Читать книгу The Battles of the World or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events онлайн

133 страница из 144

Next morning Colonel Walker, accompanied by Messrs. Parkes and Loch, and attended by a Chinese officer deputed by the Commissioners, proceeded to examine the ground on which the British army was to be encamped, leaving the larger part of the escort at Tung-chow, where Messrs. Bowlby and De Norman also remained, pending the return of Parkes and Loch, who had yet to find a suitable residence for Lord Elgin within the walls of Tung-chow. On the way out, the party found the Tartar army in hurried movement in the direction of our forces, and on reaching the ground proposed for encampment, discovered it to be entirely commanded by the position which the Tartar forces, supported by a numerous artillery, were then taking up.

Seeing this, Parkes turned round and rode back to Tung-chow to demand a cessation of these hostile movements. Loch went on into the British camp with a couple of men to report progress, whilst Col. Walker, Thompson, and half-a-dozen dragoons, remained in the Tartar position, at Parkes’s request, until he should return. Having reported progress to the Commander-in-Chief, whom he met advancing, about a mile from the Tartar position, Loch returned towards the Tartars, accompanied by Captain Brabazon, R. A., with orders to Parkes to come back at once.