than
that, a Scotchwoman by birth, she married a French diplomatist, who, in
1860, was serving the State as French ambassador to the Court of Pekin.

* * * * *

In the month of August, 1860, she was temporarily residing at Shanghai.
It would be interesting to know what the Chinese people thought of this
handsome and self-possessed lady; unaccustomed as they were and are to
visits from European women, and unfamiliar as they were and are with the
idea that a person of the _grand monde_ in nowise compromises her
dignity by travelling about as freely and walking as readily as servants
and females of the lower classes. "To see ourselves as others see us" is
always instructive and interesting; and a sketch of Madame de Bourboulon
by the Chinese would not be less valuable than a sketch of the Chinese
by Madame de Bourboulon.

Fortune had not been kind to Madame de Bourboulon in throwing her into
Shanghai during the great Taiping conspiracy, and compelling her to be
an eye-witness of the crimes which sullied it. Beneath her windows were
carried every day the dead bodies of the poor creatures massacred by the
Taipings, and she followed with reluctant gaze these sad "waifs and
strays" as the river conveyed them seawards.

Though her health was not good, she hastened, on the conclusion of
peace, to follow her husband to Pekin. From Shanghai to the Gulf of
Petchi-li, into which the Peiho empties its waters, the distance is two
hundred leagues. Our traveller embarked on board the steam despatch-boat
_Fi-lung_, which was escorted by a man-of-war brig. On crossing the
river-bar, she saw before her the celebrated Taku forts, and higher up
the river the town of Pehtang, with immense plains of sorghum, maize,
and millet spreading as far as the eye could see.

On the 12th of November she arrived at Tien-tsin. The French legation
was established in a rich _yamoun_, which, under the presiding genius of
Madame de Bourboulon, soon become the highly _recherche_ centre of
European society. There, Chinese art displayed all its marvels of design
and workmanship; the colours of the rainbow glittered everywhere; the
walls were emblazoned with pleasant landscapes, azure seas, transparent
lakes, shadowy forests, an imperial hunting party, with antelopes and
roebucks flying before the loud-mouthed hounds; in a word, with all the
delights of a Chinese earthly paradise. But Madame de Bourboulon did
not confine herself