"Can I let my friend know I am here?" I asked.
"No," he replied; "but you can write to your lodging for your luggage to be sent you."
On my expressing a wish to write to Dr. Manson, he provided me with pen, ink and paper. I wrote to Dr. Manson informing him that I was confined in the Chinese Legation, and asking him to tell Mr. Cantlie to get my baggage sent to me. The old gentleman, however,—whom I afterwards learned to be Sir Halliday Macartney,—objected to my using the word "confined," and asked me to substitute another. Accordingly I wrote: "I am in the Chinese Legation; please tell Mr. Cantlie to send my luggage here."
He then said he did not want me to write to my friend, and asked me to write to my hotel. I informed him that I was not at a hotel, and that only Mr.
