outcast, in rags, lying upon a filthy mat, in a den of

disease and death.

After saying a few kindly words of assurance to Meng-kee, I hurried out of the great joss-house into the small temple occupied by the bonzes. The ceremonies were over, and on inquiry of an attendant, I was shown into the refectory, where the priests were regaling themselves with the food-offerings that had been laid before the altar by their devotees. Without upbraiding them for not relieving the starving fugitives, I at once asked for some rice and fish, and told them they should be paid handsomely, showing at the same time a handful of bright Mexican dollars out of my pocket. The silver key opened the callous hearts of these heathen priests, who had not a drop of the real milk of human kindness in their natures. They grinned acquiescence, and improved the occasion by selling the meat-offerings at a higher price than they usually do.

On returning to the temple with a goodly quantity of rice and fish, carried by two attendants, I first gave a supply to my old friend Meng-kee, and then distributed small portions to the most needful of the other occupants of that dreadful lazar-house. These starving creatures cried with frantic joy at sight of the food. Many who had scarcely shown signs of life before, now rose up, holding out their hands, and screaming, "Rice! more rice!" In every case they were fugitives from the Taipings, who had seized the young men and women of their families, and left the parents and children to starve and die. They mostly belonged to the better class of farming people, and were entire strangers in the neighbourhood, so they had no relatives or friends to assist

them.

With some difficulty I obtained a sedan-chair, and got my feeble friend carried to Shanghai; and after having learned that her father had left A-lee comfortably at Nanking under the protection of the Kang Wang, I enjoined the mandarin to refrain from giving an account of his privations until he had obtained some repose.

On reaching the foreign settlement, I at once reported what I had seen and done to my superior officer, who approved of it, not only on the score of humanity, but because Meng-kee could in all probability furnish the survey department with valuable information regarding the interior of the country. Accordingly he was lodged in a quiet place adjoining the quarters of the Sappers and Miners, and proper food and clothing furnished to him.

When the foreign residents were made aware of the shocking scenes to be witnessed at the Bubbling Well Temple, they lost not an hour in having food prepared for the relief of the fugitives who were still alive, and the municipal authorities sent out coffins to bury the dead. One benevolent gentleman took an active part in raising subscriptions for feeding and clothing them, and his appeals were amply responded to by the generous community. The money was judiciously spent in having abundance of rice cooked at the kitchen of the priests next door, who became all of a sudden very careful of their famishing countrymen and women, when they found the foreigners so liberal with their money.

Moreover, the large temple was thoroughly cleansed, and the interior partitioned off with boards and matting, so that the remnants of families could live separate, and not be exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Application was also made to the chief

magistrate for permission to keep the place as a refuge only for distressed fugitives. This was granted, while two or three native police were sent to keep away professional beggars from receiving the foreigners' bounty. The whole was for a time under the hands of a trustworthy Chinaman, appointed by the benevolent resident already mentioned.

The members of a Chinese charitable society in the walled city, hearing of this voluntary act of foreigners to relieve the distressed people, became ashamed that their proper office should be thus forestalled. Accordingly, they sent a deputation to the British consul, offering to take the management of the affair, and raise subscriptions in future amongst the Chinese. This was acceded to, and the refuge became a permanent institution during the rebellion, forming one of the bright features in the dark progress of. the Taiping movement.

CHAPTER XXX. THE MANDARIN'S NARRATIVE.

MENG-KEE soon recovered from his starving condidition, and voluntarily offered to give an account of what he had witnessed during his sojourn among the Taipings.

At first he told me what you already know about his journey from Peking, and to this part of his narrative I listened with, you will easily suppose, great attention, and felt not a little uneasy when the namo of Cut-sing was mentioned.

Then the ex-mandarin proceeded with his narrative after leaving Nanking."I rode out at the south gate," he said, "with my mounted escort, feeling well satisfied that I was going upon a mission of peace to negotiate terms of amity between your honourable commanders and my new masters. I became more impressed with the ultimate success of our cause from what I had seen in the Tien Wang's capital, than what had previously come under my notice. So I journeyed on for several days with a hopeful feeling that in the end I should succeed. The principal despatch I carried was addressed to the famous Chung Wang, who is commander-in-chief of the Taiping forces, and was then in the field with a large army near the city of Soochow. On the way we communicated with the officers in command of each post, who received me very graciously as a messenger on important business from the Tien Wang. Still I could not help observing that their respect for him and his decrees was very different from what I had witnessed among the levies at Nanking. There appeared to me to be an absence of obedience to his commands in obeying the Sabbath, and in other particulars. From what I saw and heard I came to the conclusion that the authority of the great impostor is very little heeded outside the walls of his stronghold, and it diminished the farther I left it behind. Moreover, the licence amongst the soldiers in the camps was worse than anything I ever saw among Tartar troops."

