LOOT OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE AT PEKIN. 625 



Consequently, the Chinese of Haitien and our <•ooli(^s liad hrouc^ht 

 torches and l)undles of straw— in fact, everything- that was needed" to 

 burn a paUxce— and had immediately undertaken to exercise their 

 special industry. 



The trooper, on hearino^ these facts, which reached him majrnified 

 and exag-o-erated, felt his anxiety give place to anger; awhile ago he 

 thought, "These Chinese will cabbage ever^^thing;" now he added, 

 '•''The rascals are going to burn everything." 



Irresistiljle pressure at the guarded gates carried away the sentinels, 

 the crowd rushed in, together with the company under arms and the 

 workmen who had been summoned; and immediately each one laid 

 hold of that which best suited him and carried it off. From the very 

 .first moment I noticed the characteristics of the two allied nations: 

 the Frenchmen went each for himself; the Englishmen, more method- 

 ical in their ways, had instantly comprehended the business in hand 

 and sj^stematized the pillage. 



The}' arrived in squads, like gangs of workmen, with men carrying 

 large sacks and connnanded by noncommissioned officers, who brought 

 with them, strange as it may seem, touchstones. I do not know where 

 in the world they found them, but I can state that they possessed this 

 primitive jeweler's tool. 



Englishmen, Frenchmen, officers, and soldiers had entered the palace 

 with the inhabitants of Haitien, with our coolies, who fiercely hated 

 the northern Chinese — pellmell with the crowds of parasites who fol- 

 low armies like crows, dogs, and jackals. 



To ask our men to let this human torrent flow bj^ them while they 

 stood still Avas asking something beyond human power. They were 

 like the dog in the fable carrying the dinner of his master, who ))egan 

 by defending it, but when he saw another had got a bite he seized 

 his own share. Our men entered like them and along with them. 

 What could the General or his officers do? Absolutely nothing. If 

 they had tried to stem the torrent they would have been swept away 

 by the rush; they would have compromised their influence and reputa- 

 tion, and with it the future of the expedition. With us, as witii the 

 English, the generals had only one thing to do, to shut their eyes. 

 It was one of those psychological moments in military life whim, as 

 Count von Bismarck said later, the artificial regulations which serve 

 to bind nations as well as armies disappear, leaving primitive human 

 nature in all its crudity and absolute surrender to its free instincts. 

 Such moments occur at two points in the history of armies— in over- 

 whelming defeat and in supreme victory; and at such times there are 

 no longer regulations or authority. Men become purely selfish, either 

 in the depression of a disaster or in the intoxication of triumph. 



Under these conditions the commanders must be prudent and patient, 

 they must stand by and wait until the fear of defeat or the fatigue of 



