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legs and tried to pull him off his horse. He at once saw what they wanted and called out to his dragoons to gallop away and join us, and then followed himself as hard as he could, the enemy opening a sharp fire of artillery and jingalls upon them as they escaped, wounding two of the party. The enemy having thus thrown off the mask, we immediately attacked them, and after a two hours' fight drove them out of their position with a loss of 600 or 700 killed and wounded and 75 guns taken. The loss of the English was 19 wounded. On the 21st, the French being reinforced by 1800 men and 12 guns, we advanced beyond Zung-chow and fought the enemy within ten miles of Pekin. The country here is a vast plain of sand, covered with villages situated in the midst of small woods, in almost every one of which there was a Tartar camp. We drove them before us, burning their camps as we went, killing about 1200 of them and capturing 33 guns. The English loss this day was 2 killed and 29 wounded. We are now in camp about seven miles from Pekin, waiting for our infantry to come up and our heavy guns, to make an attack upon the capital, sure of success. In the meantime we are encamped on a fertile plain which gives us plentiful supplies and are altogether uncommonly well off, and the troops are in excellent health. Parkes,*' with Mr. Loch *^ and de Norman of the Embassy, Mr. Bowlby, Times correspondent. Captain Brabazon, R.A., and Lieutenant Anderson, with Sikh cavalry and one dragoon, are prisoners in the enem3''*s hands by an act of treachery, and are, I believe, in Pekin.... The enemy sent in a flag of truce to Lord Elgin yesterday with a letter — they evidently wish to reopen negotiations. Lord Elgin has, I believe, refused to say anything to them until the prisoners are sent in. God bless you all, there is no time for more. — Ever your affectionate son,
Fredk. Stephenson.
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To his Brother
Camp before Pekin, October 9, i860.
My dear William, —...Mr. Parkes, Loch, and some six of the prisoners were sent into camp yesterday evening, having been shamefully ill-treated. It appears that when they were so treacherously taken prisoners on the 1 8th of September, when passing through the enemy's camp, they were immediately taken before San-ko-lin-sin, the Commander-in-Chief, and there forced upon their knees, and their foreheads rubbed upon the ground, to do him homage. He abused them very much in strong terms, and ordered them to be made prisoners and sent back to Pekin at once. Their arms were pinioned, and they were conveyed in carts which went jogging along all over the rough roads to their considerable inconvenience, which was enhanced by the considerate feelings of some of the soldiers, who emptied into the carts bags of large nails like tenpenny nails, which in conjunction with the jolting of the vehicles produced the most soothing effects upon their posteriors. Arrived at Pekin, they were loaded with chains and sent to a common jail, where they were shut up with the lowest criminals without any food for three or four days but a few small cakes. Now and then Mandarins would come to cross-examine them, when they were invariably forced upon their knees and questioned in that manner, receiving frequent boxes on the ear when answers were given different from what they wished to hear, or when any of the prisoners did not answer from inability to speak Chinese. They were threatened with death in the event of our attempting to bombard the city, and though they were eventually better treated as we approached the city and the Chinese became more and more alarmed, still they passed a most painful and anxious time, daily expecting to be made away with. The prisoners, however, are not all sent in, some of them having been carried off to some distance from Pekin: amongst these are de Norman of
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