I here asked the question suggested by my superior officer, "Whether the Taipings had a regular embodied force or not?" and a reply in the affirmative was given. "On this point I got information from the officer in charge of my escort. He told me that there was a veteran corps composed of old and welltried men of several years' standing, many of whom had joined the movement from the beginning. From this corps a draft was taken to form the nucleus of the body of men sent upon any special service or expedition, the remainder of the armed force, in each

case, being younger recruits, or peasants pressed into the service. These would number generally as ten to one of the old rebels, whose duty principally was to bring the younger volunteers or pressed men into a proper state of submission, as well as to inspire courage in those who might recoil from their allegiance. Another plan they have of separating unwilling followers is to draft from one district to another the inhabitants who have been conquered. Besides this, I observed myself that there were not only few men of middle age in their veteran ranks, but an unusual number of boys. Every officer has several attending on him, and where there is one grown-up man, there are two or three youths from twelve to eighteen years of age. These lads have all been kidnapped at various places, but appear delighted with their sanguinary profession. In most cases they act as slave-drivers, forcing the labouring people to carry heavy burdens, and toil at various works that the leaders require to be executed. These peasants are treated most cruelly, and forced to work in chains, under pain of death.

"When we reached that part of the grand canal between Chin-Keang and Soochow," the mandarin continued, we passed through districts where the soldiery revelled in plenty of food, luxuries, and fine clothes, though as far as I know they did not receive regular pay. Evidently they lived like pirates on whatever they could obtain in the shape of plunder, either in kind or specie. If the capture of a rich city produced a great harvest of booty, the men generally-as in the case of Soochow-benefited by the prize; if otherwise, the neighbouring farmers were compelled to contribute rice, pigs, fowls, vegetables, and the like farm produce, to feed the troops. While travelling along I frequently saw the unfortunate peasants bringing in such supplies to the camps, with chains and ropes round their necks in token of servitude. At length we reached Soochow, where I presented my credentials to Chung Wang, who received me rather coolly when he found that I was not a fighting man. Only those who were quainted with military tactics were received by him in high estimation. When I pointed out to him the object of my mission to try and secure the neutrality if not the aid of the foreign forces at Shanghai, he smiled incredulously, saying that he had already tried to do so without success. However, he gave me a dispatch to the general in command of the force at Kah-ding, who would direct me what to do. When I reached that place, and was told that I must be a secret emissary and dress as an imperialist, to spy the land about Shanghai and its neighbourhood, I would there and then have abandoned the enter

ас

The old man here paused in his narration, and gave vent to his feelings in groans of mental agony, holding his head with both hands, and swaying himself from side to side.

to the camp, some distance off. I was left in charge to take care of the property in the house. When the plunderers had gone I told the family to take what portable things were handy, and come with me to Shanghai for protection. They readily agreed to the proposal, and we left without delay, travelling the greater part of the night. It was bitter cold weather as we trudged dolefully along the narrow circuitous paths through the fields, in order to avoid the rebels on the main roads and canals. We scarcely knew our way, except where we found other fugitives coming from the westward, and then, being all creatures in the lowest depths of adversity, we joined in companionship to find some place of relief. For many weary days and nights we travelled the desolated country, and encountered a band of marauders who robbed us of every coin and valuable in our possession, so that when we came in sight of Shanghai we were without food or money to buy any. The only place of refuge open to us was the great temple at the Bubbling Well, where we took up our abode. The farmer, his wife, and daughter, succumbed to the privations they had undergone, and I was fast sinking under the pangs of hunger when you came to my relief. Oh, what horrors 1 endured in that frightful place. Throughout the livelong day I lay gazing upon those hideous images, and passed the long, weary nights in darkness, with hunger gnawing at my vitals, vainly trying to sleep, while I was disturbed by the groans of the dying. At that terrible time I felt that death would be a happy relief from the agonies I endured both of body and mind. Yet I wished to live, so that I might again have my beloved daughter under my own protection, and out of the hands of these blasphemous impostors and robbers."

This allusion to A-Lee was by no means reassuring, and to divert his thoughts I asked him to give me as clear an idea as he could of the creeks, canals, roads, and paths in the country he had traversed. This he did, and before our interview terminated I acquired a large amount of topographical information which was of the utmost value during the ensuing campaign.

Sonnets of the Sacred Year.

BY THE REV. S. J. STONE, M.A.

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. "From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body and make it like unto His glorious body."--Phil. iii. 20, 21.

"What debasement of my former rank! I, who mingled amongst the most refined people at the imperial court, was now obliged to consort with the lowest ruffians, who committed the vilest acts. But I did save some poor, innocent creatures from the clutches of these monsters. They were a father, mother, and one daughter, living comfortably on a rich farm. The young men of the household were seized, and forced to carry their agricultural produce

Oh, to each soul 'twas passing sweet and strange, Singing the glory of the Advent change.

trifles to talk of, and a pen scratch that would make | or mar whole families is but a moment's work.

