0U() Loot oi<* the imi'ekial sl'mmek palace at pekin. 



Tli(' gonoi'iil iipprotu'hcd, and by liis order 1 asked some of them 

 where their ehief was. "We have none,"" they said. '"Where, then, 

 are your subaltern officers? '' Three mandarins of no importance came 

 forward and explained that the chief oencral had l)een killed in the 

 other fort: he was the man who had the peacock ]ilume, and nobody, 

 they said, had dared to take the connnand afterwards without the 

 Knipeior's ordi-rs. The ability of a chief comes to him from 

 tile Emperor throu^^h the ordei-s which he transmits, and whoever is 

 vain enough to assume himself the responsibilities of such command 

 can only commit faults; and. they added, "if the mandarin invested 

 with supreme power could not defend the tirst fort, how could we 

 have any pretension of doing better than our connnanding officer did?" 

 After this discourse, so full of good sense and respect for official 

 order, the three lower class mandarins knelt down, beat their Ijreasts 

 and asked to be sent to the right bank. * * * It was evident that 

 the demoralization of thi' Chinese, to which we owed the surrender of 

 perfectly defendalili' fortresses, came from the death of the conunand- 

 ing general, who was said t^) be the own brother of 8an-Ko-Li-Tsin, 

 tile coniniander in chief of the Chinese army. 



[Count D'Ht'-iisson, attiT jriviiiji: the history of the sulwequent uefrotiations, in 

 whieh it was arranij;e<l that the ani))assa<lors should jxo to the capital to finally ratify 

 a new treaty there, refers to the delicate (|uestion which arose as to the nunil)er of 

 l>ersons in the escort which the ambassadors should take with them to Pekin. The 

 Chinese insisted that this escort should lie a very small one, rea.soning as follows:] 



"You are treating with us to secure your interests and protection 

 for your connnerce. and it is in your own interests then not to diminish 

 the prestige of our sovereign. You have everything to gain on the 

 other hand whil(> leaving him the moral force necessary to execute the 

 treaty and to guarantee the favors he has conceded. If you airive at 

 Pekin with your victorious generals escorted by their armies, our 

 Kmperor will appear in the eyes of his subjects to yield to force, and 

 you will have no occasion for surprise if in spite of his good will you 

 do not find him giving with a good grace." 



Baron Gros, the French ambassador, would have been satisfied with 

 an escort of a few men, but Lord Elgin did not view it at all in the 

 same way and would not go to Pekin except surrounded by a force 

 sufficient to represent properly a great nation and a great Queen. He 

 demanded an escort of at least 1,000 men — infantry, cavalry, and 

 artillery. The French General (Montauban) himself did not share this 

 opinion, and supported the French ambassador. He could not imag- 

 ine the possibilitv of treason on the part of the Chinese, and the gen- 

 eral wrote to the French minister of w^ar, complaining that our allies 

 were compromising the result of so successful a campaign out of their 

 puerile vanity in exhibiting their forces. He wished to explain that 

 he was not responsible for the fatal consequences which such a show 



