Our kind guide now brought us to see the Emperor, Empress, and the Princes, who were awaiting trial; but before doing so, he led us up to that part of the palace where was the suite of apartments which had been occupied by the English Embassador, and into his reception-room, where he and the chaplain, and the two ladies, were murdered.
In the East a violation of hospitality is regarded as a crime of greater magnitude than it is with us. This is fully illustrated in the Scriptures; yet here, under the very roof of the Emperor, the Embassador, Hon. Mr. Fraser, (the second brother killed within those walls,) with the Rev. Mr. Jennings and his daughter. Miss Jennings, with her cousin, Miss Clifford—said to be one of the most beautiful Englishwomen then in the East—were ruthlessly cut to pieces in this very room. Their blood still stained its floor, the marks of the tulwars were in the plaster round about, and on the walls was the impress of some of their gory hands, made as they leaned after receiving their first wounds; while the head of another of the party had fallen back against the wall, and described part of a circle as it sank to the floor, leaving the blood and hair in the track of its passage!
There were bitter feelings expressed against the Empress, especially for these assassinations. It was considered that under her own roof, at all events, it was entirely in her power to have saved these ladies had she chosen to do so; but she made no effort for this purpose, and when her own hour of sorrow came, it was remembered to her disadvantage.
We were obliged to procure a written permission to see the Emperor. There had been no restriction on the public curiosity till a gentleman, who had lost several relatives by the mutiny, went lately to see the Emperor, and, losing control of his feelings, used such language as put the old man in “bodily fear” for his safety. This, with no doubt other reasons, led to his being kept a close prisoner, and interviews permitted only in the presence of the magistrate and the officer of the guard who had him in charge. The place of his residence was a small house of three rooms in his
