en agreement of
any kind--none of the three men could read; they did not even see the
money that the missionary was to get for them; but they had absolute
confidence in our good faith.

I had a mule with me from Tongchuan to Yunnan, which saved me many miles
of walking, and increased my importance in the eyes of the heathen. I
was taking it to the capital for sale. It was a big-boned rough-hewn
animal, of superior intelligence, and I was authorised to sell it,
together with its saddle and bridle, for four pounds. Like most Chinese
mules it had two corns on the forelegs, and thus could see at night.
Every Chinaman knows that the corns are adventitious eyes which give the
mule this remarkable power.

We were on our way early in the afternoon of the 7th, going up the
valley. Below the curiously draped pagoda which commands Tongchuan we
met two pairs of prisoners, who were being led into the city under
escort. They were coupled by the neck; they were suffering cruelly, for
their wrists were so tightly manacled that their hands were
strangulated, a mode of torture to which, it will be remembered, the
Chinese Government in 1860 subjected Bowlby, the _Times_ correspondent,
and the other prisoners seized with him "in treacherous violation of a
flag of truce," till death ended their sufferings. These men were
roadside robbers caught red-handed. Their punishment would be swift and
certain. Found guilty on their own confession, either tendered
voluntarily to escape torture, or under the compulsion of torture,
"self-accusation wrested from their agony," they would be sentenced to
death, carried in baskets without delay--if they had not previously
"died in prison"--died, that is, from the torture having been pushed too
far--to the execution ground, and there beheaded.

We stopped at an inn that was not the ordinary stage, where in
consequence we had few comforts. In the morning my men lay in bed till
late, and when I called them they opened the door and pointed to the
road, clearly indicating that rain had fallen, and that the roads were
too slippery for traffic. But what was my surprise on looking myself to
find the whole country deeply under snow, and that it was still snowing.
All day, indeed, it snowed. The track was very slippery, but my mule,
though obstinate, was sure-footed, and we kept going. We passed a huge
coffin--borne by a dozen men with every gentleness, not to disturb the
dead one's rest--preceded, not followed, b