the Prince and Co., we were to have encamped.  He had to ride through their army, to his no small alarm; but he met Parkes (who knows not what fear is) riding back to Tung-chow to tell the Prince, &c., of the position of the Tartar army, and that they should be held responsible for the consequences.  Loch was with the General.  I wonder he is not come to inform me of what has happened.

[Sidenote:  Treacherous seizure of Mr. Parkes and others.]

At the time when these words were written, nearly the whole of the party which had ridden forth the morning before, ’in high spirits at the prospect of an early and successful termination of the war,’ had been treacherously seized by the soldiers of Sang-ko-lin-sin, and Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch were being violently hurried off, with their hands tied behind their backs, in a rude springless cart, over a badly-paved road, to the prisons of Pekin.  The details of their capture and imprisonment, together with such particulars as could afterwards be ascertained of their companions’ fate, may be read in the very interesting narrative of one of the victims.[5] We can here touch only upon those points in which their story is mixed up with public events.

[Sidenote:  Cause of the change.]

As to the origin and cause of the renewal of hostilities, it is impossible to speak with certainty; nor is it probable that we shall ever arrive at a better opinion on the subject, than that which was formed by Lord Elgin on the spot.  In his report to the Government he wrote:—­

To hazard conjectures as to the motives by which Chinese functionaries are actuated is not a very safe undertaking; and it is very possible that further information may modify the views which I now entertain on this point.  I am, however, disposed at present to doubt there having been a deliberate intention of treachery on the part of Prince Tsai and his colleague; but I apprehend that the General-in-Chief, Sang-ko- lin-sin, thought that they had compromised his military position by allowing our army to establish itself so near his lines at Chang-kia- wan.  He sought to counteract the evil effect of this by making a great swagger of parade and preparation to resist when the Allied armies approached the camping-ground allotted to them.  Several of our people, Colonel Walker, with his escort, my private Secretary, Mr. Loch, Baron Gros’ Secretary of Embassy, Comte de Bastard, and others, passed through the Tartar army during the course of the morning on their way from Tung-chow without encountering any rudeness or ill-treatment whatsoever.  At about a quarter to ten, however, a French Commissariat officer was assaulted by some Tartar soldiers under circumstances which are not very clearly ascertained; and this incident gave rise to an engagement, which soon became general.  On the whole, I come to the conclusion that, in the proceedings of the Chinese Plenipotentiaries and Commander-in-Chief in this instance, there