Boats were procured without delay, immediately the shell fire ceased, and the British force crossed the river to attack the largest and most powerful of all the enemy’s strongholds. Not a shot was fired! The two explosions referred to had caused terrific damage to the fort itself, and these, together with the heavy bombardment, had entirely unnerved the Chinamen, who fled precipitately as soon as the bluejackets effected a landing. The heavy guns mounted in the New fort luckily would not ‘bear’ during any part of the engagement, and these too surrendered without firing a shot. By seven o’clock the storming party were back on board their respective ships to get some breakfast, before landing again to make good the terms of the ultimatum. The engagement had lasted for six hours, and the Chinese had lost at least 650 men. The official despatch gives the Chinese loss in the N.W. and N. forts at 100, and quite 150 more must have perished in the explosions, and under the heavy shell fire to which the South fort was subjected. The allies’ loss was altogether 172 officers and men, most of them being wounded. An hotel in the little pilot village, at the mouth of the river, was turned into a hospital, and here the British wounded received every attention possible under fairly favourable circumstances. The next thing to be done was the forming of garrisons for the forts, and the making of dispositions whereby the European force might follow up this, their first brilliant success. CHAPTER III THE FIRST SIEGE OF TIENTSIN By the siege of Tientsin is meant the siege of the European settlements by the Chinese, not, as might be supposed, the siege of the native walled city by the allies; this latter event not taking place until the settlements had successfully withstood the attack of some 30,000 Chinamen for two successive periods, broken by the first relief, of altogether a calendar month. [Illustration: NATIVE QUARTER, TIENTSIN _(from Pontoon Bridge), destroyed because dangerous to Europeans on account of harbouring Chinese soldiers_. [_page 46._] The settlements are built on the right bank of the river, to the eastward of the native city, and abut on the Chinese suburbs. They and the native city alike are enclosed by the same mud wall, a structure about 12 feet high, and broad enough on the top for four men to walk abreast, called “Sankolinsin’s folly.” Four miles to the north-eastward of the British settlement was the large and important arsenal known as the Pei-Yang; a mile and a half to the south-westward was a smaller arsenal called Hi-Kuan-Su; and six and a half miles to the northward was the large and valuable military store, which went by the name of the Hsi-Ku arsenal. All these positions were already full of Imperial troops by the 15th of June, and as we know, the whole country was swarming with semi-religious fanatics.