During the morning of the 14th the bombardment of the city was continued, the Japanese being held at bay outside a stoutly defended eastern gate, which they only succeeded in blowing up and carrying after dark that night. At the same time the Russians were caught in a death-trap at the next gateway on the south, where they easily had forced the outer gate, but could make no impression upon the inner. Here their chief of staff was killed, and many of their men, before they extricated themselves and retired to a safe distance.
After that the Americans tried the same entrance, stormed it, scaled the lofty wall, charged down the inner ramp, gained possession, opened the gate, and found themselves inside the southern city. From this point they fought their way through a net-work of alleys and streets, swarming with Chinese riflemen, to the water-gate beneath the Tartar wall, concerning which Rob Hinckley had furnished them with information.
In the mean time the British column, assigned to a gate still farther south, had the marvellous good-fortune to find it undefended. So they simply marched in, traversed the southern city, taking possession of the Temple of Heaven en route, made their way to Rob's water-gate, waded through its mud, and, to their own amazement as well as that of every one else, found themselves not only in the heart of Pekin almost without having fired a shot, but within the lines of legation defence as well.
The first officer of the relieving army to pass through the water-gate was Major Scott, of the 1st Sikhs, and with him were four of his men. Then came General Gasalee and his staff, followed by the Sikh regiment, the 1st Bengal Lancers, a detachment of Welsh fusileers, a field battery, the Hong-Kong regiment, and a detachment of Royal marines.
A few minutes later came the Americans, cheering their flag and their weary comrades, who for two months had held the wall. They also came through the famous water-gate that Chinese blindness had failed to obstruct. General Chaffee led the way, and he was followed by five hundred marines, the 14th and 9th regiments of infantry, two Hotchkiss guns, and Battery Z.
The siege of the legations was ended, the relieving army was in possession of Pekin, the Empress Dowager, together with the Emperor and the whole imperial court had fled, and the ill-advised, savagely brutal, but long-continued effort to drive foreigners from Chinese soil had come to an ignominious ending. Had China been united, the struggle might have been prolonged for years, though it never could have succeeded; but China was "a house divided against itself." Out of the eighteen provinces only three took part in the movement, the others being either opposed to it or indifferent as to its outcome.
The Empress Dowager, who hated the very idea of reforms based upon foreign models, was opposed by the Emperor, who desired them. The prime-minister, Prince Tuan, bitterly anti-foreign, found his schemes opposed by Prince Ching and the ever-politic Li Hung Chang. The bloody Kwang-su general, Tung-Fu-Hsang, who thirsted for the blood of foreigners, was thwarted in his plans for their destruction by the more wary General Jung Lu, who ordered his troops not to kill any more than they could help.
So Pekin fell, almost without a struggle, and for a year afterwards the city was misruled and looted by foreign soldiers, who destroyed many of its most beautiful structures and carried away its most precious works of art. From it also they ravaged the surrounding country, sending out punishment expeditions to kill, burn, and destroy in every direction.
In the mean time the American troops had been followed into the city by a train of the biggest army wagons ever seen in China, each drawn by six huge mules, and by a number of four-mule ambulances, one of which brought Rob Hinckley. From it he was transferred to a hospital, where he lay for weeks with no knowledge of his surroundings or of what was happening about him. Then one day he opened his eyes and looked into the face of his mother.
Of course he knew that this was a dream, for all things were but dreams with him now, so he wearily closed his unreliable eyes and went to sleep. The next time he opened them he again saw his mother's face, bending lovingly, but oh! so anxiously, over him. This time the dream lasted until she gently kissed his forehead, and he heard her say: "Please, dear God, don't take him from us!" Then he knew that he was awake and must make haste to get up, because it troubled his mother to have him lie there. Besides, it was very silly not to be able to raise his hands. A little later it occurred to him to wonder if he were in Cheng-Ting-Fu, or, if not, how it happened that his mother had come away from so safe a place into one so full of danger as Pekin.