Morning journal and courier., 1886-02-22
Among the Chinese Emporer's Wives

Among the Chinese EmpOrers wives. D'Herissons 'Journal of an Interpreter ! in China" has an a..i lsing account of his ad- ventures at the summer palace which brought him into the midst of the Son of Healen's wives. While the pillage going he went to breathe fresh air in the imperial park, which he found the perfection of land cape-gardening. His curiosity was so ex- cited that he went on from temple to pagoda,
 pavilion to pyramid, from porticoes and colonnades to artificial mountains, and along brooks and isle-studded ponds or lakes,
 through groves, labyrinths and grottoes.
 Everything there appeared to him astound- ingly beautiful and astonishingly fantastical.
 4 strange building with creeping plants, that twisted around the dragons on the roofs, did their best to bring dragons with twisted
 tales within the pale of nature. This strange
 building was the coach house, and contained
 the carriage and harness (which had been
 never used) that George i'll sent by Lord
 Mccartney to the Son of Heaven. Hard by
 was large pond. Barges and canoes for imperial personages, all gilded, lacquered, and richly carved, were moCred at the little wharves. They contained fishing tackle of piece with all the rest. Nor were the fish that darted about in the clear water less extraordinary to European eyes consisting often of hippocamps, or water dragons. The famous Tower ofNankin threw its shades OH this pond. Comte d'Herisson saw on an isl and another palace of porcelain and carved sandal wood. He jumped disrespectfully into 8 gondola upholstered inside with yellow silk, sculled across, ascending three marble steps, entered spacious chamber surrounded with yellow silk divans, and redolent with the perfume of precious wood. He thought he heard something, and, hand on sword, lis tened. The sound of smothered signs reach ed his ears. Noticing abrupt elevations on the cushions of divans he kicked one, heard sharp cry, and saw lady in rich, flowery costume gathered up on all fours like rabbit. She crawled to where he was,
 placed her forehead on the ground, and dis played the nape of neck above which black
 hair was fastened by jeweled bodkins. The count felt how supremcly ridiculous he was
 with his hand on his sword hilt, and the lady at his feet. He said to her in Chinese,
 Don't fear, and get up.' She rose on her little feet, which were in their shoes the size
 and shape of a day-old foal. Her beauty was adorable When she rose all the other cushions moved, and the head of another beauty peeped from beneath each. There were in all 27 ladies, and the island-palace was the Son of Heavens seraglio. All of them got down and toddled over to the French soldier, formed around him, touched the floor with their lovely foreheads, and lavished on him other marks of respect and submission. He was then young and enthus- iastic; aud knowing that English aud French
 warriors, Arabs, Turcos, Coolies, and so forth, were not Scipios, he resolved to save them. How he got them away from the i'm
 perial park to Catholic convent is wittily related, and justifes the saying, "Que le vrai nest par toujours le vraisembla ble."