'Yes,' I said to Elliot, 'I am sad, because when I look at that town,
I feel that I am earning for myself a place in the Litany, immediately
after "plague, pestilence, and famine."' I believe however that, as
far as I am concerned, it was impossible for me to do otherwise than
as I have done. I could not have abandoned the demand to enter the
city after what happened last winter, without compromising our
position in China altogether, and opening the way to calamities even
greater than those now before us. I made my demands on Yeh as moderate
as I could, so as to give him a chance of accepting; although, if he
had accepted, I knew that I should have brought on my head the
imprecations both of the navy and army and of the civilians, the time
being given by the missionaries and the women. And now Yeh having
refused, I shall do whatever I can possibly do to secure the adoption
of plans of attack, &c., which will lead to the least destruction of
life and property.... The weather is charming; the thermometer about
60 deg. in the shade in the morning; the sun powerful, and the atmosphere
beautifully clear. When we steamed up to Canton, and saw the rich
alluvial banks covered with the luxuriant evidences of unrivalled
industry and natural fertility combined; beyond them, barren uplands,
sprinkled with a soil of a reddish tint, which gave them the
appearance of heather slopes in the Highlands; and beyond these again,
the white cloud mountain range, standing out bold and blue in the
clear sunshine,--I thought bitterly of those who, for the most selfish
objects, are trampling under foot this ancient civilisation.

[Sidenote: Summons to Yeh.]

_December 24th_.--My letter telling Yeh that I had handed the affair
over to the naval and military commanders, and Gros's to the same
effect, were sent to him to-day; also a joint letter from the
commanders, giving him forty-eight hours to deliver over the city, at
the expiry of which time, if he does not do so, it will be attacked. I
postponed the delivery of these letters till to-day, that the expiry
of the forty-eight hours might not fall on Christmas Day. Now I hear
that the commanders will not be ready till Monday, which the Calendar
tells me is 'the Massacre of the Innocents!' If we can take the city
without much massacre, I shall think the job a good