The  fighting  over  and  the  Chinese  having  retired,
we  occupied  their  camp.  Their  fires  were  burning,
and  there  was  plenty  of  hot,  steaming  rice  left.  We
found  a  smelting-pot,  in  which  the  lead  for  bullets
had  been  fused,  showing  that  ammunition  had  been
getting  scarce.  The  Chinese  had  dug  entrench-
ments, thirty  feet  wide  and  twelve  feet  deep,  down
to  the  bank  of  the  river  on  one  side,  and  round  the
town  on  the  other,  facing  an  elevated  piece  of
ground,  which  they  had  intended  to  utilize  as  a  fort.
Unfortunately  for  them,  we  came  too  soon,  and  their
guns  were  not  in  position  ;  in  fact,  the  trenches
had  not  been  completed.  The  baskets,  spades,  and
picks  were  lying  round  in  confusion,  just  as  they
had  been  thrown  away  at  the  tidings  of  our  ap-
proach. Another  week's  work  would  have  made  this
place  a  stronghold,  but  our  policy  throughout  the
march  was  to  give  the  enemy  no  time  to  entrench.
To  maintain  the  pace  at  which  we  were  proceeding
meant  a  severe  strain  on  our  troops  ;  but  they  stood
it  well,  inspired  as  they  were  by  the  desire  to  relieve
the  poor  distressed  people  in  Peking.
We  had  now  reached  the  halfway  point,  and  here
we  found,  placed  at  a  convenient  centre,  a  powder
magazine  estimated  to  contain  from  eighty  to  a
hundred  tons  of  powder.  We  camped  close  by,  and  a

114


On  the  March

sentry  was  posted  to  watch  over  it.  At  the  council  of
war  held  on  the  pitching  of  our  camp,  the  generals
decided  that  in  consequence  of  the  heat,  which  was
working  such  havoc  with  the  troops,  we  should
march  at  4  p.m.  on  the  morrow,  and  then  take  a
night  march,  when  the  weather  would  be  cooler.
