Immediately the decision of the Admirals had been made known, all became bustle and activity on the ships outside the bar. Officers and men vied with one another in the work of getting everything ready to equip the storming party, and every one was strapping up blankets, filling water-bottles, buckling on bandoliers, cutlasses, revolvers, and all the other man-killing paraphernalia which sailor and soldier alike carry. All hands were happy, except the unfortunate few who, for various reasons, were unable to go, and not even the ceremony of being presented with a field-service dressing by the doctor, brought a thoughtful face to the eager men. Of rough, rude jests there were plenty. A brawny bluejacket looked at the small package containing gauze, lint, and bandage, and asked, “’Ere, Bill, what’s this for?” “Why, to tie up the Chinamen, of course.” “Well, this won’t be big enough when I’ve finished with ’em; give me another dozen.” And so it went on until the “fall in” sounded, and the various ships’ detachments fell in on the “Barfleur’s” quarterdeck to receive the good wishes of the unlucky minority, and a few words of sound advice from the Rear-Admiral. At precisely 3.25 p.m. the tug “Fa-Wan” left the “Barfleur,” flying the white ensign, with three hundred and twenty officers and men on board, or in the boats towing astern. On the way ashore the men were told off into separate companies; the Commander formed his staff; and then, for the first time, men began to realise what was in front of them; and so, when the forts came into view, they came in for a good deal of attention. Whatever the men thought, only one sentiment was expressed “The Admiral is in danger, our shipmates are in danger, and as a small beginning to relieve them we’re going to take those forts.” No doubt it was generally felt that the force was comparatively puny; but, for cogent and self-evident reasons, the Indian army was yet thousands of miles away, and after all it was right that the Commander-in-Chief should be relieved by the Navy; beside which there was a chance of avenging the repulse of some forty years back for the second time. As soon as details on the forts became distinguishable to the naked eye, the Chinese gunners were seen to be standing to their guns, and a range-finder, which had been placed in position since noon that day, was manned by a crowd of laughing Chinese, whose sole cause for merriment appears to have been, as they thought, the entrance of the “foreign devils” into their well-laid trap. Their folly cost them dear!