5th Sept. THE defence of the Legations pales, we are told by one of the besieged, before the defence of the Peitang, or Roman Catholic Mission, at Peking. There were there Bishop Favier, six or seven priests, some twenty Sisters, and some 2,000 native converts, men, women, and children, with 30 French and 10 Italian guards, only 40 rifles in all, When one of the guards fell his rifle was handed to a native convert. The enemy exploded five mines altogether under the besieged, in one of which some 80 persons, principally women and children, and Italian guards were killed. The Italian officer was buried in it for three-quarters of an hour, and was got out almost unhurt. After the relief, another large mine was discovered under the church itself, whose explosion would have caused a tremendous loss of life. Electric conductors were found in this mine. The Peitang beat the Legations in one thing; in that the converts succeeded in capturing one of the enemy's guns With its ammunition, and in making arwmunition for it when the captured supply came to end. For two months there was no communication between the Peitang and the Legations, and neither Imew how the others were faring. At the end the rations at the Peitang were reduced to 2 ounces of rice a day a head, with a little horse-meat for the fighting men, and if the relief had not come when it did, the majority of the 2,000 converts, the Priests and the Sisters must have died of starvation.
'The notorious "foreign-hater Hsii Tung was actually in the hands of the foreigners at Peking and was allowed to escape. His house was within the foreign lines, and he sent to the Italian' Minister, Marquis be allowed cay to the Palace. The Salvage Raggi, asking for a pass to Marquis Salvage replied that he would be much safer in his own house, as the streets were full of bad characters, and he had better stay at home. He then applied to the French Minister, who gave him a pass. As he was coming out in his chair he was seen by Mr. Robert Bredon, who told' the French sentries not to allow him to pass as he was one of the chiefs of the Boxers, but the sentries replied that he had a permit from M. Pichon, and they could not stop him. He went to the Palace, had an audience of the Empress Dowager, and returned. The next day he went out again, but he had so much trouble at the barricades where sentries of other nationalities were sted, who were very unwilling to him through but who could not disregard Mr. Pichon's pass, that he did not return te his home, and it was looted and burnt by the Boxers. It is reported that the new Belgian Legation is to be built on its site.
The relief was not a day too soon, as far as the mine under the British Legation was concerned. As we have already mentioned, some traitor within the Legation must have given the enemy the necessary information, for it was driven through the only place where the trenches running north and south and east and west did not quite meet. It came from the ruined Hanlin College, and was about 170 feet long, the chamber being underneath the Students' quarters. There was one barrel of powder in the chamber and twelve other barrels waiting to be stacked there, and the fuse was laid. Had it been explode ed, the Japanese Minister and his family and staff would have been victims, for they were quartered in the Students' premises, with several of the students themselves, and the mess of the Royal Marines, and the loss of life would probably have been very large.
Some of the Peking besieged are loud in their praise of the conduct of the American as well as the British missionaries during the siege. As has already been mentioned, the defences of the British Legation were the fruit of the engineering talent of the Rev.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.