On Thursday, the trains were attacked by 2000 Boxers, who surprised and cut to pieces five Italians on picket duty, who were playing cards instead of keeping watch. On they went, charging Maxims and magazine rifles as though it was an everyday matter; never wavering, never stopping except to go through their bullet-charming gesticulations, they just came on at a trot yelling “Tow-ah! Tow-ah!” (Kill! Kill!) with a calm disregard of death which was as absurd as it was pathetic. As an officer present with the foremost Maxim said, “It seemed awfully unreal, this mowing down of men but a few yards off.” They never got past the first train, whose crew were mainly British. All around it they lay, and just in the wake of the Maxim they lay in heaps. This gun had done its work well, the big leaden bullet crushing, and rendering nerveless, any one that it hit, whereas the humane nickel-coated bullet failed altogether to stop these pertinacious swordsmen, unless it struck a vital spot. At last the limit of fanaticism was reached, and the enemy retired, having suffered terribly. Meanwhile a still more hotly contested conflict had been waging at Lo-fa, where Lieutenant Colomb and fifty men had been left in a fortified house, which they called “Fort Endymion” after the name of their ship. They were attacked by 3000 Chinamen, but after some hard fighting, they drove the enemy off with a known loss of 150 killed. An interesting feature of the attack was the bringing of two prehistoric guns into action by the Boxers, from which they fired railway bolts and smooth stones. The first casualties, with the exception of the Italian picket, were caused by these extraordinary weapons; one man being wounded through the right lung by a stone. [Illustration: SEYMOUR’S COLUMN—ARMOURED TRUCK WITH RAILWAY COOLIES. [_facing page 77._] [Illustration: CARRIAGES OCCUPIED BY SEYMOUR’S COLUMN FOR TEN DAYS. [_facing page 77._] On the 15th a train went back, and found that the line in rear of Lo-fa was again completely torn up, and that there was no chance of getting any more news from Tientsin; so the force once more found itself with only two days’ provisions, and a quickly diminishing supply of ammunition. Suspicion began to grow that the Regular troops would soon commence active opposition to the advance; and it was felt that, although Pekin would certainly be reached as long as there were only sword and spearmen to contend with, considering the state of the line, it would be well-nigh impossible if the troops abandoned their hitherto neutral attitude. The expected 48 hours to Pekin had already extended to a week; and beyond the fact of having got half-way, and having slain some hundreds of Boxers with practically no loss, the force was in a rather worse predicament than after the first day’s work. [Illustration: SEYMOUR’S COLUMN—SERVING OUT GROG. [_page 77._]