[2] Colonel Crealock, military secretary to the Embassy.
[3] 'The absence of any panic was very creditable to the passengers. It, however, was mainly due to the conduct of the two Ambassadors, who, during the whole time, remained quietly seated on the poop conversing together, as if no danger 'impended.'—Personal Narrative of Occurrences during Lord Elgin's Second Embassy to China, by H.B. Loch Private Secretary.
[4] The Honourable T.J. Hovell Thurlow, attaché to the Embassy.
[5] His birthday.
[6] The reference apparently is to the uneasiness produced in Europe by the annexation of Savoy to France.
CHAPTER XIII.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA. PEKIN.
THE LANDING—CHINESE OVERTURES—TAKING OF THE FORTS—THE PEN TIENTSIN— NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN OFF—NEW PLENIPOTENTIARIES—AGREEMENT MADE—AGREEMENT BROKEN—TREACHEROUS SEIZURE OF MR. PARKES AND OTHERS—ADVANCE ON PEKIN- -RETURN OF SOME OF THE CAPTIVES—FATE OF THE REST—BURNING OF THE SUMMER PALACE—CONVENTION SIGNED—FUNERAL OF THE MURDERED CAPTIVES—IMPERIAL PALACE—PRINCE KUNG—ARRIVAL OF MR. BRUCE—RESULTS OF THE MISSION.
[Sidenote: The landing.]
On the 1st of August the landing of the allied troops was effected in perfect order, without the slightest opposition on the part of the inhabitants, at the point already mentioned, viz. near the little town of Pey-tang which is situated at the mouth of a river of the same name, about eight miles north of the mouth of the Peiho. What Lord Elgin saw of the operations is described in the following letter:—