t Britain and the Emperor of the French!'"

[Illustration: STREET SCENE. PEKIN, CHINA.]

General Montauban had declared that no looting should take place until
the British came up, that all might have their equal share, but the
fierce desire of the French soldiers for spoil could not easily be
restrained. Even the officers were no better, and as the rooms of the
palace were boldly explored, "gold watches and small valuables were
whipped up by these gentlemen with amazing velocity, and as speedily
disappeared into their capacious pockets." Into the very bedroom of the
emperor the unawed visitors made their way, and gazed with curious eyes
on the imperial couch, curtained over and covered with silk mattresses.
Under the pillow was a small silk handkerchief, with sundry writings in
the vermilion pencil concerning the "barbarians," while on a table lay
pipes and other articles of daily use. On another table was found the
English treaty of 1858, whose terms were soon to be largely modified.

Meanwhile the nimble-fingered French soldiers had not been idle, and the
camp was full of articles of value or interest, silks and curios, many
of them rare prizes, watches, pencil-cases set with diamonds, jewelled
vases, and a host of other costly trifles, chief among which was a
string of splendid pearls exhibited by one officer, each pearl of the
size of a marble and the whole of immense value.

On Sunday morning, the 7th of October, the orders against looting were
withdrawn, and officers and men, English and French alike, rushed
excitedly about the place, appropriating every valuable which it was
within their power to carry. What could not be carried away was
destroyed, a spirit of wanton destruction seeming to animate them all.
Some amused themselves by shooting at the chandeliers, others by playing
pitch-and-toss against large and costly mirrors, while some armed
themselves with clubs and smashed to pieces everything too heavy to be
carried, finishing the work by setting on fire the emperor's private
residence.

Those who paid more heed to observation than to destruction have given
us interesting accounts of the Summer Palace and its surroundings, whose
vast enclosure extended from the place where the French entered to the
foot of the first range of hills north of Peking, six or seven miles
away. Over this broad extent were scattered gardens, palaces, temples,
and pagodas on terraces and artificial hills. Some of these were lik