When once resistance had ceased there was time to look about one, and it was a scene worth remembering that met the eyes, if only it had been possible to shut out some of the hideous effects of the last two days’ fighting. From the top of the wall one saw a large, densely-built city which at first only seemed to boast of three roads, one encircling the whole, and the other two equally dividing it into four parts, meeting at the centre, where their intersection was marked by an imposing-looking structure, which might have been either pagoda or gate. In its most peaceful days it is improbable that any one thought it beautiful. “Striking” is perhaps the word which would have been employed by a globe-trotter. However, Tientsin was unlike itself on the morning of July 14, and had it ever been striking, it was then doubly so. The first thing to be noticed was the gate of entry, which was blazing furiously, together with what remained of a fine pagoda which had been built on the top of it. The latter had been literally pulverised by shells, and had been burning for some hours. Though nearly burnt out, it caused great inconvenience to the troops, who were compelled for the time to lie in its vicinity. A glance at the wall also bore testimony to the accuracy of the Allies’ artillery fire; and although the projectiles were for the most part too small to inflict any great structural damage, yet here and there the ramparts had been swept clear away for several feet at a time. Twenty-three shell marks were distinctly visible on the south gate walls, and on what remained of its pagoda, and it must be admitted that the Chinese who defended this and the neighbouring portions of the wall, showed a tenacity not to be gainsaid. [Illustration: MAIN ROAD—TIENTSIN. [_page 176._] It is doubtful whether, with the exception of a few in the suburbs and prison, the enemy lost as many as thirty men from rifle fire on the whole of the 13th; for the wall was so thick, and the loopholes so small, that even the possibility of a stray bullet finding a fleshy resting-place was almost precluded. Shells, however, had done their work elsewhere, as destructively to material and perhaps more so to life, as they had done on the walls. They had burst promiscuously when once they had passed over the walls; and from what the Allies had seen of promiscuous shelling it was not held to be particularly dangerous; but here the conditions were somewhat different. Hardly a shell could pitch without landing on a roof, and then the houses were of a much more inflammable nature and densely packed with human beings.