LOOT OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE AT PEKIN. ^17 



Wc only gave a passing attention to the extravagant contents of these 

 porcehiin vases, of which the smallest would he worth 1()0,0()0 francs 

 in Druot's auction rooms, and we went straight into the first audience 

 room, which opened before us. 



This hall forms one side of a quadrangle of buildings, in the inidst 

 of which is a garden and fountains; to the right and to the left are 

 two other halls of audience and of ceremonies, and at the far end of 

 the quadrangle the throne room. 



In the three halls first traversed we found most extraordinar}^ treas- 

 ures. We must bear in mind that the Emperor preserved in these 

 palaces — transformed into a nmseum, or rather into a warehouse of 

 riches — the most exquisite products of many generations of 400, 000, 000 

 human beings, of which he is the demigod, as well as all the tributes 

 paid him by foreign nations, all the presents which fear or admiration 

 had drawn from the great as well as the humble, all which had 1)cen 

 confiscated from his rebellious subjects. We must bear in mind that 

 in this immense Empire not a superior Avork of art was produced which 

 did not naturall}' drift toward the Emperor, and not a treasure was 

 discovered that did not fall into his hands of its own accord. 



There were gathered all the wealth in precious stones and fine fabrics 

 presented b}^ tributary princes, and all that the kings and emperors 

 of Europe had sent to Hien-Fong and his predecessors, all the l>ric-a- 

 brac and curiosities, as well as all the goods which the simple-minded 

 merchant, wishing to obtain rights in a port, subtracted from his cargo 

 to propitiate the sovereign. Everything was preserved with care and 

 equally honored, from a cloth of gold ornamented with pearls, which 

 had come, perhaps, from the Sublime Porte, vq3 to a doll that cried 

 '•papa" and *' mamma," which a Marseilles captain had taken from his 

 little daughter at Christmas and carried to China to "grease the palm" 

 of the chief mandarin. 



This multitude of treasures had overflowed the private apartments 

 of the soveizeign and his wives and spread itself into these immense 

 cathedral halls. The spectacle was at once extraordinary and daz- 

 zling—dazzling from the richness of the articles, extraordinary from 

 their number and variety. 



At length we reached the throne room, placed on a platform ap- 

 proached by seven steps of beautiful granite polished like a mirror. 

 It is completely separated from surrounding buildings. Its raised 

 roof, extending at least three feet beyond the granite steps, is supported 

 by two rows of ironwood columns, most artistically engraved, and 

 resembles those bamboos or engraved ivories which we in Europe use 

 for tobacco jars or match boxes, but swollen to gigantic proportions. 

 No two pillars were alike, and the scenes which were engraved m 

 spirals around their shafts, as on the column in the Place Vonclome, 

 were borrowed in part from national history, in part from legends, 

 in part from celebrated romances and mythology. 

 SM 1000 43 



