634 LO(»T OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE AT PEKIN. 



Wc quitted the summer palace on the ninth — a cold, damp day. The 

 buildings containing the imperial apartments, the reception hall, and 

 the throne room were ruined, l)ut tlie ])alaces, pagodas, and library 

 were intact. We went on toward Pekin and had hardly marched an 

 hour when two English officers came to announce to the general that 

 the Chinese had sent five of our prisoners — M. de Lauture and four 

 soldiers — into their camp. 



I was directed to follow the officers and bring our countrymen back, 

 and found them in a most dreadful condition — M. de Lauture particu- 

 larly. Mis height seemed to have shruidv by a foot. He was clothed 

 in the gown of some old Chinese woman, covered with nmd. His 

 hands were l»ound up into the form of an S. They had 1)een tied with 

 cords which sunk into the tlesh and which had been constantly wet, 

 when he complained, in order to cut in more. Besides which he 

 had been h<)i-ri))ly mutilated, and it was while he was sutTerlng this 

 martyrdom that Prince Kong, the brother of the Emperor with 

 whom we were treating, wrote to Baron Gros: "I have the honor 

 to inform your excellency that 1 have given orders that the interpre- 

 ter of 3'our noble FLmperor — M. d'Escayrac — should be treated with 

 respect, and that my intention, after having regulated in a pleasant 

 way with him everything relating to the signing of the convention, 

 shall be to return at once and in a proper manner your other compat- 

 riots." And there are people who still say that we acted in China 

 with a certain want of decorum! 



The companions of M. de Lauture, with the orderlies of Captain 

 Chanoine and Subintendant Dubut, named liosel, Bachet, Genestet, 

 and Pelet, were separated from each other during their tortures and 

 they could oidy speak of what they had themselves seen. They were 

 ignorant of the fate of their martyred colleagues, but it was established 

 by the statements of the prisoners who were returned to the English 

 that the greater part were dead of their wounds. 



Mr. Norman, the first secretary of the embassy of Lord Elgin, his 

 head opened with a saber cut and abandoned, tied hand and foot, died 

 with his brains destroyed b}^ the worms. Mr. Bowl by, the correspond- 

 ent of the TimcK^ was thrown from a window into the court, where he 

 was devoured by the pigs. 



[A portion of tlie treatment of these peojile, as given })y our author, is too horrible 

 for quotation.] 



I have already .said that nothing can give an idea of the Chinese 

 imaginations when torture is in question. Thus during this same 

 march on Pekin, and this same da}^, I saw some roving dogs disputing 

 bits of flesh which they were digging up with their paws and devour- 

 ing. We drove them away and found that their food was the remains 

 of five coolies from our own forces, whose numbers were recovered 



