opening into this court; across the threshold of one lay the corpse of
a female servant, mutilated in an unspeakable manner. The household
establishment consisted in all of some ten or twelve persons, and
eight of them I found lying murdered in different parts of the
premises. There was no sign of living presence anywhere. The place had
been thoroughly ransacked, and everything worth having carried off. My
blood boiled as I surveyed the scene of desolation and massacre, where
lately I had witnessed happiness and cheerful industry, and I felt
that I could willingly have died myself on the spot to obtain
vengeance on the murderers.

In one of the upper rooms there was a bamboo ladder and trap leading
on the roof, which was flat, and it occurred to me to ascend and look
round. It was quite dark, and there was little to be seen beyond the
limits of the street. Distant illuminations marked the positions of
the forts on the surrounding heights. The seaward ones were still in
possession of the Chinese. They fell easily on the following day, and
had been practically abandoned. I noticed that the sounds of violence
in the town were rapidly decreasing. As I walked slowly round, the dim
light of my lantern fell on two figures skulking in the shadow. They
retreated as I advanced, until they could back no further, and then
one of them fell on his knees before me, bowing his forehead on the
roof with abject cries. I held the lantern towards him, and to my
astonishment recognized Chung. He evidently did not know me, and no
wonder, considering the manner in which I had rigged myself out. He
seemed half out of his wits with fear, and I had some difficulty in
forcing the fact of my identity upon his conviction. Then his delight
was as great as his previous terror. His companion was a stranger to
him--a man of exceedingly gentlemanly and prepossessing appearance,
and clearly a person of condition, being, in fact, as I afterwards