July 7. Two attacks were made on the French legation and were repulsed, the Chinese loss being small, as they retired rapidly. The Austrian commander, Captain von Thorneburg, was killed in one of these attacks, being shot through the heart. We are now really eating the horse-meat. A number of people who were using it assured us it was very good, but our prejudices prevailed some time. First we tried the liver, fried with a small scrap of bacon, and were pleased to find it tasted just like beef-liver. Then we tried some of the meat curried, and now we are having excellent sausages of the meat, which helps the rice to be more palatable. We are allowed one pound of horse-meat per adult individual each day. When the Russians came up the first time, they brought along with them sixty shells, leaving the gun in Tientsin to be brought up by the next force that came. As no other could get in, the ammunition was of no use. It was thought that if some kind of a cannon could be made, many of our shells might be utilized in destroying the Chinese barricades. So Mitchell, the United States gunner, started to work on two sections of a fire-engine pump. Meanwhile, two Chinese coolies found an old cannon, a muzzle-loader of about 1860, in a junkshop, and dragged it in. As this cannon fitted the shells it was used instead of the pump. It was mounted on a pair of wheels taken from the Italian ammunition truck. It has been nicknamed the “International.” The gun itself was an old British one, mounted on an Italian carriage, and fired with Russian ammunition by an American gunner. Hence the nickname. 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.