endure than death itself; but the fact that
some of them, through the agency of the
jailer, or his assistants, managed to borrow
a little money from friends in Tyhan, only
aggravated the condition of the rest; the ruffians
whose mercy was thus bought, being encouraged
to persevere in their ill treatment, in the hope of
being successful in exacting bribes from all
alike. As to myself, no attempt was at first made
to prevent me from getting such sleep as I could
obtain on the filthy ground, and I could move
freely about the den in which we were
imprisoned.

On the fifth day after our arrival, I was
again taken before the chief I had seen at the
encampment. There were three others seated
beside him, and the room was filled with officers,
who remained standing. His first questions
were similar to those he had asked me before;
but, when those were exhausted, he continued to
put random questions to me touching our customs
and government, which I answered as well as I
was able. Next, he entered on the subject of
religious doctrine, and spoke of Christianity in a way
which proved that he was very little acquainted
with its principles, and asserted there was no
difference between these and the pure doctrine
introduced by his imperial lord. I avoided
discussing the subject with him, and, when forced
to reply, told him that he must know so much
more of the matter than I, that I did not feel
competent to offer an opinion. He seemed very
well satisfied with the display of learning he
had made, and I was encouraged by his
satisfaction to ask that he would set me at liberty;
adding, that I would cheerfully pay any sum in
my power for it, as soon as I reached Chan-
tseou. I think he was about to treat with me
for my release, when one of those present
came in front of him, and, after prostrating
himself, proceeded to say that he had seen me
present at the murder of some of their brethren,
and that he had heard me speak in contempt
of the Taepings and their doctrines. I looked
hard at this man, and at last remembered that
he was the respectable-looking individual who
had answered my questions at the executions,
and I remembered that I certainly had been
foolish enough to express my opinion of the
rebels, with the freedom of a man who had no
idea that he would ever fall into their hands.
The statement made by this man, which I
could not deny, quite changed the feeling with
which the Taeping chief had appeared to regard
me. He loaded me with abuse; told me it
would have been bad enough if a follower of
the Tartar usurper at Pekin had spoken in such
language, but that it was unpardonable in a
foreigner. He said much more which my thorough
knowledge of spoken Chinese enabled me to
understand perfectly, and then said something to
those about him in a language I did not
comprehend; but which I assumed was Tartar.
I concluded that he would end by ordering
me to be put to death; but I was taken back
to prison, where my right hand was chained
to my left ankle, an iron collar was put round
my neck, and I was fastened to a ring in the
wall by a chain, which connected the collar
and ring. The jailer now became more savage,
and redoubled his cruelties, as if the
probability of our being ransomed had become so
small that we should be shortly taken from his
custody and handed over to the executioner.
One of his amusements was to throw a bamboo
on the ground, and, arranging the string of
prisoners half on one side and half on the
other, command them to try which could draw
the other across it, by dragging at the rope
that ran through their ears. As neither party
were likely voluntarily to exert themselves much
in a trial which caused them intense pain, his
assistants flogged both parties across the calves
of their legs with long bamboos, to force them
to do their utmost.

This was one of the smallest of the cruelties
inflicted, which, though they did not directly
affect life, were harder to be borne than
torture of a more severe kind, inasmuch as
they were incessant. The entrance of any
person inspired the dread that some of us
would be certain to suffer before he left the
apartment—a dread which events seldom
failed to realise. On the seventh day of our
imprisonment one of our number was carried
out, and the rest were reduced to such a
condition that it seemed impossible we could
live much longer. For the first time I then
learnt the blessing opium can be to a man
in extremity, and the secret of the passive
endurance a Chinese will exhibit under the
most painful tortures. Where the means of
purchasing the drug came from, I know not—
possibly the opium itself was sent by friends
at Tyhan, who bribed an assistant of the jailer
to deliver it to us, or we should not have had it
in such abundance; the charge for it made by
the jailer, or the mandarins under whom he
acts, being enormous. This is the only real
consolation a Chinese has in such circumstances,
Religion having scarcely any hold upon him.

Though those among us who had friends at
Tyhan had repeatedly endeavoured to prevail on
them to send to Chan-tseou to collect the amount
of our ransom and bring it to the Taeping
camp, no one would trust himself among the
rebels. At last a mandarin who occasionally
came to the prison, was induced, by the promise
of a heavy bribe, to suffer one of our number to
go to Chan-tseou, accompanied by two of his
followers, to collect the ransom and return with it
to the camp. The man whom we selected for
the purpose was one of two brothers, so
that he left behind him a hostage for his return.
He was gone three days, but very little time
was lost on his return before our redemption
was settled and we were liberated—no
distinction being made between me and the
Chinese.

On my return to China, I shall take excellent
care not to fall into the hands of the
Taepings again, if I can avoid it; but as a
precaution, I shall do what is now a common
practice among the principal men of the towns