[Sidenote:  The landing.]

On the 1st of August the landing of the allied troops was effected in perfect order, without the slightest opposition on the part of the inhabitants, at the point already mentioned, viz. near the little town of Pey-tang which is situated at the mouth of a river of the same name, about eight miles north of the mouth of the Peiho.  What Lord Elgin saw of the operations is described in the following letter:—­

August 2nd.—­There have been a few days’ interval since I wrote, and I now date from Pey-tang, and from the General’s ship the ‘Granada,’ a Peninsular and Oriental steamer; for I owe it to him that I am here.  I need hardly tell you the events that have occurred—­public events I mean—­since the 28th, as they will all be recorded by ‘Our Own.’  We moved on the 29th to a different anchorage, some five miles nearer Pey-tang. ...  All the evidence was to the effect that the Pey-tang Forts were undefended, at least that there were no barricades in the river, and therefore that the best way of taking them would be to pass them in the gunboats as we did the Peiho Forts in 1858, and as we also passed Nankin that year ... but it was resolved that we should land a quantity of men in the mud about a mile and a half below them.  This was to have taken place on the 30th, and those of my gentlemen who intended to leave me, as better fun was to be found elsewhere, kept up a tremendous bustle and noise from about 4 A.M.  However, at about 6, they were informed that the orders for landing were countermanded, on the plea that there was too much sea to admit of the horses being transferred from the vessels to the gunboats.  Next day, the 31st, it was raining, and the sea seemed rougher in the morning.  However, at about 9, the gunboats began to move.  The General had agreed that I should have his ship, and that I should move either over the bar or as near to it as I could manage. ...  I anchored the ‘Granada’ outside the bar, and as I did not choose to lose the sight of the landing, I got into my row-boat ... going at last on board the ‘Coromandel,’ the Admiral’s ship.  The landing went on merrily enough.  It was a lovely, rather calm evening.  We were within a long-range shot of the Forts; and if shot or shell had dropped among the boats and men who were huddled up on the edge of the mud-bank, it would have been inconvenient.  Our enemy, however, had no notion of doing anything so ungenerous; so the landing went on uninterruptedly, the French carrying almost all they wanted on their backs, our men employing coolies, &c., for that purpose.  We saw nothing of the enemy except the movements of a few Tartar horsemen out of and into the town, galloping along the narrow causeway on which our troops were to march.  At midnight eight gunboats—­six English and two French—­steamed past the Forts.  It was a moment of some excitement, because we did not know whether or not they would be fired at.  However, nothing of the kind took place; and,