122 



THE MURDERED CHE-HEEN. 



Chap. VII. 



preservation of private property, that of the man- 

 darins and Government seemed to be given over 

 to the people for plunder as a matter of course. 

 When we reached the upper end of the collection 

 of buildings which formed the official residence of 

 the Che-heen, we observed a crowd of people, who 

 seemed to be lookers-on like ourselves, moving to 

 some apartments on one side of the central hall. 

 Following in their steps, we came to a court, or 

 small Chinese garden, containing a few orna- 

 mental plants in pots and a pretty arbour covered 

 with the Glycine sinensis. In a small room, now 

 in ruins, at the upper end of the court, a crowd of 

 people were observed gazing intently at some 

 object on the floor, and from the expression on 

 every countenance we readily conjectured that 

 this must be the body of the Che-heen, who had 

 been murdered in the morning, and which we 

 were now desirous of seeing. As we approached 

 the spot, the crowd readily made way, when a 

 melancholy and shocking sight was presented to 

 our view. On a mat, in the middle of the room, 

 lay the body of the murdered magistrate, covered 

 with the wounds which had been inflicted by 

 his ruthless countrymen. It was a sickening 

 sight, so we turned away and made our way out 

 through the busy crowd, who were still employed 

 in what appeared to be considered a kind of legal 

 plunder. 



Leaving the offices of the magistrate, we now 

 proceeded to the residence of the Taoutae, or 



