Part 11

From the first landing at Pehtang until after the capture of the forts, the army was entirely dependent on sea-borne provisions, brought from the fleet in gunboats and carried across from Pehtang; fresh meat rations were therefore rare. No sooner were the forts surrendered than the Chinese peasantry hastened to establish markets; and fruit, poultry, eggs and sheep were offered for sale in profusion, at such moderate prices, that on the march from Tungkoo to Tientsin, spatchcock fowls, savoury omeletes, and stewed peaches became the staple food of the British soldier. On the 22nd of August, the day after the forts were captured, Admiral Hope, with a squadron of gunboats, had pushed up the Peiho river to Tientsin. He met with no opposition, and the townspeople threw themselves at his feet. The Ambassador, Commander-in-Chief, and a portion of our troops, speedily followed in gunboats; the remainder of the force by land, so soon as transport could be organized. The last of our regiments reached Tientsin, distant thirty-five miles from Taku, on the 5th of September.

A convention for the cessation of hostilities was to be signed on the 7th, and ground was actually taken for a review of all the troops, which was to be held for the edification of the Commissioners, after they should have signed the treaty.

Suddenly the sky darkened: it was ascertained that “Kweiliang” and his brother Commissioners were not armed with the powers they asserted, and ultimately, instead of parading on the 8th in holiday pageant, a portion of our forces began that day the march towards Pekin. The Ambassadors left next day, in company with the Commanders-in-Chief; the forces were advanced as far as carriage could be procured; but the means of the commissariat were insufficient to move the whole army to such a distance, and to carry the necessary supplies. The draught cattle furnished by the mandarins at Tientsin were spirited away at the first halting place, and the 2nd division of the British army, which was to have brought up the rear, had to devote its carriage to the assistance of the 1st division, and remain behind.

In this emergency the commissariat would have had the greatest difficulty in feeding the troops in the front, but for the measures taken by Sir Robert Napier, who remained in command at Tientsin. By inducing persistent efforts to push boats up the river Peiho, which runs parallel to the road nearly up to Pekin, but which had been pronounced unnavigable by even the smallest craft, and by laying embargo on the traffic of Tientsin, General Napier procured, and with the aid of the navy organised, large means of water transport, which afforded invaluable assistance.

As the Ambassadors advanced they were met by letters announcing the appointment of “Tsai Prince of Ee” as Chief Commissioner to conclude negotiations in lieu of Kweiliang, who was pronounced to have proved himself incompetent; and on the 14th September, Messrs. Parkes and Wade held a conference with the Commissioners at Tung-chow, whereat, all preliminaries being settled, a letter was written to Lord Elgin acceding in terms to all his demands.

It was arranged that Lord Elgin was to meet the Commissioners in the walled city of Tung-chow, eight miles short of Pekin, where he would sign the convention, under escort of 1000 men; and that he should immediately afterwards proceed to Pekin, there to exchange ratifications of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858), under similar protection. Our armies meanwhile were to encamp four miles below Tung-chow.

Nothing remained but to settle details, and take up suitable quarters for Lord Elgin at Tung-chow. For this purpose Mr. Parkes, accompanied by Messrs. Loch (private secretary), De Norman (attached to Shanghai mission), and Bowlby (_Times’_ correspondent), with an escort of Fane’s Horse, under Lieut. Anderson, went out on the 17th. Lieut.-Colonel Beauchamp Walker accompanied the party, for the purpose of inspecting the ground designated by the Chinese for our encampment, and Mr. Thompson (Commissariat) was sent to guage the capabilities of supply of the city of Tung-chow.

On arrival they were well received; but in discussing affairs they were surprised to find objections raised on several points to which the Chinese Commissioners had before consented. However, after a discussion of five or six hours, the Chinese negociators gave way; and having arranged details, our party slept that night in the city, the guests of the Commissioners.

Next morning Colonel Walker, accompanied by Messrs. Parkes and Loch, and attended by a Chinese officer deputed by the Commissioners, proceeded to examine the ground on which the British army was to be encamped, leaving the larger part of the escort at Tung-chow, where Messrs. Bowlby and De Norman also remained, pending the return of Parkes and Loch, who had yet to find a suitable residence for Lord Elgin within the walls of Tung-chow. On the way out, the party found the Tartar army in hurried movement in the direction of our forces, and on reaching the ground proposed for encampment, discovered it to be entirely commanded by the position which the Tartar forces, supported by a numerous artillery, were then taking up.

Seeing this, Parkes turned round and rode back to Tung-chow to demand a cessation of these hostile movements. Loch went on into the British camp with a couple of men to report progress, whilst Col. Walker, Thompson, and half-a-dozen dragoons, remained in the Tartar position, at Parkes’s request, until he should return. Having reported progress to the Commander-in-Chief, whom he met advancing, about a mile from the Tartar position, Loch returned towards the Tartars, accompanied by Captain Brabazon, R. A., with orders to Parkes to come back at once.

