286 REMINISCENCES OF 



from curiosity, some to attempt to make me speak 

 Chinese. To all of these I was forced on my knees 

 and received abuse and cuffs. These visits, however, 

 soon became less frequent, and I employed my time 

 trying to learn Chinese words and sentences, and by 

 signs tried to learn what was going on outside. With 

 a piece of mortar I got out of the wall I kept the 

 days of the month and week, and wrote my name on 

 different bricks, so that in the event of our army 

 taking Peking and searching the prisons, they would 

 know I had been there and alive on a certain day. 

 Sometimes the jailers gave me a brush and Indian 

 ink such as they write with, and when I got these I 

 kept a diary in the lining of my hat. In the evening 

 both jailers and prisoners used to gather round me 

 and attempt to learn a few words of English, as I did 

 of Chinese. By signs I imagined I had learnt a 

 good deal of the state of affairs outside. The second 

 day, at my request, the prayer-book that had been 

 taken from me was returned. The jailers were 

 sometimes civil, sometimes very much the reverse, 

 and their treatment severe. Pie was the name of 

 the head jailer ; he once tightened my chains most 

 unpleasantly. Cao was the name of the third jailer 

 — hideously ugly, but very vain of his beauty. He 

 had a great desire I should try and draw him, and 

 got a brush and ink and paper for me. I could not 

 resist the temptation, and made him even more 

 frightful than he was, which I learnt to my cost was 

 most impolitic on my part. 



" During all this time I could hear nothing of 



