Of course such a treacherous act could not go unpunished. An ultimatum was sent demanding an apology and the fulfilment of the Treaty of Tien-tsin, including the payment of the war indemnity of 4,000,000 taels. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, the Plenipotentiaries who acted for the Allies in the Treaty of Tien-tsin, proceeded to Hongkong to enforce the demands of England and France, supported by an army under Sir Hope Grant, in which several Sikh regiments volunteered to serve, and a French contingent under General Cousin de Montauban, afterwards distinguished as Comte Palikao. The Plenipotentiaries came near to perishing on the voyage out. The _Malabar_ frigate, which conveyed them, was totally wrecked on a reef at Point de Galle, in Ceylon, those on board escaping with great difficulty, and with the loss of many valuable papers and much property. However, Lord Elgin and Baron de Gros arrived at Hongkong in another vessel on July 21. They found that the Chinese Council had returned an insolent answer to Mr. Bruce's ultimatum, which left no alternative but immediate action. The Allied Forces advanced on July 26, the English from Chefow, and the French from Tah-lien-hwan; they captured the Tangku Forts, with forty-five guns, on August 14, and the Taku Forts, containing about 400 guns, on the 20th, the English loss on the latter occasion amounting to seventeen killed and 183 wounded. Sir Hope Grant's despatches contain cordial references to the gallantry displayed by his French allies in the assault. Tien-tsin was next occupied on August 23, and preparations were made for an immediate advance on Pekin. The Chinese forces had disappeared, but the Government, anxious at all hazards to keep the "barbarians" from approaching the capital, opened negotiations for peace, and on September 13 Lord Elgin's secretaries, Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch, with Mr. Bowlby, the Times' correspondent, and some British and French officers, rode on to Tungchow a town within twelve miles of Pekin, to arrange the preliminaries of an interview between the Plenipotentiaries of the Allies and the Chinese. A camping ground was allotted for the Allied Forces about five miles short of Tungchow, but before Grant and de Montauban could occupy it, a large Chinese army had surrounded the position. Mr. Parkes, Mr. Loch, and their party, protected by a flag of truce, went back to Tungchow to remonstrate against this dangerous violation of the agreement; they were treacherously seized and thrust into loathsome dungeons, crowded with filthy Chinese prisoners, where thirteen out of twenty-six of them died from savage ill-treatment by their captors. Captain Brabazon, R.A., Lieutenant Anderson, and Mr. Bowlby were among these victims, their hands and feet having been so tightly bound with cords that the flesh burst and fatal mortification ensued. [Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Notman & Sons, Montreal._ TORONTO. Capital of Ontario, and the second largest town in Canada.]