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

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A most spirited sale ensued of china, enamels, jade, furs, silk, &c., which realised £5000; and this sum, added to the amount of gold and silver bullion which had been brought in, enabled the prize agents at once to make a distribution amongst the troops, ranging from £3 for a private soldier, to £60 for a first-class field officer. All our generals surrendered their shares to the troops. The arrangement made was perhaps the fairest that could be arrived at under the actual circumstances of the time; but of a booty worth at least a million of money, belonging to the imperial crown—therefore prize of the fairest character—the British troops have profited only to the amount of £25,000. The balance has gone to the French, who take the broadest view of the question of halves, or to the Chinese peasantry, who plundered as they pleased, after the departure of the French, on the third day of occupation.

On the 8th October, the first-fruits of our advance on Pekin were realised, in the surrender to us, by the Chinese, of Messrs. Parkes and Loch, and the Sikh orderly who had been taken with them. A French savant and three men were given up at the same time. Our poor fellows looked wonderfully well; but M. d’Escayrae’s hands were still contorted by the pressure to which they had been subjected during the twenty hours in which he was bound. The delivery of prisoners was the direct result of an intimation sent to the Chinese, on the 7th October, that unless all the prisoners still in their hands were delivered up immediately, a gate of the city placed in our possession without opposition, and competent persons deputed to conclude a peace, Pekin would be taken by assault; but if all the prisoners were given up, our troops would not be allowed to enter the city, and the lives and property of the inhabitants should be respected.