the cross, and close to it the victim with a chain about his neck, held by two gaolers, all looking on with a quiet curiosity. The servants of the mandarin were supplying him with constantly renewed pipes; his attendants, a few soldiers, and his chair-bearers, seemed more amused than anything else. There is no telling what might not have taken place had it not been for a boat's crew who happened to come from Whampoa that morning. They belonged to the old East India Company's ship 'Orwell,' Captain 'Tommy' Larkins, formerly of that Company's service, and a well-known and general favourite in the community. These sailors had been wandering about the Square, but gradually approached the spot and looked on. Seeing the drift things were taking, suddenly they seized the cross, smashed it in pieces, and began to lay them over the heads and shoulders of the executioners and any Chinamen within reach. The gaolers dragged the prisoner away. Jack tore down a tent that had been pitched for the mandarin, capsized the chairs, the table, with the teapot and cups, and would next have attacked the mandarin himself had we not interfered to protect him. We were much relieved when his Excellency and his aids were carried away and no harm done to them, and we found ourselves in possession of the ground. Then cried out one of the sailors to another, 'I say, Bill, we don't get such a lark as this every day!' The siege of the Factories by the mob was continued throughout the afternoon, the guards at the corner of the American Factory were obliged to retreat after ineffectual efforts to clear the ground of our assailants, and things looked very serious. In the 'Imperial' Factory, Captain St. Croix, of the 'Alexander Baring,' had collected all the inmates, armed with such weapons as they had amongst them, revolvers and fowling-pieces, and proposed a rush out, but happily no demonstration was made. There were without doubt eight or ten thousand of the vilest of the population seemingly bent on the destruction of the 'foreign devils.' Towards five o'clock some one suggested that it might be worth while to get notice of our situation to Houqua. It looked as if the Mandarins had left us at the mercy of the mob, while the streets were completely blocked, and no Chinaman probably thought of going on such a mission. Mr. G. Nye (an American gentleman) and myself undertook to go and see him. Getting on the roof of No. 4 'Suy-Hong' we managed to cross to that of a shop in Hong Lane, through which we descended, and after some exertion reached the street in the rear of the Factories, called the 'Thirteen Factory Street,' which led to Houqua's Hong. We found the old gentleman in some trepidation from the news that had been already brought to him, but he seemed quite ignorant of the Square and the Factories being at the mercy of the crowd. He at once despatched a messenger to the 'Kwang-Chow-Foo,' the chief magistrate of the city, and we returned the way we had come.