XV
The flight from Peking and the court in exile
The diarist, Ching Shan, has described in detail the flight of the Empress Dowager and Emperor from Peking, before dawn, on the morning of the 15th August. From an account of the Court's journey, subsequently written by the Grand Secretary, Wang Wen-shao, to friends in Chêkiang, and published in one of the vernacular papers of Shanghai, we obtain valuable corroboration of the diarist's accuracy, together with much interesting information.
Wang Wen-shao overtook Their Majesties at Huat-lai on the 18th August; for the past three days they had suffered dangers and hardships innumerable. On the evening of the 19th they had stopped at Kuanshih (seventy li from Peking), where they slept in the Mosque. There the Mahommedan trading firm of "Tung Kuang yü" (the well-known contractors for the hire of pack animals for the northern caravan trade) had supplied them with the best of the poor food available — coarse flour, vegetables, and millet porridge — and had provided mule litters for the next stage of the journey. As the troops of the escort had been ordered to remain at some distance behind, so long as there was any risk of pursuit by the Allies' cavalry, Their Majesties' arrival was unannounced, and their identity unsuspected. As they descended from their carts, travel-stained, weary, and distressed, they were surrounded by a large crowd of refugee idlers and villagers, eager for news from the capital. An eye-witness of the scene has reported that, looking nervously about him, the Emperor said, "We have to thank the Boxers for this," whereupon the Old Buddha, undaunted even at the height of her misfortunes, hade him be silent.
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