then, we've come to tell you that the American and British
relief expedition you are expecting has been attacked by more than five
thousand imperial troops. It has been badly cut up, and now is in full
retreat towards Tien-Tsin."
"Impossible!" gasped the minister.
"It is true, sir; and if you leave this city to-morrow in the hope of
reaching Tien-Tsin you will be killed as soon as you pass the city
gates. An edict was issued from the palace to-day for the extermination
of all foreigners in Pekin, and an attack on the legations will be begun
at four o'clock to-morrow afternoon."
"Who are you?" demanded the startled minister, "and what proof can you
give that your astounding statements are true?"
"I am an American, of course," replied Rob, in a tone expressive of
surprise that any one should question his nationality, "and my friend
here is a son of Mandarin Li Ching Cheng, recently a member of the
Tsung Li Yamen. He was put to death a few hours since for having tried
to protect foreigners instead of killing them. My friend and I got
acquainted in the States, where he was being educated, and--"
"His name is Joseph Lee!" cried the American girl, no longer able to
restrain herself, and springing to her feet in her excitement. "I knew I
had seen him before!"
"But who are you, sir? What is your own name?" interrupted the minister,
sternly.
"Hinckley," replied Rob, but not withdrawing his eyes from the flushed
face of the girl; and, speaking to her, he added: "I knew you and your
father as soon as I saw you, Miss Lorimer, but I thought that perhaps
you wouldn't care to recognize us in this costume."
"As if any one could!" cried Annabel Lorimer. "I am sure you wouldn't
recognize yourself if you could see how horrible you look. Even now I
only recognize your voice. Should you have known him, papa?"
"No," replied Mr. Lorimer, staring hard at Rob; "and I am not certain
that I do even now."
"Is your first name Robert?" asked the lieutenant of marines; "and were
you ever on board the United States monitor _Monterey_?"
"Yes, my name is Robert Hinckley. I was aboard the _Monterey_ about four
months ago, and you are Ensign Hibbard," was the reply.
"He's all right, sir!" exclaimed the lieutenant, turning to the
minister. "I know him well, and can swear that somewhere about him he's
got a skin as white as mine."
"Well," said the minister, his stern face breaking into a smile, "I'll
take your word for it, Mr. Hibbard, but even you must acknowledge that
its whiteness is pretty effectually concealed at present. Mr. Hinckley,
I am much pleased to meet you, especially as you must be a son of Dr.
Mason Hinckley, whom I long have counted as among my friends. But the
news you bring is of such momentous character that I must ask for
further details, even before extending to you the hospitalities of
the legation. Will you and your friend sit down and kindly tell us
everything that you know concerning the situation?"