I must have ridden nearly a mile straight through the vast enclosures
of the Palace, past lines and lines of American infantry lying on the
ground, with the reserve artillery trains halted under cover of high
walls, before I saw ahead of me a set of gates which were still
unbroken. General firing had quite ceased now, and excepting for an
occasional shot coming from some distant corner, there was no sound.
The bulk of the American infantry had not even been advanced as far as
I had come. A skirmishing line, evidently formed only a short time
before my arrival, was still lying on the ground; but the men were
laughing and smoking, and the officers had withdrawn out of the heat
of the sun into a side building, where they were examining a map. The
scaling-ladders were left behind. I was soon told that orders had come
direct from headquarters to stop the attack absolutely, and not to
advance an inch further on any consideration. The inner courts of the
Palace and the residences of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager could
not be approached until concerted action had been taken up by all the
Allies. I laughed--it was the hydra-headed diplomacy of Peking raising
its head defiantly less than eighteen hours after the first soldiers
had rushed in....

The massive set of gates in front of me were those just without a most
beautiful marble courtyard. That I knew from the rude Chinese maps of
the Forbidden City which are everywhere sold; if this boundary were
passed the Imperial Palaces, with all their treasures, would be
reached. I thought, with my mouth watering a little, although I had no
actual desire for riches, of General Montauban, created Comte de
Palikao, because in the 1860 expedition, when the famous Summer Palace
was so ruthlessly sacked, he had taken all the most splendid black
pearls he could find and had carried them back to the Empress Eugenie
as a little offering. If one could only get past this boundary and the