What fate befell Captain Barbazon and his French companion, the
Abbe de Luc, is uncertain, but the evidence on the subject inclines us to
accept as accurate the statement that the Chinese commander in the fight
at Palikao, enraged at his defeat, caused them to be executed on the
bridge.
The soldier Phipps endured for a longer time than Mr. Bowlby the
taunts and ill-usage of their jailers, but they at last shared the same
fate, dying from the effects of their ill-treatment. The bodies of all the
Englishmen, with the exception of Captain Barbazon, were restored, and of
most of the Sikhs also. The Chinese officials were more barbarous in their
cruelty than even the worst scum among their malefactors; for the
prisoners in the jails, far from adding to the tortures of the unfortunate
Europeans, did everything in their power to mitigate their sufferings,
alleviate their pains, and supply their wants.
The details of these cruel deeds raised a feeling of great horror in men's
minds, and, although the desire to arrange the question of peace without
delay was uppermost with Lord Elgin, still it was felt that some grave
step was necessary to express the abhorrence with which England regarded
this cruel and senseless outrage, and to bring home to the Chinese people
and government the fact that Englishmen could not be murdered with
impunity. Lord Elgin refused to hold any further intercourse with the
Chinese government until this great crime had been purged by some signal
punishment. Sir Hope Grant and he had little difficulty in arriving at the
decision that the best mode of expiation was to destroy the Summer Palace.
The French commander refused to participate in the act which carried a
permanent lesson of political necessity to the heart of the Pekin
government, and which did more than any other incident of the campaign to
show Hienfung that the hour had gone by for trifling. On October 18 the
threat was carried into execution. The Summer Palace was destroyed by
fire, and the sum of $500,000 was demanded and obtained from the Chinese
as some compensation for the families of the murdered men. The palace of
Yuen Min Yuen had been the scene of some of the worst sufferings of the
English prisoners. From its apartments the high mandarins and the
immediate courtiers of the emperor had gloated over and enjoyed the
spectacle of their foreign prisoners' agony. The whole of Pekin witnessed
in return the destruction wrought to the sovereign's abode by the
indignant English, and the clouds of smoke hung for days like a vast black
pall over the city.
That act of severe but just vengeance consummated, the negotiations for
the ratification of the treaty were resumed. The Hall of Ceremonies was
selected as the place in which the ratifying act should be performed,
while, as some punishment for the hostile part he had played, the palace
of Prince Tsai was appropriated as the temporary official residence of
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros.
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