Mr. Parkes, on reaching Tung-chow, was rudely received by the Prince of Ee, and was told that until the questions to which objections had been made the day previous had been satisfactorily determined, peace could not exist. Thereupon Parkes, with Bowlby, De Norman, and all our people, left Tung-chow for the British camp. Mid-way they met Loch and Brabazon, who turned homewards with them, and all went on together, preceded by a flag of truce.

Before they came in sight of Colonel Walker and his few men, Tartar cavalry, blowing their matches, and making other hostile gestures, came galloping along the high bank on either side of our people, who were in a hollow way. Presently the party was summoned to halt; being surrounded, and ignorant of the ground, it was deemed advisable to comply, both to insist on the sanctity of the flag of truce, and to gain an opportunity of discovering the best way out of their uncomfortable position. The Tartar officer in command civilly told them, that as firing had commenced, he was unable to let them pass, without orders from his General, to whose presence he would conduct Mr. Parkes. Parkes, Loch, and one Sikh rode away with the officer. Suddenly turning the angle of a field of maize, they found themselves in the midst of a mob of infantry, whose uplifted weapons their guide with difficulty put aside. Further on stood San-ko-lin-tzin, the Tartar General, of whom Parkes demanded a free passage. He was answered with derision; and, after a brief parley, in which San-ko-lin-tzin upbraided Parkes as the cause of all the disasters which had befallen the empire, at a sign from the General our men were tossed off from their horses, their faces rubbed in the dust, and their hands tied behind them, and so, painfully bound, were placed upon carts, and taken to Pekin. Orders, were, at the same time, sent to capture the escort, which had been already surrounded by ever increasing numbers. Some of the troopers suggested the propriety of cutting their way through, but Anderson replied it would compromise the others, and refused to do what his gallant heart desired.

Soon, however, the whole party was disarmed, and taken to Pekin on their horses without dishonor. Next day they were removed to the Summer Palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen, where they were severally bound. Their hands and feet tied together behind their backs, they were thrown on their chests, and kept in the open air exposed to the cold at night, and the still considerable heat by day, without food or water, for three days and nights. From the first their bonds were wetted to tighten them, and if they attempted to turn or move to rest themselves, they were cruelly kicked and beaten. On the third day poor Anderson’s fingers and nails burst from the pressure of the cords, which were not even then relaxed. The wrist bones became visible, and mortification ensued; the victim became delirious, and thus mercifully made unconscious of the horror of his position, this gallant soldier died. During his sufferings his men made efforts to approach him and to gnaw his cords, but they were savagely kicked away by his inhuman jailers. The condition of the survivors was only ameliorated, after the lapse of three days, by the bonds on their hands and feet being exchanged for heavy chains and irons. But, from this time, they were regularly, though most scantily and miserably, fed.

Poor Bowlby died the fifth day, in the same way as Anderson, then De Norman and several of the men. All appear to have kept noble hearts, and to have cheered and encouraged each other, but no less than thirteen sank under the horrors of this captivity. Brabazon and a French Abbé, who were taken with the escort, were, still unbound, seen to leave the party, on the way to Pekin, saying they were going to the Chinese Commander-in-Chief to procure the release of their companions. Their mournful fate was, we rejoice to know, less horrible. They were beheaded, by order of a Chinese General, on the 21st September, in revenge for a wound he had received during the action of the day; but their bodies being then thrown into the canal, were unhappily never recovered.

Parkes, Loch, and their Sikh orderly, had been taken off straight to Pekin, and never saw anything of the rest of their party. Parkes was known by sight and reputation, and his position and that of Loch was, in a manner, recognised. Their cords were unbound after eight hours, when they were heavily ironed, separated from each other, and each put into ward with sixty prisoners--murderers and felons of the first class--with whom they ate and slept and lived. By day they were allowed to move about in their wards; at night their chains were fastened to staples in the prison roof. They represent their fellow prisoners to have behaved uniformly with kindness towards them, sharing with them any little comforts they possessed, and carrying their chains when they moved. But they were treated with extreme rigour, and their allowance of food was scanty.

After the 29th September a change of treatment was adopted. Parkes and Loch were taken from prison, and confined together in a temple, where they were treated with every consideration. Their dinner was furnished by the Véry of Pekin, and mandarins visited them, bringing little presents of fruit. During this time the diplomatists were trying to turn Parkes to political account. They wrote to Lord Elgin to say that the prisoners then in Pekin were very well, and that the basis of a treaty was being arranged with Mr. Parkes, which would no doubt be satisfactory to all parties. And thus matters went on until the joyful day came of the prisoners’ release.

