LOOT OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE AT PEKIN 629 



I gave free vent to my wrath. 



"I am the secretary of thegeneraJ in chief, and if you move an 

 inch, or if you touch one of these women with the end of your Hnger, 

 I will break your head! If you are not satisfied I will liecrin imw' 

 Clear out!" 



"You ought to have told me at once that you were the General's 

 secretary," replied the sergeant, leaping from the royal carriage. 



The trooper had a pleasant mien, a blue eye, light hair, wcU-triunned 

 head, an air of discipline, and was not ugly in his bearing. 



My title of secretary to the general in chief had produced a magical 

 effect. I regretted having threatened him with it, and stretched out 

 my hand to him, saying: 



"I beg your pardon, comrade, but you know I have instructions. 

 Orders! Orders!" 



"I understand perfectly," he said, with the air of a man who does 

 not understand anything. "We are to save these individuals." 



'' They are the wives of the Emperor," said I, raising my hands with 

 an appropriate expression. 



"The devil! Can I be of an}^ assistance to j^ou^' 



"Yes; help me to get them out of this park." 



"Where shall we take them to?" 



As I had absolutely no plan, 1 answered peremptorily, "'We shall 

 see." 



"I was about to propose, if you please, that we should take them 

 to a Christian, who lives near by at Haitien. I got acquainted with 

 him this morning, because he came to see the paymaster, who is my 

 friend and countryman, and we went together to take tea with him. 

 He is a fine fellow." 



"Let us go to 3^our Christian, my friend, but Orders! Orders!" 



"All right." 



On our left, near the carriage house, a park gate opened into the 

 country. There we led the women. They hobbled along on their little 

 nuitilated feet like birds from which the large feathers of their wings 

 had been clipped. Most of them had covered their })rilliant toilets 

 with long, loose wrappers, so as to look like peasant women, but 

 through the slits of the gowns escaped the billows of silk, and little 

 slippers of red satin peeped out like doves' bills from these sumptuous 

 parcels. It w as charming, on the green grass they seemed to me like 

 a cluster of living flowers. 



THE NIGHT IN CAMP. 



When I returned to the camp night was falling. The men (-ame 

 back loaded with booty, bearing the most heterogeneous collection of 

 articles, from silver saucepans to astronomical telescopes and sextants— 

 a prodigious mass of material which they certainly could never carry 

 home. 