There was to be a large party that night at Mr. Case's house-a dinner party; he did not deal in anything so contemptible as evening parties; he had no ladies to consult, and an invitation to do any thing but eat and drink he would have scorned to send as unworthy of his sex and station.

Every one liked to go to his dinners, for he had the best wines and the best eating that money could command. He was by no means a man of excess, but he liked what he called the pleasures of the table very well, and had a secret satisfaction (though he would have smiled contemptuously had he been charged with such littleness) in hearing it said, "If you want a first-rate dinner, get an invitation to Mr. Caleb Case."

The banker had received an invitation, and although he had a much better dinner than ninetynine out of a hundred of her Majesty's subjects every day, he looked forward with singular satisfaction to the evening, and was, perhaps unwittingly, more cordial to Mr. Case by reason of his pleasing anticipations.

no

When the friends parted (money and dinner friends), Mr. Case was a richer man by some thousands than when they met, yet he was sooner in his carriage than his mouth went down at the corners again, his eyelids dropped, and there was a frown on his brow. Pulling the check-string, he ordered the coachman to drive him to the house of his physician, in a fashionable square, for although he was too wise a man not to speak highly and think lightly of fashion on its own account, he chose to recognise its claim to respect by employing none that did not stand well in the fashionable circle; he preferred that his physician should be the physician of the rich and great. He took less care to look stout-hearted as he went up the white steps and passed the footman at the door, and walked onward to the physician's private room to which select patients were admitted.

The footman thought he looked ill as he passed him, but not caring in the least whether he was ill or well, would live or die, he forgot his thought in a

moment.

"Mr. Case!" exclaimed the doctor, struck, as his servant had been, by his cadaverous countenance.

"Yes, I want you to set me to rights against to-night; I've got some people to dinner, and I must get a little fresher than I feel now to entertain them," said Mr. Case, with a smile, but it was a grim one.

"What's the matter?" asked the doctor, looking steadily into his face.

"That I leave to you," said the patient; "I've been out a great deal in this fog, and fog always affects my head. Oh, I should be well enough tomorrow, if I could go home and go to bed, but it's rather a long invitation, and I can't put the people off, so you must do for me what rest would do."

The doctor asked his questions, looking, as it seemed, for information as much from his patient's physiognomy as from his answers.

"Couldn't you put off this dinner?" he asked. "No, it's impossible," said Mr. Case; "oh, there's nothing much the matter; perhaps I'd better let things alone, and it will pass off."

Mr. Case had, though he was not aware of it, a horror of sickness and death. He could talk most

philosophically on such subjects as concerning others, and would go the length of admitting (when he felt quite well) that he was but mortal, and must share the common lot of humanity; but when he felt ill, he always hoped by shaking off the enemy to cut him and get rid of him as he would get rid of a poor relation or a troublesome client, by a strange air expressive of "I have no time for you, you are an intruder, good morning."

He was ruffled by the doctor's manner, though it was guarded; indeed, he could see it was guarded, which ruffled him the more; dull as his eyes were that day, he could see through the doctor's assumed ease of manner in treating his case, so he determined to stand to his word, and confound and confuse the threatened illness into a retreat by a bold front.

"Well, you will do as you please," said the doctor, as he took the liberal fee for doing nothing; "I would recommend a little caution; this foggy weather is not the best for you, there is a great deal of illness about. I am just now going to Sir Richard Ayling, poor man; I am afraid to very little purpose."

Sir Richard! he dines with me to-night," exclaimed Mr. Case.

The physician shook his head.

"How long has he been ill?" asked Mr. Case. "Yesterday; fell down in a fit; been quite insensible ever since."

"You don't say so!" exclaimed Mr. Case, evidently much shocked; but instantly recovering himself, he added, "I should be afraid he wouldn't recover; his father died of apoplexy, and he has been a very free liver."

Mr. Case's father had not died of apoplexy, and he himself had not been what he meant by a free liver, therefore he comforted himself much in stating these two reasons why his friend would not recover.

Yet on the whole we leave Mr. Case less comfortable than he was before, though he had a pocket full of money in addition to his former riches, and though he had such good grounds for assurance that apoplexy had nothing whatever to do with him.

"You shall see me next week if I don't get rid of this," he said; "I am engaged every day till next Tuesday."

The doctor looked ominously after him into the hall, and slightly shook his head; but he had to go to Sir Richard and other distinguished patients, and though when his own dinner-time came he gave a passing thought to Mr. Case, it was but a passing one, and was dismissed with, "What an obstinate old fellow he is; I doubt he'll pay for it."