is also the French
were our allies. More soldiers were needed, and volunteers were asked
for. Gordon was one of the first to send in his name, but before he
reached Pekin the Taku forts, at the mouth of the Tientsin River--forts
of which in the year 1900 we were to hear so much--had been taken.
However, the famous Summer Palace was still to be captured, and this,
which indeed might be called the eighth wonder of the world, lay out in
the country, eight miles away from Pekin. The grounds, covering more
than twelve miles, were laid out with lakes, fountains, tea-houses,
waterfalls, banks of trees, and beds of flowers, while scattered about
were palaces belonging to different members of the royal family, all
filled with beautiful things--china of the oldest and rarest sorts,
silks, lacquer, cabinets, and an immense variety of clocks and watches.
By order of the English envoy this gorgeous place was given over to
pillage, in revenge for the ill-treatment of some French and British
prisoners. One can form a little idea of the vast amount of treasures it
contained from constantly seeing scattered in houses a watch or a
lacquer box or a china bowl that, we are told, had once decorated the
Summer Palace; they really seem to be endless. Lord Wolseley tells how
he happened to be standing by the French general in the gardens while
the looting was going on, and as a French soldier came out he handed to
his chief something that he had brought expressly for him. Then, turning
to the young English officer, he held out a beautiful miniature of a man
wearing a dress of the time of Louis XIV.

'That is for you, my comrade,' he said, smiling, and Wolseley, heartily
thanking him, examined the gift.

'How,' he thought, 'could a miniature of a French poet living two
hundred years ago have got to Pekin?' Then he remembered that an embassy
from China had arrived in France, bearing presents to the French court.
Louis received them graciously, and showed them the splendours of
Versailles and all the curious and artistic ornaments it contained. When
the envoys left, the king gave them gifts of French manufacture as
valuable as their own to take to their emperor, and among them was this
miniature of Boileau, by Petitot, the greatest of French miniaturists.

The imperial throne, which stands on dragon's claws, and is covered with
cushions of yellow silk, the imperial colour, was bought by Gordon
himself, and presented by him to Chatham, where it