The Dowager Empress, Cixi, the emperor and several members of the court fled Peking in the early morning of 15 August, only a few hours before the Americans knocked up against the wall of the Forbidden City.
On 28 August, the foreign armies in Peking swelled in numbers by the arrival of soldiers from Germany, Italy and Austria and additional troops from France marched through the Forbidden City to demonstrate symbolically their complete control of Peking.