[Illustration:  OUTSIDE SIR ROBERT HART’S HOUSE BEFORE 1900.]

On the whole the system worked admirably, though of course there were occasional hitches.  Sometimes a messenger was attacked by bandits on the way and had his bags stolen.  I know once the I.G. chuckled over such a disaster.  It so happened that in the missing bags there was one letter which he had written giving an appointment in the Customs to a certain man.  No sooner was it gone than he regretted what he had done, and would have recalled his decision had it been possible.  Well, believe it or not, this and one other were the only two letters of that lost pouch ever discovered, and they came into the possession of a French Missionary Bishop and were afterwards returned by him to the I.G.

Now and again, too, an accident happened to the incoming mails even after they reached Peking.  Of course they were taken direct to the Inspectorate for sorting, and while headquarters were still in the Kau Lan Hu Tung the messenger was more than once thrown on his way down to the Legations—­perhaps he met one of those gong-beating processions which would be enough to frighten a hobby-horse—­and his mails recklessly distributed by the terrified animal.  And sometimes a courier would stumble into a ditch in the rainy season when the road was all river, and narrowly escape being drowned, but these little incidents were only the fortunes of war.

It is not to be wondered at, considering the international work he was doing, that his own country decorated Robert Hart as early as 1879.  It is only strange—­to me—­that they gave him no more than a humble C.M.G.  But this was soon changed into a K.C.M.G., and, as it happened, at a most opportune moment—–­just when an American University conferred an LL.D. upon him.  There he was within an ace of being called “Doctor” for the rest of his life, when the knighthood providentially came to save the situation.  The K.C.M.G. was followed by a G.C.M.G., and the G.C.M.G. by a baronetcy, both the Liberals and Conservatives giving him honours alternately.  The last, the baronetcy, came from Gladstone’s Ministry, and with it he received a friendly letter from the Grand Old Man, who always admired him immensely, and said so when a brother of the I.G.’s—­at the time in Europe acting as interpreter to Li Hung Chang—­was presented at a big dinner to the Premier.

[Illustration:  PEKING:  A MESSENGER CARRYING MAILS IN THE RAINY SEASON.]

“So you are a Mr. Hart from China,” he remarked.  “You should feel very proud of a man who has made his name illustrious for all time.”

France was not long behindhand in adding to his ever-growing list of honours.  He had the “Grand Officier” of the coveted “Legion” in 1885 after bringing safely to a conclusion the French Treaty of that year.  Undoubtedly this was one of the most picturesque and interesting incidents with which he was ever connected, and perhaps it will not come amiss to give some details of how it came about.