teamed ahead between the forts, leaving the Chinese to take the
consequences. All at once the long line of batteries opened fire. One or
two gunboats were sunk; two or three were stranded. A storming party was
repulsed, and Admiral Hope, who was dangerously wounded, begged our
American commodore to give him a lift by towing up a flotilla of barges
filled with a reserve force. "Blood is thicker than water," exclaimed
Tatnall, in tones that have echoed round the globe, and Ward making no
objection, he threw neutrality to the winds, and proceeded to tow up the
barges. Our little steamer was commanded by Lieutenant Barker, now
Admiral Barker of the New York Navy Yard.

Even this failed to retrieve the day, the tide having fallen too low for
a successful landing. For the British admiral nothing remained but to
withdraw his shattered forces, and prepare for another campaign. For the
United States minister a dazzling prospect now presented itself,--that
of intervening to prevent the renewal of war. From Peitang we proceeded
by land two days. Then we continued our voyage for five days by boat on
the Upper Peiho.

At Peking, calling on the genial old Kweiliang, who had signed the
treaty in 1858, Mr. Ward was astonished at his change of tone. "You wish
to see the Emperor. That goes as a matter of course; but his Majesty
knows you helped the British, and he requires that you go on your knees
before the throne in token of repentance." "Tell him," said Mr. Ward to
me, "that I go on my knees only to God and woman." "Is not the Emperor
the same as God?" replied the old courtier, taking no notice of a
tribute to woman that was unintelligible to an Oriental mind. "You need
not really touch the ground with your knees," he continued; "but merely
make a show of kneeling. There will be eunuchs at hand to lift you up,
saying 'Don't kneel! Don't kneel!'" The eunuchs, as Mr. Ward well knew,
would be more likely to push us to our knees than to lift us up; and he
wisely decided to decline the honor of an audience on such terms.

Displeased by his obstinacy, the Emperor ordered him to quit the capital
without delay, and exchange ratifications at the sea-coast. A report was
long current in Peking that foreigners have no joints in their knees;
hence their reluctance to kneel. Thus vanished for Mr. Ward the
alluring prospect of winning for himself and his country the beatitude
of the peacemaker.

The summer of 1860 saw the Peiho forts taken, and