whom nobody on board the ship certainly would have
recognised, "Those must be Armstrongs! I know the sound of them too
well. Thank God, our comrades now are near at last to release us or
revenge us!"

Later on, the same day, some Chinese soldiers entered, instead of the
usual Tartar guard which we had seen since we had been in this hole; and
these, putting chains round our necks, marched us off, as we thought, to
execution.

"Good-bye, Ned, old fellow, if they separate us," said I. "Should you
escape, please tell my old Dad about me, and the people at home."

"Nonsense, Jack," he replied, trying to laugh it off. "If we die, we'll
die together. But, I should like to pay out old `yellow hat' first. By
Jove, I should like to see him now!"

Talk of--angels!

At that every moment, as we were passing through a narrow stone passage
beneath the walls of the city, as we judged from their height, the very
individual of whom Ned had been speaking the instant before appeared on
the scene; and, all I can say is, that if we had thought him the reverse
of an angel previous to his coming, we were, on the contrary, inclined
to believe him to be the genuine article as soon as he told us his
errand!

It was to release us, and take my poor emaciated and ragged comrade and
myself to the English camp.

Then it was that we heard the news that had happened since our
imprisonment.

Sir Hope Grant, with the French troops under Montauban, had fought their
way up to Yuen-ming-Yuen, the Summer Palace of the emperor.

This place, I may mention, was subsequently burnt to the ground by the
English, after the French had looted it and carried off more than a
million's worth of plunder, leaving only the husks of the spoil for our
gallant men, who had done all the hard work of the campaign!

The Summer Palace was burnt, I should explain, as a punishment for the
cruel murder by the Chinese of a number of our officers and men, as well
as poor Mr Boulby, the special correspondent of the _Times_, all of
whom had been taken prisoners and tortured to death, though at the time
they were under the protection of a flag of truce!

Our troops had pretty well paid out the Chinese before this, however;
their infantry being annihilated and the Tartar cavalry of Prince
Sanko-liu-sin "doubled up" by our dragoons.

This news "yellow hat" told us on our way to the English camp opposite
to the Anting gate to the north of the city, explaining that the re