s to say why it was ordered. We
accordingly went out, and after pillaging it, burned the whole
magnificent palace, and destroyed most valuable property, which could not
be replaced for millions of pounds.

"This Palace" (wrote the author of _Our Own Times_), "covered an area of
many miles. The Palace of Adrian, at Tivoli, might have been hidden in
one of its courts. Gardens, temples, small lodges and pagodas, groves,
grottoes, lakes, bridges, terraces, artificial hills, diversified the
vast space. All the artistic treasures, all the curiosities,
archaeological and other, that Chinese wealth and taste, such as it was,
could bring together." Gordon notes, "This palace, with its surrounding
buildings, over two hundred in number, covered an area eight by ten miles
in extent." He says, "it makes one's heart burn to see such beauty
destroyed; it was as if Windsor Palace, South Kensington Museum, and
British Museum, all in one, were in flames: you can scarcely imagine the
beauty and magnificence of the things we were bound to destroy."

"These palaces were so large, and we were so pressed for time, that we
could not plunder them carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments were
burned, considered as brass. It was wretchedly demoralizing for an army:
everybody was wild for plunder . . . The throne and room were lined with
ebony, carved in a wonderful manner. There were huge mirrors of all
shapes and sizes, clocks, watches, musical boxes with puppets on them,
magnificent china of every description, heaps and heaps of silks of all
colours, coral screens, large amounts of treasures, etc. The French have
smashed up everything in a most shameful way. It was a scene of utter
destruction which passes my description." This was not much in Gordon's
line.

In the following year he made a tour on horseback to the outer wall of
China at Kalgan, accompanied by Lieutenant Cardew. A Chinese lad of the
age of fourteen, who knew a little English, acted as their servant and
interpreter, while their personal luggage was conveyed in the Chinese
carts. In the course of this tour we are told they passed through
districts which had never before been visited by any European. At Kalgan
the great wall was seen, with its parapet about twenty-two feet high, and
sixteen feet broad. Both sides were solid brick, each being three times
the size of our English bricks. Gordon writes: "It is wonderful to see
the long line of wall stretching over t