On pulling inshore we made fast to some junks which had been requisitioned and moored just inside the bar for the purpose, and here we remained while the gunboats went on to the assault; Admiral Hope leading the advance in person and hoisting his flag on the little _Plover_, which showed the way to the rest, moving onward to the first obstruction in the river, a long row of iron piles linked together by eight-inch hawsers hove taut. As we watched our comrades making this forward movement at last, the flood tide filled the turgid stream of the Peiho, flooding the reedy marshes on either side of its banks; until, presently, a sheet of muddy water stretched up to the base of the forts, lapping their wide earthen escarpments. These made no sign of defiance whatever, not a man being seen on the parapets, nor a gun peeping from their embrasures, which were hidden with mantlets. Every heart beat high with excitement; and instead of fearing the worst, the worst we feared was a hollow victory! The gunboats all took up their several positions, anchoring so as to command the forts and support those attacking the booms; and at two p.m., when the ebb began to flow and there was no danger of the stream carrying the vessels too close in, the _Opossum_ was ordered by signal to pull up the first pile, which she did by the aid of tackles and steam power. On the removal of this obstacle, the admiral passed through towards the second barrier, which was immediately under the concentric fire of the batteries on both banks of the river. Here the question would be decided at length whether the Chinese meant fighting or not. We had not long to wait for the decision. Hardly had the bows of the _Plover_ touched the boom than "Bang" went a single gun from the nearest earthwork. This seemed like a signal; for, almost at the instant of its discharge, a terrific fire of shot and shell from forty pieces of cannon was hurled on the unfortunate _Plover_ and her consort the _Opossum_, which followed her close up behind, both being immediately wreathed in smoke and flame and having their decks swept fore and aft by every discharge. It was a regular ambuscade, a hornet's nest! In less than twenty minutes, the two gunboats were so badly shattered as to be almost silenced; though the plucky little _Plover_ still remained in the van, with the admiral's signal still flying, "Engage the enemy," with the red pennant under, which Mr Gilham told me meant "as close as possible." She held out, too, in spite of her not having nine men of her original crew left efficient out of the party with which she commenced the action; while Lieutenant Rason, who commanded her, was killed by being cut in two by a round shot. The admiral himself was grievously wounded by the splinter of a shell in the thigh, and the rest of the officers swept down--a terrible amount of slaughter in so small a space.