NARRATIVE OF THE RtORT REVD. LE FEVRE. 
“ come back ?” “ No : I have come through my own will,” “ Does 
“ the king of France send you ?” “No : he only allows me to go whi- 
“ tiier I like.” “ Has he been informed that you had been released 
“ last year?” Yes: because one of his vessels has come to claim me 
—1 have heard say that he rejoiced on account of my happy 
“release.” “Hoes he know that you have come back?” “Not 
“yet: hut he shall know it.” “ How?” “My arrest will become 
“public, the Journals will mention it, and all the people in Europe 
“will know if.” “Let him be tied up by the sticks,” said the 
“ great Mandarin, in a tone rather timorous: three sticks were 
brought in, one to tie up both hands together, and the others to 
tie both feet separately. It is in this way that all the criminals are 
tied up when they are under examination and the lashings of the 
bamboo. I was thus tied and prostrated to the ground ready to re¬ 
ceive the lashing-. A soldier held in Ms hands the bamboo, while 
the interrogation was continued. “You are going to Sai Cion* 
“ to which village and to which house are you going ?” “ I had no 
“ determined post: having reached Christian villages, I would have 
“ stopped in the house whose owner would have consented to harbour 
“me.” Who has given you the money which you carry along-with 
“you?” “The Christians of Europe who send alms to relieve the 
“ misery of the Christians of these countries; for religion teaches thus 
“ to exercise charity towards every one, and to consider all men of all 
“ countries as brethren whom we ought to love and relieve.” “ You 
“ do not then fear lest you may he put to death ?” “ I would fear to 
“ suffer death as a malefactor; but to die for the sake of the true re- 
“ ligion, this is rather to he looked for than to be feared.” “ But see 
“ the evil you cause: the Pilot of your boat will be put to death: all 
“ the crew will likewise suffer death.” “ Let those who put them to 
“ death assume the responsibility thereof. I come hither only with 
“ toe view to do good: is it I that shall sign their sentence or cut off 
their heads ? d hey came agarn to the. first question : 44 Iv ith what 
“ view have you come back again ?” “ I have already told it to you s 
“ I do not understand why you are reiterating these questions.” I' 
then raised my head to look at the Mandarins’ faces, and read in their 
eyes that they suspected me to have come to excite some rebellion 
among the Christians and perhaps to prepare the way for an army of 
Europeans, d lien I loudly said, 44 1 have not come hither to make 
“ a war or excite the people to an insurrection: I have neither the 
“ will nor the power to do so. I have studied religion from my in- 
y fancy, and during all my life I have been occupied with religious at- 
