During the rest of the day, the travellers were visited by a great number of Mohammedan functionaries, actuated by curiosity or a desire to watch their doings. They thought it prudent, therefore, to abstain from sketching or taking notes. About five o’clock, the sultan sent for the chief of their escort; who returned soon afterwards, and said that he had orders to conduct them back to Hiang-kuan on the following morning. He showed M. Garnier at the same time a sealed document, which he had to convey to the mandarin of that fortress. A few presents attached him to the interests of the French explorers, who arranged to start with him at daybreak and avoid traversing the town. For Garnier feared lest, the sultan’s suspicions and anger being known, the crowd should break out into open hostility, or a few soldiers attempt to satisfy their ruler’s secret desire without actually compromising him. At nightfall, the lieutenant took care to see that all the weapons of his party were loaded, and instructed them what steps to take in case of a surprise. He sought, by liberal promises, to secure the complete fidelity of the porters. ~A NIGHT OF SUSPENSE.~ The night was spent in a painful condition of expectancy. A sentinel had been stationed at their door, who followed them each time they went out. M. Garnier dreaded every moment the arrival of an order to prohibit their departure, and transform their temporary confinement into definite captivity. About eleven o’clock one of the great mandarins of the sultan sent to inquire by what route they intended to return; and received for reply, that they did not know. The night passed without any other incident. At five in the morning they were on the march, well armed, and carefully grouped; they turned the city of Taly by the south and east, and with scarcely a halt crossed the twenty miles that separated them from Hiang-kuan. As they were about to enter the first gate of the fortress, the chief of their escort stopped them, and said he was ordered, pending the arrival of fresh instructions from the sultan, to lodge them in a small yamen which he obligingly pointed out. Garnier pretended to regard as a special act of courtesy what was evidently neither more nor less than a disguised sequestration, and replied that, after the cold welcome he had received at Taly, he could not accept the sultan’s hospitality. Unwilling, however, that this hurried retreat should look too like a flight, he added that if the mandarin of Hiang-kuan had any communications to make, he would await them in the little wayside _auberge_ where he had rested on his way to Taly. ~LEAVING HIANG-KUAN.~