Page:On to Pekin.djvu/183

Rh Frenchmen,—clever shots, who could do a good deal in the way of protection if the lighter got into another tight corner.

By the time the battahon was ready to continue its march toward Tien-Tsin it was broad daylight. As the soldiers came closer to the foreign quarter of the city, they kept closer together; and a vidette was sent ahead, that they might not fall into a trap.

The evidences of a bombardment were now to be seen on every hand. The Pei-Ho was full of the dead bodies of Boxers, some washed up on the shore by the tide and others floating aimlessly hither and thither. Here and there a savage "chow" (Chinese wolf dog) was feeding on the corpses. Where the road was not torn up, it was strewn with household effects, soldier equipments, and the like. At one point there was a hasty breastworks built of a pile of salt.

Suddenly, just as Tien-Tsin was sighted, there came a number of shots from across the river, and one of the French soldiers was struck in the arm. A body of Chinese troops had sighted the oncoming troops, and in a few minutes a small field-gun was trained upon them.