The Boxers burnt all the houses in the neighbourhood, threw inflammable pots into the convent and upon the roof of the cathedral, and maintained a continuous fire of musketry and artillery. Fortunately the fire was principally directed against the cathedral, and though that building was sorely battered, but little harm was done to the defenders.
Continual messages were shouted to the converts calling upon them to come out. One note, which was thrown into the trenches on an arrow, ran as follows: “You Christians shut up in the Peitang, reduced to die in misery, 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 are deceived by the devils of Europe. Return to the ancient religion of the Fu, hand over Mgr. Favier and the rest, and your lives shall be saved and we will supply you with food. If you do not do this, your women and children will be cut to pieces.”
But although these attempts continued throughout the siege not one of the converts evinced the slightest desire to give in. The worst form of attack was that of mining. The enemy successfully exploded one huge mine, blowing up several buildings, and killing no fewer than eighty children and injuring a still greater number. Four tons of gunpowder were said to have been used, and the result was a huge round hole like the crater of a small volcano, measuring in diameter, from bank to bank, fully ninety feet. Even this did not shake the courage of the defenders, but it warned them of what they had to expect, and all available hands were at once set to work digging very deep trenches to prevent the Chinese from mining under the buildings. In spite of these efforts, however, four mines were exploded inside the compound, but another, which would have been almost as formidable as the first, was prevented from doing the damage that it would otherwise have done by one of the other trenches, though over seventy people were injured by the explosion.
Several other mines besides those exploded were met by countermines driven by the besieged. One mine, however, had escaped observation. This was driven under the foundations of the cathedral, and had the relief been delayed but a day or two longer it would have been fired and 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 by rockets. These were fired by an ingenious gun, and directed by the Chinese themselves. They rendered any passage across the enclosure dangerous, and set fire to many buildings. Once a brilliant sortie was organized and carried out by the handful of marines and a number of spear–armed converts. They succeeded in capturing a field–piece and some ammunition, the latter being invaluable during the siege.
But the greatest enemy with whom the garrison had to contend was hunger. Gradually the ration of rice served out to the converts was reduced, and at the end, although but two ounces of rice was all that could be allowed to the Chinese converts, even this would have failed in the course of another two or three days. This miserable ration was eked out in every way. Every green thing, every blade of grass, was pulled up, cooked, and eaten. The last few starving animals, before they were killed, had stripped the bark off the trees as high as they could reach.
The little party of marines had lost heavily. The captain had been killed early in the siege. The lieutenant fell on the 30th of July. He was but twenty–three, but his cheerfulness and devotion had done much to maintain the spirits of the besieged. He had worked night and day, and his death caused the deepest regret among the garrison. Eleven of the soldiers were also killed and most of the others were wounded.
Mgr. Favier wrote: “We wept but once during the siege, and it was on this day. So terrible was the pinch of hunger that half–wild dogs which fell upon the dead Boxers lying round the entrenchments were killed and eaten.” The suffering was so great that one has to go back to the siege of Leyden for a parallel. The defenders, when relief arrived, were almost skeletons, living spectres scarce able to drag themselves along, and their rescuers, on viewing the shattered defences, the numerous pits made by the exploded mines, and the worn and pallid forms of the defenders, were astonished that they had been able to hold out so long against a horde of well–armed and determined assailants. Gallant as was the defence of the Legations, there could be no doubt whatever that it was as nothing compared with that of the cathedral.
As things began to settle down a little the pressure in the Legations was relaxed, the Chinese converts in the Fu and in the British Legation moved out and established themselves in the deserted houses near. Supplies began to come in, especially to the British Legation, where the natives quickly learned that they would be fairly treated. The Japanese were also well supplied, but no native would enter the Russian quarter. The attempts of Russia to pose now as the friend of China were wholly fruitless. Putting aside the atrocities the Russians had committed there, the natives had become well aware of the horrible massacres they had perpetrated in Manchuria, and their occupation of that province had excited so deep a feeling of animosity that even had their behaviour been good at Pekin they would still have been regarded with the greatest mistrust.