It Was
Fortunate For China That The Exact Fate Of The Other Prisoners Was
Unknown, And That Lord Elgin Felt
Able, in consequence of the more
friendly proceedings of Prince Kung, to overlook the earlier treatment of
those now returned
To him, for the narrative of Mr. Parkes and his fellow
prisoners was one that tended to heighten the feeling of indignation at
the original breach of faith. To say that they were barbarously ill-used
is to employ a phrase conveying a very inadequate idea of the numerous
indignities and the cruel personal treatment to which they were subjected.
Under these great trials neither of these intrepid Englishmen wavered in
their refusal to furnish any information or to make any concession
compromising their country. Mr. Loch's part was in one sense the more
easy, as his ignorance of the language prevented his replying, but in
bodily suffering he had to pay a proportionately greater penalty. The
incidents of their imprisonment afford the most creditable testimony to
the superiority which the pride of race as well as "the equal mind in
arduous circumstance" gives weak humanity over physical suffering. They
are never likely to pass out of the public memory; and those who remember
the daring and the chivalry which had inspired Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch on
the day when Prince Tsai's treachery and Sankolinsin's mastery were
revealed, will not be disposed to consider it exaggerated praise to say
that, for an adventure so honorably conceived and so nobly carried out,
where the risk was never reckoned and where the penalty was so patiently
borne, the pages of history may be searched almost in vain for an event
that, in the dramatic elements of courage and suffering, presents such a
complete and consistent record of human gallantry and devotion as the
capture and subsequent captivity of these English gentlemen and their Sikh
companion.
The further conditions as preliminary to the ratification of the Treaty of
Tientsin were gradually, if reluctantly, complied with. On October 13 the
northeast gate was handed over to the allied troops, but not before Sir
Hope Grant had threatened to open fire on the walls. At the same time
Prince Kung returned eight sowars of Fane's Horse and one Frenchman, all
the survivors, besides those already surrendered, of the small band which
had ridden from Tungchow nearly a month before. The Chinese prince stated
in explanation that "a certain number were missing after the fight, or
have died of their wounds or of sickness." But the narrative of the Sikhs
was decisive as to the fate of the five Englishmen and their own comrades.
They had been brutally bound with ropes which, although drawn as tight as
human force could draw them, were tightened still more by cold water being
poured upon the bands, and they had been maltreated in every form by a
cruel enemy, and provided only with food of the most loathsome kind. Some
of the prisoners were placed in cages. Lieutenant Anderson, a gallant
young officer for whom future renown had been predicted, became delirious
and died on the ninth day of his confinement.
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of 191255