The firing spoken of as the immediate cause of the detention of our people, began thus: Colonel Walker and his party had been left in the lines of the Tartars, who were at first rudely good-humoured, as he moved about and observed how completely the guns, now in position behind a ridge of sandhills, covered the ground allotted by the Commissioners for the encampment of our forces. Suddenly Walker’s attention was attracted by a cry uttered close to him. He saw a French officer who had come out of Tung-chow during the morning, and had attached himself to the English, in the act of being cut down and pulled off his horse by a party of soldiers. Walker rode up to him, and catching hold of his hand, essayed to drag him away. A mob closed round Walker; some attempted to lift him off his horse; whilst others, taking advantage of his right hand being engaged, canted his sword out of its scabbard and made off. A mortal blow was dealt to the poor Frenchman; swords were drawn on all sides; and Walker calling on his men to put spurs and ride, galloped for his life towards our troops, now drawn up within sight, about half a mile away. The party was pursued by cavalry, and fired on by Tartar infantry and guns in succession; but they reached our lines alive, with one horse severely, and two men slightly, wounded.

An immediate advance was made by the Allied forces; the enemy were speedily driven from their guns, and their cavalry was swept away by successive charges of our horse. All their guns, seventy-five in number, their camps, and quantities of arms, were captured by our troops, who occupied for the night the walled town of Chan-kya-wan, which gave its name to the battle. That place is twelve miles from Pekin, in a direct line, and four from Tung-chow, which is the port of Pekin on the Peiho; and lies to the right of the direct road from Tientsin.

But the victory did not lead, as we had fondly hoped, to the immediate recovery of the prisoners, victims of treachery so dark as to have been unsuspected even by the experienced and wary Parkes. The night before the foul plot was carried out, the Prince of Ee had entertained our people at dinner, and, smiling, had bidden them adieu. An officer, deputed by the Prince, attended the party in the morning, and it was perhaps not unnatural for Parkes to believe that he could induce the Prince to countermand the movement of troops which he then saw, and which he supposed to be unknown to the High Commissioner. The Prince’s reception of Parkes, of course, dispelled this expectation, and no time was lost in returning to camp. Even then there was no appearance of immediate danger to the party, unless from possible excitement of the rude soldiery through whom they had to pass; for both Chinese and Tartars had up to this time invariably shown the fullest confidence in the protection of flags of truce, under which officers had frequently passed between the Allied and Chinese camps during the war then waging.

The soldiers, however, possessed that reverence for the emblem of peace which animates most other savages; and it was at the hands of San-ko-lin-tzin, the commander-in-Chief of the Chinese army, and the apostle of competitive examination, that the Chinese Government was degraded to the last degree by the deliberate violation of a flag of truce, and by the capture of the heralds whom it should have shielded.

Having ascertained that a considerable force of Tartars was encamped between Tung-chow and Pekin, Sir Hope Grant advanced on the 21st September to attack their position. Again the Tartars were completely beaten, their camps and guns all captured, and great loss inflicted on the enemy by our cavalry. The King’s Dragoon Guards made a capital charge; and a squadron of Fane’s horse, under Lieutenant Cattley, attached for the day to the French, after driving the enemy into a village, galloped quickly round it, and falling on the enemy’s flank, as he emerged on the other side, inflicted signal punishment. The number of Tartar troops on or about the field this day is estimated at 80,000 men, of whom 30,000 were actually engaged. The allied forces numbered 6200--viz., English, 3200 of all arms, and fifteen guns; and French, 3000, with twelve guns.

The action of Pā-li-chow left us in possession of the important strategic point called the Pā-li bridge, whereby the paved causeway from Tung-chow to Pekin crosses the canal constructed between those places. It further gave us the line of the canal on which the enemy had rested, and left the approach to Pekin open to our troops.

Our success was immediately followed by a letter from the Prince Koung, brother of the Emperor, and heir to the throne, announcing to the Ambassadors that he had been appointed, with full powers, to conclude a peace, in the room of Prince Tsai.

After the fight of the 18th, Sir Hope Grant had sent an express to summon General Napier, with as much of the 2nd division as could be spared from Tientsin. The General had already succeeded in procuring from the Chinese authorities carriage for his troops, which the Commissariat was unable to furnish. The order found them ready to move, and General Napier reached headquarters on the 24th, having marched seventy miles in sixty hours, with a supply of ammunition, which was much required, escorted by a company of Brownlow’s light-footed Punjabees.

The army halted in the position it had won until siege guns had arrived by water from Tientsin; fourteen days’ supply had been brought up the river, and all available troops had been collected. The force in front was strengthened by all the infantry of the garrison of Tientsin, which was replaced by the 19th Punjab Infantry from Tahlien Bay, and by marines, whom the Admiral landed from the fleet.

