The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-11

us and then we beheld . party of horse, men approaching from the direction ol Pskin, shouting after us wildly, and mak' ing frantic signals that we should stop, Again VIC urged our wreeched driver to speed; but, only too easily. he Allowed himself to be oVeFtaken, and h another moment we were surrounded by tho hoTsemen, who, however, accosted us at fiist in . sort of apologetic tone They were shocked to 6nd VIC had been sent away without having had any breakfast ; such a proceeding gas unhcs spitable ba, here were some huts by the roadside, and five would descend and enter therein, our wants should be immediately supplied ,
 "lt aAerward appeared that the em- peror. in dying from Pekin, suddenly re- membered that he had left there two En. glish prisoners, and lon the principle that dead men tell no tales } forthwith sen, peremp,oFy orders that wo were to be summarily despatched Hung Chee had somehow got wind of this, and for certain reasons of his own chose to hberAte us Sstore the order should arrive, know wing that 1t would be impossible to save us afer it had once been delivered. The or. der did, in fact, arrive immediately after our departure, and these men were sent off at once in pursuit, in order to carry lt out. Thus l believe we were In greater danger at that moment than at any other period of our captivity. Ot course we protested we were not the least hungry, had no need Of food. Though still civil, they were extremely urgent, They would not allow the cart to proceed. but insisted Nv fNstW spMsFkMeS Ns.e nuA ~~emStmH tAm&AA the huts.
 run for it' We descended from the car, accordingly. in apparent compliance with their wishes, but the moment our fee, touched the earth, ~e sped a~ay along the road as hard as ever we could go. The horsemen galloped after us, not ab. solutely attacking, out shouting, insisting, trying to intercept and turn us back. We ran and dodged, and ran again the faster. At last, faint, exhausted and almost ready to drop, we came upon sight which suddenly revived all our dropping cour. age. That sight was an English sentinel. Our pursuers drew rein one more burst, and we were safe within the English lines
 "But why did they not kill you" asked Sir Harry Parkes, since they were armed and had you at their mercy P "Oh ]" said he, "that is not the way they do things in China. lt was too near the British lines. They didnt want any scandal or fuss about It. Desperate men will fight for their lives. and they might several of them have got hur,1 No. they just ~Anted to get us inside the huts, and al ka., .a,lA L. and comfortably"
 "You must have taken some time to recover your strength afer all you had endured" remarked. "Oh mo-" said Sir Harry, "l had too much to dol Had to begin again the very next day and go in to pekin with the commissioners who were to arrange the terms for peace. We were accompanied this time, it is true, by a powerful guaid of honor, but 1 felt rather queer, can tell you. al approach. ing the city again One of the cond. tions Sir Hope Grant insisted on was the surrender ot one of the city gates "a humiliation to which the Chinese were most unwilling to submit. We had more than one interview on the subject, and Hung Chee himself came out to see me about the matter. lt then appeared why it was that he had so copnived at our escape. The fact was, he hoped by our influence to procure some concession on this point, and desired to gain credi, with his countrymen for having over- come so obnoxious 6 condition. He be- gan by reminding me, there fore. tha, we owed our lives to him in return for which he had to request one small, one h..E.s 4haA N suade our general to give way about this, and not to insist upon the required sur render of the gate l replied that would lay his request before our general, hut told him plainly that myself had no iu- Huence whatever, and could no, hold ou, the smallest hope of such request being granted. Thercupon Hung Chee flew into furious rage. called me every abusive name in the Chinese vocabulary, and departed in towering passion.
 "The interview had taken place within sight of the little huts previously mentioned and 1 had not gone far from the spot when some of his attendants came rushing eut from one of these little huts, beating their breasts and crying out that their master had hung himself II confess ] was very suspicious, anticipat- ing some fresh act of reaehery. but 1 re- solved to go back and see %, taking two of my men with me. desired the rest of my escort 10 stay where they were, bat, should they hear a shot, to rush forward instantly, and a, ali hazards break down the door. Then, pistol In hand, went back to the hut and entered.
 "These, sure enough, we found the wYe. he'd Hung ChRN The sfoTv was actually true. He had hung himself be. hind the doorl 1t seemed to me, how. ever, thA, he was not yet quite dead 90, with my own hands, 1 instantly cut him down, and gave instructions to his at- iendanis how to restore him to conscious ness Their efforts were ultimately sue. cessful. and thus by a curious coinci. denoe ]. happened that 1 did, in fact, give him life toT life.
 The rest ef the negcssa.lcn is ,ns..e.