The Americans and Germans again took their positions on the wall, and began building barricades in the face of the Chinese gun. As the mutton began to get scarce, the first horse was killed. It was very good eating, and I doubt not that we have had some of that kind of beef before, in substitution for the genuine article. Three rockets, probably Chinese, were seen during the night. June 26. The night entertainment—“fireworks”—came at 3 A.M., instead of midnight, as usual. Chinese troops were seen marching northwest, supposedly to convey the Empress to the summer palace. By this time the shells from the various guns close by us began to come nearer, several exploding in the compound. “Bomb-proof” cellars were therefore started in different parts of the compound, in which we might take refuge if the shells actually began to do damage. These “bomb-proofs” were trenches about six feet deep, covered with a roof of timbers, boards, and from two to four feet of earth or sand-bags. These it was thought would furnish efficient protection against fragments of shell. Sergeant Fanning, United States Marine Corps, was killed by a sniper on the city wall. June 27. Very heavy firing, mostly from the imperial city wall. A crowd of greenhorn Boxers started to attack the Americans on the wall from below. The Americans turned the Colt on them, killing about fifty, and the rest got away. A Chinaman who arrived from near Tientsin reported Boxers very thick around there, and that three divisions of troops had left Tientsin June 24 to come to Peking, one coming north, one west, and one east. June 28. No news of importance. June 29. In the morning there was an attack made by the Chinese on the south stables, the weakest part of the whole legation compound. This was repulsed after a short fight, and about twenty British marines under Captain Strouts went out after the Chinese, killing a large number of them, and capturing their rifles with about six hundred rounds of ammunition. The guns were mostly Mauser rifles and carbines. They were distributed among the unarmed men of the legation. Captain Strouts was grazed in the neck by a bullet. Later fifty volunteers, under Captain Wray, went out to capture a gun near the Su Wang Fu that was making things unpleasant for the people there. They could not find it, however, and had to return. By this time nearly all the Chinese houses near the United States legation had been burned in the various attempts to fire the legation, and in the ruins of these houses a number of Chinese snipers installed themselves, making it extremely dangerous for any one attempting to cross Legation street.