Will positively reënact the GORY SCENES of CARNAGE in which
he took a LEADING and SANGUINARY PART during the LATE RISING.
ALONE IN PEKIN
Or, What a Woman can do.
PANEL I. PEACE: The Missionary’s Tent by Night--All’s Well--
The Dread Warning--“I am by your side, Beloved.”
PANEL II. ALARM: The Signal--The Spy--The Mob Outside--
Treachery--“Save Yourself, my Darling”--“And Leave
You? Never!”
PANEL III. REVENGE: The Attack--The Blow Falls--Who Can Save
Her Now?--“Back, Renegade Viper!”--The English Guns
--“Rule Britannia!”
FANG HUNG SIN, The Desperado.
There is only one FANG, and he must be seen.
FANG! FANG!! FANG!!!
I will not upon this occasion, esteemed one, delay myself with an
account of this barbarian Festival of Lanterns; or, as their language
would convey it, Feast of Cocoa-nuts, beyond admitting that with
the possible exception of an important provincial capital during the
triennial examinations I doubt whether our own unapproachable Empire
could show a more impressively-extended gathering, either in the diverse
and ornamental efflorescence of head garb, in the affectionate display
openly lavished by persons of one sex towards those of the other, or
even one more successful in our own pre-eminent art of producing the
multitudinous harmony of conflicting sounds.
At the appointed hour this person submitted himself to be heavily
shackled, and being led out before the assembled crowd, endeavoured by
a smiling benignity of manner and by reassuring signs of welcome, to
produce a favourable impression upon their sympathies and to allure
them within. This pacific face was undoubtedly successful, however
offensively the ill-conditioned one who stood by was inspired to express
himself behind his teeth, for the space of the tent was very quickly
occupied and the actions of simulation were to begin.
Without doubt it might have been better if this person had first made
himself more fully acquainted with the barbarian manner of acting. The
fact that this imagined play, which even in one of our inferior theatres
would have filled the time pleasantly for two or three months, was to
be compressed into the narrow limits of seven minutes and a half, should
reasonably have warned him that amid the ensuing rapidity of word and
action, most of the leisurely courtesies and all the subtle range of
concealed emotion which embellish our own wood pavement must be ignored.
But it is well and suggestively written, “The person who deliberates
sufficiently before taking every step will spend his life standing
upon one leg.” In the past this one had not found himself to be grossly
inadequate on any arising emergency, and he now drew aside the hanging
drapery and prepared to carry out a preconcerted part with intrepid
self-reliance.
It has already been expressed, that the reason and incentive urging me
to a ready agreement lay in the opportunities by which suitable passages
from the high Classics could be discreetly woven into the fabric of the
plot, and the occupation thereby permeated with an honourable literary
flavour. In accordance with this resolve I blended together many
imperishable sayings of the wisest philosophers to present the cries and
turmoil of the approaching mob, but it was not until I protruded my
head beneath the hanging canopy in the guise of one observing that an
opportunity arose of a really well-sustained effort. In this position I
recited Yung Ki’s stimulating address to his troops when in sight of an
overwhelming foe, and, in spite of the continually back-thrust foot
of the undiscriminating one before me, I successfully accomplished the
seventy-five lines of the poem without a stumble. Then entering fully,
with many deprecatory bows and expressions of self-abasement at taking
part in so seemingly detestable an action, I treacherously, yet with
inoffensive tact, struck the one wearing an all-round collar delicately
upon the back. Not recognising the movement, or being in some other way
obtuse, the person in question instead of sinking to the ground turned
hastily to me in the form of an inquiry, leaving me no other reasonable
course than to display the knife openly to him, and to assure him that
the fatal blow had already been inflicted. Undoubtedly his immoderate
retorts were inept at such a moment, nor was his ensuing strategy of
turning completely round three times, striking himself about the head
and body, and uttering ceremonious curses before he fell devoid of
life--as though the earlier remarks had been part of the ordained
scheme--to any degree convincing, and the cries of disapproval from the
onlookers proved that they also regarded this one as the victim of an
unworthy rebuke.
“Not if the benches were filled at half a guinea a head would I take
on another performance like that,” exclaimed the one with whom I was
associated, when it was over. “Besides the dead loss of lasting three
quarters of an hour it’s tempting providence when the seats are movable.
I suppose it isn’t your fault, Kong, you poor creature, but you haven’t
got no glare and glitter. There’s only one thing for it: you must be the
Rev. Mr. Walker and I’ll take Fang.” He then robed himself in my attire,
guided me among the intricacies of the all-round collar and outer
garments in exchange, hung a slender rope about his back, and after
completing the artifice by a skilful device of massing coloured inks
upon our faces, he commanded me to lead him out by a chain and observe
intelligently how a captive Boxer chief should disport himself.
No sooner had we reached the platform than the one whom I controlled
leapt high into the air, dragged me to the edge of the erection, showed
his teeth towards the assembly and waved his arms menacingly at them;
then turning upon this person, he inflamed his face with passion,
rattled his chain furiously, and uttered such vengeance-laden cries
that, unable to subdue the emotion of fear, I abandoned all pretence,
and dropping the chain, fled to the furthest recess of the tent,
followed by the still threatening Fang.
