630 LOOT OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE AT PEKIN. 



The English camp tilled up in the same wuj, but there everything 

 was carried on in perfect order. In our camp the soldiers were mas- 

 querading. The artillerymen arrived enveloped in the garments of the 

 Empress, their breasts decorated with the collars of mandarins. Over 

 there the articles had been placed in piles in each tent, and they had 

 already begun to sell them at ])ublic auction. 



Just here I must relate a little anecdote. One of our spies, my 

 orderly Mohammed, was extremely attached to me, both through 

 affection and 1)y interest. 



"'"You are the friend of the General," he often said to me. "You 

 ])ut words into his mouth; you must get me a medal." 



When he returned from the sununer palace he brought a double 

 handful of pearls. 



"These are for you," he said to mo, simply. 



And thus it happened that I, to please the General and to secure the 

 cross of honor, had seized nothing, while my spy, to give me pleasure 

 and to secure a medal, had i)lundered on mj'^ behalf; the same motive 

 had inspired both of us to quite contrary acts. 



''Thanks, my lad," said T to him, "keep all that yourself; it is prob- 

 ably worth a great deal." 



"What will you take for your pearls^*" said one of my comrades, 

 who stood ])y. 



"(tIvc me a bottle of brandy."' 



"Agreed," 



And Mahommed gave him his pearls. 



A bottle of brandy in the camp at Yuenmingvuen was sold to us by 

 the sutl(»rs for loO francs. After the expedition to China was over the 

 pearls were sold for 85,000 francs. 



I notice here another curious thing, and oni^ Avhich ten years later 

 was contirnicd by the soldiers of Empeitjr William. 



Nothing tempts soldiers like clocks and other objects containing 

 mechanism. Now, the Chinese, like all oriental people, and like all 

 people with whom machinery is still in a rudimentary stage, greatly 

 admire miH'hanical articles, especially of the anuising kind. P'rom 

 time immemorial our sovereigns and officers of customs have turned 

 this mania to good account, and have sent or taken to them all the 

 curious inventions of opticians, of toy makers, and of manufacturers 

 of automatons. It w^ill never be known how man}- musical boxes, toy 

 organs, clocks with complicated chimes, alarm clocks, rabbits with 

 tambourines, panoramas, clocks turning windmills, crowing cocks, 

 climbing monkeys, singing birds in brass cages standing on pedestals 

 which are wound bj' turning a key, mechanical flute players, monkey 

 violinists, trumpeters, players on the clarionet, and even whole orches- 

 tras of monkeys seated on an organ, little tight-i'ope dancers, waltzers, 

 and so on, were found in the summer palace. The rooms of the 

 Empress and of the women were literally overflowing with them. 