Advancing from Pā-li on the 6th October, the British took up position on the northern road leading from the gates of Pekin to Tartary, without falling in with any of the enemy, except a picket, which retired with precipitation. The French who were to have operated on the left between our flank and Pekin, marched, through some misunderstanding, across our rear, and took possession of the imperial palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen, “the Fountain of Summer,” six miles to the North of Pekin, and four miles away to our right. We heard nothing of them all night; but Sir Hope Grant found them the next morning, when arrangements were made for the division between the two forces of the treasures which the palace contained. But in the absence of any British troops the arrangements broke through, and our prize agents, finding the principal valuables appropriated by the French, abandoned their functions. Thereupon on the 8th indiscriminate plunder was allowed; but as of the British a few officers only had access to the palace, and none of the men, our officers were ultimately desired to give up all they had brought away, and the property they had collected was ultimately sold by auction for the benefit of the troops actually present in the field before Pekin.

A most spirited sale ensued of china, enamels, jade, furs, silk, &c., which realised £5000; and this sum, added to the amount of gold and silver bullion which had been brought in, enabled the prize agents at once to make a distribution amongst the troops, ranging from £3 for a private soldier, to £60 for a first-class field officer. All our generals surrendered their shares to the troops. The arrangement made was perhaps the fairest that could be arrived at under the actual circumstances of the time; but of a booty worth at least a million of money, belonging to the imperial crown--therefore prize of the fairest character--the British troops have profited only to the amount of £25,000. The balance has gone to the French, who take the broadest view of the question of halves, or to the Chinese peasantry, who plundered as they pleased, after the departure of the French, on the third day of occupation.

On the 8th October, the first-fruits of our advance on Pekin were realised, in the surrender to us, by the Chinese, of Messrs. Parkes and Loch, and the Sikh orderly who had been taken with them. A French savant and three men were given up at the same time. Our poor fellows looked wonderfully well; but M. d’Escayrae’s hands were still contorted by the pressure to which they had been subjected during the twenty hours in which he was bound. The delivery of prisoners was the direct result of an intimation sent to the Chinese, on the 7th October, that unless all the prisoners still in their hands were delivered up immediately, a gate of the city placed in our possession without opposition, and competent persons deputed to conclude a peace, Pekin would be taken by assault; but if all the prisoners were given up, our troops would not be allowed to enter the city, and the lives and property of the inhabitants should be respected.

Saturday, the 13th October, at noon, was the period fixed on for compliance with our demands. Before the time elapsed, eleven of our Sikh horsemen who had been prisoners, were delivered up alive, and the remains of all who had perished (save poor Brabazon and the Abbé), were received in coffins. On the 17th they were buried in the Russian cemetery, with all the honour and solemnity that could be paid. The Ambassadors of England, France, and Russia, the Commanders-in-Chief, and the allied officers not on duty, attended. The Roman Catholic and Greek prelates showed, by their presence, generous sympathy in the untimely fate of our countrymen.

But as the complete fulfilment of the demands was still uncertain, batteries were erected against the city wall at a distance of 150 yards, by the British and French respectively, and arrangements were made for opening fire at noon of the 13th, if the gate was not by that time given up. Every one agreed in hoping that thousands of inoffensive people might be spared the misery of an assault; but the 2nd Division must have felt something like a pang when, at the appointed hour, they saw their General ride with an escort through the gate, and found, by the display of the ensign from its top, that the Tartars had surrendered to us the command of the Imperial city.

Yes, we were there, masters of the capital of China--at the very end of the map of the world--at the point which appears to schoolboy minds the limit of creation. We held the massive four-storied keep which frowns like a line-of-battle ship above the Gate of Peace; our troops and field artillery were actually on the walls which commanded the whole of the interior of the city, and they could move to any point along the fifty feet road which the summit of the wall presents. The walls and gates adjoining, together with some few larger double-storied buildings, were the only objects visible from our position varying the universal dun-colour of the city houses and enclosing walls. The broad street which leads from our gate into the city was packed with a dense crowd, anxious to make out the foreigners, and indulging in sonorous “Ei Yaws” at every novelty which met their wondering eyes. Electrified indeed were the Celestials when the bands of a French regiment, and of our 67th and 99th, struck up within the gateway, and guards presented their clanging arms as the Generals rode by; but the climax was reached when Desborough’s guns were spurted up the steep stone ramps which lead from the base to the summit of the wall, fifty feet in height, drawn by six horses of fabulous stature, and driven by the terrible barbarians who eat their enemies.

The surrender was carried out in good faith; but the appearance on the walls of guns of heavy calibre, evidently recently moved into positions whence our batteries were observed, spoke either of divided counsels or of tardy resignation on the part of our enemies.