They were coupled by the neck; they were suffering cruelly, for their wrists were so tightly manacled that their hands were strangulated, a mode of torture to which, it will be remembered, the Chinese Government in 1860 subjected Bowlby, the _Times_ correspondent, and the other prisoners seized with him "in treacherous violation of a flag of truce," till death ended their sufferings.

These men were roadside robbers caught red-handed.

Their punishment would be swift and certain.

Found guilty on their own confession, either tendered voluntarily to escape torture, or under the compulsion of torture, "self-accusation wrested from their agony," they would be sentenced to death, carried in baskets without delay--if they had not previously "died in prison"-- died, that is, from the torture having been pushed too far--to the execution ground, and there beheaded.
We stopped at an inn that was not the ordinary stage, where in consequence we had few comforts.

In the morning my men lay in bed till late, and when I called them they opened the door and pointed to the road, clearly indicating that rain had fallen, and that the roads were too slippery for traffic.