The ammunition for the Italian one-pound gun having run short, pewter vessels from the Chinese houses around were brought in, melted, and run into molds to make the shot for the gun. With these the used cartridges were reloaded, and, there being no primers for them, revolver cartridges were readily used instead. When tried in the bore they worked very well, though it was feared that the harder metal of which they were made would be ruinous to the rifling of the gun.
The Chinese broke two holes in the top of the imperial city wall and built a platform just over the water-gate, where it was expected they would mount guns the next night. At 10 p.m. they started a fusillade, which lasted for a few minutes, but the rest of the night was fairly quiet.
The French and Austrians claimed to have heard cannonading about ten kilometers (six miles) to the southeast. But this has also proved a false hope, and the general opinion is now that the relief has not started from Tientsin at all, though why, no one can say.
July 8. Sunday. The Chinese on the wall moved up their arms and opened fire on our barricade. The third shot they fired was badly aimed and struck their own barricade, carrying most of it away, when they were forced to retreat in a hurry. There was a fire at the Su Wang Fu of the main pavilion buildings, but it was not very serious. Two shells from a gun to the west struck the wall, and one the top of Mr. Coburn’s house, showing that the Chinese are getting the range. The evening fusillade started at 9:45 and lasted about twenty minutes.
July 9. In the morning Mr. Squiers sent out a man into the city to see what was going on there. He returned in the afternoon reporting, first, that Hatamen has been closed for many days; second, that there are no Chinese troops in the southern city; third, that Rung Lu’s troops are guarding the Chihaumen, but there are many Kansu men on the Hatamen streets and in the imperial city; fourth, that at the ssupailou (four arches) the shops are open and doing business as usual; fifth, that the Emperor and Empress Dowager are still in the city; sixth, that the Peking “Gazette” is published daily. The day was quiet except for occasional firing.
July 10. In the morning several of the Chinese shells came very close, breaking right over the tennis court, and making it unsafe for any one to cross.
July 11. A messenger sent out with a letter tried to get through the water-gate, but was immediately fired on by the Chinese sentries and forced to fly. He got in without being hurt.
The Chinese were extremely quiet all night, but the cause was not known until the next morning, when it was discovered that they had built two new big walls, one in the Hanlin Yuan, and another in the imperial carriage park.