There is an expression among us, “Cheng-hu was too considerate: he tried
to drive nails with a cucumber.” Cheng-hu would certainly have quickly
found the necessity of a weapon of three-times hardened steel if he had
lived among these barbarians, who are insensible to the higher forms of
politeness, in addition to acting in a contrary and illogical manner
on all occasions. Instead of being repelled and discouraged by Fang’s
outrageous behaviour, they clamoured to be admitted into the tent more
vehemently than before, and so successfully established the venture that
the one to whom I must now allude throughout as Fang signified to me his
covetous intention of reducing the performance by a further two and a
half minutes in order to reap an added profit and to garner all his rice
before the Hoang Ho rose.
As for myself, revered, it would be immature to hold the gauze screen of
prevarication between your all-discerning mind and my own trepidation.
From the moment when I first saw the expression of utterly depraved
malignity and deep-seared hate which he had cunningly engraved upon his
face by means of the coloured inks, I was far from being comfortably
settled within myself. Even the society of the not inelegant being of
the inner chamber, whom it was now my part to console with alluring
words and movements, could not for some time retain my face from a
back-way instinct at every sound; but when the detail was reached that
she sank into my grasp bereft of all energy, and for the first time I
was just succeeding in forgetting the unpropitious surroundings, the
one Fang, who had entered with unseemly stealth, suddenly hurled his
soul-freezing battle-cry upon my ear and leapt forward with uplifted
knife. Perceiving the action from an angle of my eye even as he
propelled himself through the air, I could not restrain an ignoble wail
of despair, and not scrupling to forsake the maiden, I would have taken
refuge beneath a couch had he not seized my outer robe and hurled me
to the ground. From this point to the close of the entertainment
the vigorous person in question did not cease from raising cries and
challenges in an unfaltering and many-fathomed stream, while at the same
time he continued to spring from one extremity of the stage to the other
surrounded by every external attribute of an insatiable tiger-like rage.
It is circumstantially related that the one near at hand, who has been
referred to as possessing a voiced machine, became demented, and bearing
the contrivance to a certain tent erected by the charitable, entreated
them to remove the impediment from its speech so that it might be heard
again and his livelihood restored. When the action of brandishing
a profusion of knives before the lesser one’s eyes was reached, so
nerve-shattering was the impression which Fang created that the back of
the tent had to be removed in order to let out those who no longer had
possession of themselves, and to let in those--to a ten-fold
degree--who strove for admission on the rumour spreading that something
exceptionally repellent was progressing within.
With what attenuated organs of repose this person would have reached
the end of so strenuous an occupation had he been compelled to twelve
enactments each hour throughout the gong-strokes of the day without any
literary relief, it is not enticing to dwell upon. This evil was averted
by a timely intervention, for upon proceeding to the outer air for the
third time I at once perceived among the foremost throng the engaging
full-face of William Beveledge Greyson. This really painstaking
individual had learned, as he afterwards explained, that the chiefs of
exchange (those who in the first case had opposed me resolutely,) had
received a written omen, and now in contrition were expressing their
willingness to hold out a full restitution. With this assurance he
had set forth in an unremitting search, and guided by street-watchers,
removers of superfluous earth, families propelling themselves forward
upon one foot, astrologers, two-wheeled charioteers, and others who move
early and secretly by night, he had traced my description to this same
Heath. Here he had been attracted by the displayed placard (remembering
my honourable boast), and approaching nearer, he had plainly recognised
my voice within. But in spite of this the successful disentanglement was
by no means yet accomplished.
Not expecting so involved a reversal of things, and being short-eyed by
nature, William Greyson did not wait for a fuller assurance than to
be satisfied that the one before him wore my robes and conformed in a
general outline, before he addressed him.
“Kong Ho,” he said pleasantly, “what the Chief Evil Spirit are you doing
up there?” adding persuasively, “Come down, there’s a good fellow. I
have something important to tell you.”
Thus appealed to, the one Fang hesitated in doubt, seeing on the one
hand a certain loss of face if he declined the conversation, and on the
other hand having no clear perception of what was required from him.
Therefore he entered upon a course of evasion and somewhat incapably
replied, “Chow Chop Wei Hai Wei Lung Tung Togo Kuroki Jim Jam Beri
Beri.”
“Don’t act the horned sheep,” said Beveledge, who was both resolute and
one easily set into violent motion by an opposing stream. “Come down,
or I’ll come up and fetch you.” And not being satisfied with Fang’s
ill-advised attempt to express himself equivocally, those around took up
the apt similitude of a self-opinionated animal, and began to suggest a
comparison to other creatures no less degraded.
“Rats yourselves!” exclaimed the easily-inflamed person at my side,
losing the inefficient cords of his prudence beneath the sting. “Who’s
a rabbit? For two guinea-pigs I’d mow all the grass between here and
the Spaniards with your own left ears,” and not permitting me sufficient
preparation to withhold the chain more firmly, he abruptly cast himself
down among them, amid a scene of the most untamed confusion.
“Oh, affectionately-disposed brethren,” I exclaimed, moving forward and
raising my hand in refined disapproval, “the sublime Confucius, in the
twenty-third chapter of the book called ‘The Great Learning,’ warns us
against--” but before I could formulate the allusion Beveledge
Greyson, who at the sound of my conciliatory words had gazed first in
astonishment and then in a self-convulsed position, drew himself up to
my side, and taking a firm grasp upon the all-round collar, projected me
without a pause through the tent, and only halting for a moment to point
significantly back to the varied and animated scene behind, where, amid
a very profuse display of contending passions, the erected stage was
already being dragged to the ground, and a band of the official watch
was in the act of converging from every side, he led me through more
deserted paths to the scene of a final extrication.
With a well-gratified sense of having held an unswerving course along
the convoluted outline of Destiny’s decree, to whatever tending.