The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-15 00:00:00

It appears that when Parkes reached the Temple
where they had passed the night, he found Bowlby
and De Normann had gone o'ut for a walk, saying
they would return in time for breakfast. After de-
siring the escort to get their horses saddled and to
be in readiness to start at a moment's notice, and
leaving a message for the other, he proceeded in
search of the Commissioners. He had some diffi-
culty in finding them, but at last, with the aid of
the Prefect of the town, discovered them in a
small shabby temple Outside the walls, and
evidently not at all well pleased to see him. He
immediately addressed himself to the Prince of I,
and requested to be informed whether the position
occupied by the Chinese army had been taken up
with his sanction and knowledge, and whether he
was aware of the imminent risk there was of a
collision takingplace between it and the French and
English troops if it was allowed to remain where it
was. The reply of the Prince was not only
evasive, but given in a half jeering, half insolent
tone, which Parkes had never observed him make
nseof before. When pressed to give a direct an-
swer, he admitted that he was aware of troops being
there; but what could Parkes expect—he had not
been willing to settle the day before the point re-
specting Lord Elgin's seeing the Emperor in person,
so that he could not consider that matters were as
yet entirely arranged ; and even if he had wished
or should wish to withdraw the Tartars, he was not
the Commander-in-Chief--but Sang-ko-lin-sin—by
whom alone such an order could be given. Mr.
Parkes pointed out the absurdity and falsity of
such a reply, but to no purpose; and, after some
further conversation, which he at once saw would
lead to no satisfactory result, and was "continued by
the Prince in the same insolent, indifferent tone as
that in which he had commenced it, he left the
Commissioners, throwing upon them the entire
responsibility of having broken off the nogotia-
tions. It was evident to him either that the Prince
was really unable to exercise any control over
Sang-ko-lin-sin and his army, in which case it
was useless to waste time in talking to him; or,
what was more probable, that in consequence of
the arrival of large re-inforcements of Mongolians
and Tartars from beyond the wall, subsequent to
the starting of the allied forces from Tien-tsin on
the 9th September, and the appointment of the
Prince of I and Muh-Yin as imperial commissioners,
it had been resolved by the war party at Pekin to
make Sang-ko-lin sin try the issue of another battle,
and that the interview he had had the day before,
and possibly the previous one, at which Mr. Wade
had been present, had been arranged simply with
a view to gaining time, and allowing the fresh troops
to be brought to the front, which result having
been attained the Prince of I was indifferent as to
how soon he threw off the mask and allowed him
to see what was really intended; hence the differ-
ence of his manner on the two days.
On his way back to the Temple, where he had left
the escort, he met Loch, who, having arrived there
safely with Brabazon, had come on to look for him ;
they returned to the Temple together, found every
one in readiness, and started off on their return to
the army at a sharp canter. They passed without
difficulty through Chang-keia-wan, and continued at
the same pace for some distance on the other side of
it, when they came upon large masses of Tartar
troops, both infantry and cavalry. As they went
along a considerable body of the latter began to
gallop alongside on either flank, blowing up their
matches, getting ready their matchlocks, and clos-
ing gradually down on them. Seeing this, and
feeling that as they were carrying a flag of truce
it would not do to have the appearance of running
away, they came to a halt for the purpose of
deciding on what was the best to be done. The
moment they did so the Mongol cavalry closed up
in great numbers in front and on either side,
completely shutting up the road in the direction
in which they had been going. An officer came
forward, and, in reply to Parkes, who told him that
they were under a flag of truce, and wished to pro-
ceed without delay, said that he knew such .was
the case, but as guns had been fired and the action
must have already commenced, he could not allow
them to pass without the permission of his General,
who was close by. I omitted to mention in its right
place that shortly before they halted they heard at
no great distance a discharge of gingals and heavy
guns, which were probably those fired at Colonel
Walker and the dragoons as they made their
escape. For a moment they thought of attempting
to cut their way through the troops in front of
them, but, besides that, it was almost impossible
they should have succeeded in doing so, they felt
it was their duty to exhaust every reasonable
means of getting out peacefully before committing
any act which might be construed into a violation
of the flag of truce on their part. As the Chinese
officer had spoken with great civility, and offered
to show where his General was to be found, Pal kes
decided on trying to see him, and asked Loch to go
with him, which he at once aonsented to do, and
took with them one of Probyn's two Sikhs, carry-
ing a white flag. They arranged with Lieutenant
Anderson that they would return as quickly as pos-
sible, but that if they did not come soon he had
better not wait, and that if on attempting to move
on he was attacked, he must act as he should think
best under the eircuni,tancvs.

When they left the escort they were taken by the
officer round the corner of a field of standing millet,
which completely shut them out of sight of their
friends, avd they also immediately found them-
selves in front of about a hundred matchlock:nen,
who presented their weapons and looked very much
as if they were about to fire, when an officer ran
ont and prevented them.
Passing through these they came to a small canal,
on the opposite side of which sat an officer on horse-
back, who beckoned to them to come over. As they
would have had to dismount and get into a boat in
order to do this, they hesitated, but, surrounded as
they were by this time by hundreds of men, resist-
ance would have been useless, and they were pre-
paring to obey when they saw a number of persons,
evidently of high rank, coming towards them.
Parkes soon discovered, from the way in which he
was addressed, that one of these was Sang-ko-lin-
sin himself, and he was pushing forward to make
his way up to him when both he and Loch were
violently seized, pushed forward, and forced down
on their knees before him. Parkes was beginning
to protest against such treatment, and to explain
the circumstances which had led to their being
there, when he was interrupted by Sang-ko-lin-sin,
and asked their names and positions. On Parkes
mentioning his own name, the Mongolian Prince,
whom he describes as a stern, somewhat sinister-
looking man, with strongly-marked features, indi-
cating considerable talent and much firmness, broke
out into the most violent abuse of him, saying,
among other things, thq he attributed much of
what was then occurring to his evil influence, that
he was responsible for all the fighting and conse-
quent misery which had taken place, and that,
now that he had got him, he would make him
suffer for it. He was proceeding in this strain,
when a messenger galloped an, apparently with
some important news, for he immediately rode
off towards the front, accompanied by the
greater number of his officers, while Parkes, Loch,
beng
with and their Sikh orderly were taken into a tent,
where their arms and feet were bound, the latter
to i
ether
During the behind their backs and strongly tied
g rouarng-k°. ropes at the elbows and wrist,
time s
lin-sin was abusing poor
Parkes, the stande
and Pree
lattervented aue
8 by emphasized his remarks
tine
yheaadnswer being made by cuffing
on th
wheneTer he attempted to
make one, each blow being
those who surrounded Loch apparently a signal to
fared even worse than eoh wo on these occasions
thesPanion —his beard
ni
„led hair being seized by a.
the du at theruffians' et and his 1
head pulled down and rubbed in
feet of Sang ko-lin-sin's pony. TherinCe before
Icaving had given an order, which was overheard
desiring that their friends,
by Parkes, gtogether • (
with
the escort, should be se mred and sent to the rear. I
He and Loch listened anxiously for the report of
firearms, or some other:sound which might let them
know whether any struggle.took place or not, hut
as they heard nothing they were inclined to hope
they had started before the order was given, and
managed to make their escape.
After having been kept in the tent for a short
time they were told that Sang-ko -lin-sin had deter-