Prince Kung was at last resolved to make all the concessions
requisite to insure the speedy conclusion of peace.
The restoration of
these captives removed what was thought to be the one obstacle to Lord
Elgin's discussing the terms on which the invading force would retire and
to the respective governments resuming diplomatic relations. 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.
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