"When driven back from the south gate, the rebels retired past the south-west angle, where Lieutenant O'Grady, who was waiting for them in the piquet-house with some marines and Sikhs, gave them another dressing.
"Captain Maxwell, at the little south gate, had given his Loodianahs plenty to do, and although they were only armed with Brown Bess, they inflicted no small loss on the enemy.
"Gunner Deacon, Royal Marine Artillery, had rigged up a gun belonging to the Taoutae, and worked it in the coolest manner and with great success.
"Among others killed on the enemy's side was an European who had made himself very conspicuous. Accompanying him was a half-caste, who unfortunately managed to escape. There were several foreigners to be seen among the insurgents, and another is supposed to have fallen outside Captain Budd's position."
The murderous sentiment expressed in the foregoing passage would be much more appropriately applied to the conscience-bound mercenaries who defended Shanghae. All the gallant deeds related were, literally, the slaughter of some 300 Ti-pings who made no reply whatever to the dastardly fire of men, who upon that day inflicted an indelible stain upon their nation's scutcheon.
The official report continues:—
"As soon as it could be done in safety, parties were sent from the various posts to burn down such houses in the suburbs as could afford shelter to the enemy, and the fires raged outside the west and south gates during the whole of Saturday night. Thus ended the first day's work, with no small loss to the enemy, but without a single casualty to report on the foreign side."
The officials not only carefully ignore the burnings and destruction committed by British troops, when they write of precisely similar doings upon the part of the Ti-pings, but actually report upon the "gallantry" of certain officers and men concerned in this butchery of unresisting victims.
The report proceeds with the next day's exploits:—
"Sunday morning broke upon a scene of conflagration and destruction. Our gallant allies (the French) set to work, in a manner peculiar to themselves, to drive away the danger, and, to prevent its recurrence, fired the suburb, which is by far the richest and most important collection of native houses. It is here that the Chinese wholesale merchants live. An immense quantity of goods, especially sugar, was stored there, and as the conflagration in its rapid progress licked up a sugar hong, or soy factory, the flames sprang up with fearful grandeur.