THOUGH informed from a very good source that a rebellion was on foot but a little way beyond the city for which we were preparing to start, and though warned that there might be danger in trusting ourselves near it, we could not afford to lose an opportunity then within the reach of so very few travellers; and, danger or no danger, we braced our minds for the undertaking as resolutely as we could, resolved not to return without seeing the capital of an extensive region—the metropolis so much vaunted by the dilettante Emperor, whose ancestors had founded it, and whose principal literary merit rests on the eulogy he composed for the purpose of exhibiting his scholarship, and bringing this remote home of his fathers into notice.

According to preconcerted arrangement, when we were ready to begin our travel one sultry morning, a remarkably fine-looking young man, becomingly attired in a clean white cotton suit and an over-waistcoat of blue silk, with the official hat and red-silk plume, waited upon us to show us the road, and give notice of our presence to the mandarins when we neared the towns. Though well mounted, he kept an easy pace behind, and left us to push on as hard as we might, always certain of overtaking our party by near cuts, which his familiarity with the country enabled him to do.

ABOUT eighteen miles from our last night's quarters the country became dotted here and there with meagre squares of meadow land, on which the diminutive black goat of the country, or a scraggy, sore-backed donkey, grazed in peaceful comfort; while sundry hares, smaller and lazier than our own, scampered with easy pace from the path of the intruders to seek a nest in the nearest ling-bush. ‘Far in the downy cloud,’ regardless of the sun's intensity in the fierceness of the July midday, the little North China skylark, the Pehling, or ‘Hundred-spirited bird,’ ‘blithesome and cumberless’ as its congener in our own land, though imperceptible to the eye, inspiringly threw out its gushing song with the most lively abandon — the thrilling melodious gusts descending from the heavenly promenade like those of

Soon the glad song drives away one-half of our fatigue as we plod on, eager for the first inn, where breakfast may be got ready in some way or other.

An old man is at work in a grass-plot cutting the short thin herbage, and as our road is not altogether well marked out, we cross over to inquire. Poor old fellow! he is in a great state of unfeigned alarm at our sudden appearance, and makes an attempt to run away, but a second thought convinces him that his weak limbs could not carry him beyond the field, so he stands still, ready to supplicate for pity.

WE got up about five o'clock next morning, and found to our annoyance and vexation that a system of espionage had been established on our special behoof; and that some spies, in the shape of great big Chinamen, cleanly dressed, with the semi-official conical hat and red silk crown fringe, were comfortably seated in the passage outside the door, where probably they had passed the night. As soon as one of them saw M., he came forward and demanded to be shown Tsung's passport again, saying that the others were of no value, and that we could not be permitted to go up the hills. He had been taught his lesson very well, but his peremptory audacity met with no response of any kind, as M. simply refused to have anything to do with him. We proceeded to dress, and get ready for our expedition as quickly as possible, in order to have it over, and depart from such a troublesome region about midday—firmly resolved never to have anything more to do with such officials, if we could help it. We were in such a hurry that we took but one cup of tea each, and a small biscuit, intending to breakfast when the work was done, which, we fancied, would not take more than three or four hours at the utmost. But in this we deceived ourselves.