to social pleasures; her heart and hand were ever
ready for charitable labours, and the Chinese poor had ample occasion to
acknowledge her beneficence. Among other works of mercy, she adopted a
young orphan girl, of whom she says:--"My little companion eats well and
sleeps well. She is full of mirth, and seems neither to remember nor to
care for the terrible catastrophe which separated her from her parents,
massacred at the capture of Pehtang. Her feet are not yet completely
deformed; however, when we remove the bandages which compress them, she
does not forget to replace them at night. It is not only in China that
coquetry or fashion stimulates its victims to torture and disfigure
God's handiwork: the unnaturally small feet of the Chinese women are at
least not more injurious or unsightly than the unnaturally small waists
of the ladies of Europe!"

What the Chinese think of their women may be inferred from a
characteristic incident, of which Madame de Bourboulon is the narrator.

The cook of the embassy, Ky-tsin, was a man with more years than
gallantry. One day he went to see his wives and children, who resided at
some distance; on his return, Madame de Bourboulon put some questions to
him respecting his family. "The wives," he replied, in his bad French,
and with an air of sovereign contempt, "_pas bon, pas bon, bambou,
bambou!_" The stick seems to be the only, or at least the favourite,
argument of the Chinese in their dealings with the other sex; and in
this contempt for women we shall probably find the cause of the moral
rottenness of the Celestial Empire.

[Illustration: PEKIN.]

The winter of 1860-61 Madame de Bourboulon spent quietly at Tien-tsin,
her health not permitting her, in such rigorous weather, to make the
journey to Pekin; but on the 22nd of March the whole legation set out
for the Chinese capital, Madame de Bourboulon travelling in a litter,
attended by her physician. Fortunately, the change of air and scene, and
the easy movement gradually restored her physical energies. From
Tien-tsin to Pekin the distance is about thirty leagues. On the road
lies Tchang-kia-wang, the scene of the treacherous outrage in 1858 on
the French and English bearers of truce; and almost at the gates of
Pekin, the great town of Tung-tcheou and the famous bridge of Palikao,
where, on the 21st of September, 1860, the Anglo-French army defeated
25,000 Tartar horsemen. This bridge, a curious work of art, measures one
hundr