The ‘serious advance’ took place on the 12th, and was completely successful.  On that day the Allies took possession of the little town of Sinho:  two days later they occupied Tangkow.  The forts, however, which guarded the entrance of the Peiho—­the Taku Forts, from which the British forces had been so disastrously repulsed the year before—­remained untaken.  Opinions were divided as to the plan of operations.  The French were for attacking first the great fortifications on the right or southern bank of the river; but Sir Robert Napier urged that the real key to the enemy’s position was the most northerly of the forts, on the left or northern bank.  Happily his counsels prevailed.  On the 21st this fort was taken by assault, with but little loss of life; and the soundness of the judgment which selected the point of attack was proved by the immediate surrender of all the remaining defensible positions on both sides of the river.

During the greater part of this time Lord Elgin was on board the ‘Granada,’ moored off Pey-tang, suffering all the anxieties of an active spirit condemned to inactivity in the midst of action:  responsible generally for the fate of the expedition, yet without power to control any detail of its operations; fretting especially at the delays which are, perhaps, necessarily incident to a divided and subdivided command.  Writing after the surrender of the Taku Forts he said:—­

I have torn up the earlier part of this letter, because it is needless to place on record the anxieties I felt at that time.  To revert to the portion of my history which was included in the part of my letter that I have destroyed, I must tell you that it was on the 12th that the troops first moved out of Pey-tang.  I saw them defile past, and in the afternoon rode out to the camp, but was turned back by a large body of Tartar cavalry, who menaced my flank, and as some of my people had just discovered, in the apartment of the Tartar General at Sinho, a letter stating that they were determined to capture the ’big barbarian himself’ this time, I thought it better to retrace my steps.  The second action took place on the 14th, and on the 15th I rode out to see the General, and had a conference with him.  On the 17th I went to the gulf to see Gros.  I have had dozens of letters from the Chinese authorities, and I have answered some of them, not in a way to give them much pleasure.  All these details were given at full length in my annihilated letter, but already they seem out of date.

Tangkow.—­August 23rd.—­Grant has been marvellously favoured by the weather, for the rain, which arrests all movements here, stopped the day before he moved out of Pey-tang, and began again about an hour after he had taken the Taku Fort, which led to the surrender of the whole.  I must also say that the result entirely justified the selection which he made of his point of attack, and, as this was against the written opinion of