His wonderful indifference made the opposing forces imagine he had received large reinforcements since their last spies visited the city, little thinking that any person would show such composure, if he knew it was impossible to hold his ground. Yeh was completely blinded by egotism, and probably none of his mandarins dared to tell him exactly how matters stood; therefore, when Ho-qua and other merchants had urged him to make terms, he merely regarded their fears as mercantile ones, and treated them accordingly. Besides, they were Chinese, not Tartars; they only had peddling ideas of trade and loss of goods; whereas, he was a Tartar, who delighted in bloodshed, and knew if he were defeated, or if he yielded, it was all up with him at Pekin, so determined to stay where he was until everything went against him, and then--run away, as many a Tartar had done before. At twelve o'clock that night Canton was as quiet as usual. True, the look-out men perched up in the sentry-boxes built all along the walls, kept up a furious din with their bamboo rattles, to show they were awake and to frighten foul spirits away; and the ordinary watchmen made night hideous with their shrill cries. However, their noises only occurred at intervals, and beyond that Canton was as silent as Pompeii, the streets being deserted, and not a soul abroad who was not on military duty. Yeh slumbered until an hour before daybreak, when he arose and held a consultation with his officers. At that time the city was hidden in a light fog, and it was imagined the western barbarians would delay their attack until sunrise, but to the governor's astonishment, as he was speaking, a shell came crashing into his ya-mun, and burst in the court-yard near the room in which they were assembled. Hearing the explosion, he dismissed his officers, ordering them, as they valued their heads, to hold the walls till the last moment; and then that learned scholar, great warrior, and plucky Tartar went into an inner apartment, and, ostrich-like, hid himself under a pile of cotton bags. The mortar-battery commenced the attack, and at the same moment a signal was hoisted on the crows'-nest of the fort. In a moment bang, bang went the guns of the various ships, and away tore hundreds of missiles into Canton. Yeh's ya-mun was the principal object of attack at first, and the whole line of ships directed their guns upon that spot. Not a shot was fired by the Chinese in return, and their enemies had it all their own way. For several hours they continued firing with great precision, and in many places the outer wall was badly battered, large masses of it falling into the streets underneath, and completely filling them with rubbish.