has been the order of the day, and, I have no doubt, because I stood firm.  If I had wavered, they would have been lost; because the Chinese, finding they had a lever with which they could move us, would have used their advantage unsparingly.  Parkes and Loch have behaved very well under circumstances of great danger.  The narrative of their adventures is very interesting, but I cannot attempt to give it in this letter.  They seem to be in good health notwithstanding the hardships they have gone through.

In a public despatch of the same date, announcing the restoration of the captives, he wrote:-

To no one of their numerous friends is the return of these gentlemen a matter of more heartfelt gratification than it is to me.  Since the period of their arrest, I have been compelled, by a sense of duty, to turn a deaf ear to every overture for their restoration which has involved the slightest retrograde movement of our army, or the abandonment of any demands previously preferred by me against the Chinese Government.  I have felt that any such concession on my part would have established a most fatal precedent, because it would have led the Chinese to suppose that by kidnapping Englishmen they might effect objects which they are unable to achieve by fair fighting or diplomacy.  I confess that I have been moreover, throughout, of opinion, that in adopting this uncompromising tone, and boldly setting the national above the personal interest, I was in point of fact best consulting the welfare of our friends who were in durance.  But it was not to be expected that all persons would view in the same light a question of policy so obscure; and apart from the warm personal interest which I feel in their safety, your Lordship can well understand that it relieves me from a great load of anxiety to learn from the result that the course which I have followed was not ill- calculated to promote it.[8]

Later in the same despatch he expressed himself anxiously yet hopefully about the captives who were still missing:—­

It is a matter of great concern to me, that we know as yet nothing certain respecting the fate of Mr. Bruce’s Attache, Mr. de Norman, Mr. Bowlby, the special correspondent of the Times, and the nineteen troopers (consisting of eighteen Sikhs and one Dragoon) who formed the escort, and were under the command of Lieutenant Anderson, of Fane’s Irregular Horse.  This portion of the party became separated from Messrs. Parkes and Loch, when the latter, at the commencement of the conflict of the 18th ultimo, were taken up to Sang-ko-lin-sin, for the ostensible object of obtaining a safe-conduct from him.  Since that time we have heard nothing authentic about them, but we are assured that, though they are not now in Pekin, they will soon be restored to us.

[Sidenote:  Fate of the rest.]