Naturally the landing of a brigade, and the supplies necessary for its maintenance, entailed a large amount of work on the sadly depleted crews of the fleet outside the bar; but nobody was idle, and the work of equipping a further force was steadily proceeded with. Orders for stores, ammunition, men, and even cruisers followed one another with astonishing rapidity, and it was decided to telegraph to the General commanding troops at Hong-Kong to hold part of the garrison in readiness for immediate shipment to the troubled province. Meanwhile the Chinese were by no means idle; large stores of rice and munitions of war were daily poured into the strong forts at the mouth of the river. As a further step, they proceeded to mine its mouth, and it became apparent that they intended to block the only means of communication with the interior, and with the soon-to-be-allied gunboats, which were already anchored some distance up the waterway. On the 15th a tug was dispatched in charge of a midshipman about thirty miles down the coast, to rescue some missionaries who were reported to be in distress; and in the evening the expectant fleets heard that Sir Edward Seymour had been in touch with the Boxers. The Naval Brigade’s work had commenced! Conferences had been a matter of daily occurrence for some time, and on the morning of the 16th, on board the Russian Flagship, at a conference which proved to be the most momentous of all, the Admirals agreed that the situation was such as to demand immediate action, which should take the form of an allied occupation of the Taku Forts. Accordingly an ultimatum was sent to the general in command, to the effect that if they were not evacuated by midnight 16th June, the allied forces would bombard and storm them. During the morning the tug returned, the officer having successfully performed his task, and having reached his destination just in time to baulk the Boxers, who were in pursuit, of their prey. Such, then, was the situation at noon on June the 16th, and it may be doubted whether any host of peasants, for whatever reason, had ever raised such a hornets’ nest about their ears before. Let it be remarked before closing this prelude that the date was ill chosen. Those in the plot had meant that matters should reach a climax in the middle of November, when the river would have been frozen, and all hopes of sending aid futile. Their scheme failed for two main reasons. One was the drought which threatened starvation to thousands of the poorer classes, and which was, as a matter of course, laid at the door of the hated foreigner; the other was that not only the ringleaders of the movement, but even the Government themselves, had lost all control over the minds and bodies of the fanatical Boxers, whose placards, which contained a great deal about “killing foreigners,” were now posted up broadcast in every village. CHAPTER II THE BOMBARDMENT AND STORMING OF THE TAKU FORTS