No story of the siege in Peking would be complete without mention of the work of August Chamot and his heroic wife. He is a Swiss, and in Peking has charge of the Hotel de Peking for Messrs. Tallieu & Co. His wife is a San Francisco girl.
When every other woman in Peking left her home and repaired to the British legation, Mrs. Chamot remained by her husband, with a rifle in her hand, and took her regular hours of watching at the loopholes of the barricade erected across Legation street, between the Hotel de Peking and the German legation. Mr. Chamot started a bakery in his hotel, and daily had the Chinese bake hundreds of loaves of good brown bread, with which he supplied many hungry mouths at the English, French, and German legations.
There is no building left standing in Peking that has as many shell-holes in it as the northern two-story building of this hotel. Any one visiting the structure immediately after the relief, and before the débris had been at all cleared, would scarcely believe that a brave American woman had lived there for sixty days unharmed. Her hairbreadth escapes were every-day occurrences. When the Belgian party were surrounded in Chang Hsin Tien, before the close siege commenced, Mr. and Mrs. Chamot, with a small party armed with rifles, went out from Peking and rescued them.
They were in several sorties to the north cathedral before the close siege, and in many more after the close siege had begun. Every day they were under fire in crossing the bridge between their hotel and the British legation, as they brought over the bread that was so eagerly looked for.
Madame Chamot, the heroine of the siege
After some shells had burst in the baking-room, and killed one and severely wounded others of the Chinese bakers, Mrs. Chamot, rifle in hand, held the coolies to their work while her husband served with the guards.