Without replying directly to this reflection of our friend, I said:
"How happens it that your government, which so anxiously isolates the interior population from all contact with foreigners, allows this wall, which encloses two official cities, to fall into ruin? This barrier, if good care be not taken, will soon cease to exist; a few cannon shots of the barbarians would quickly open a breach that would never be closed."
"Indeed," replied Pan, "the stones which form the inside layers have become softer than a ripe blade of corn, and the walls fall to dust. The men of the city Tchin-jin, too, are base and vacillating. But why, at present, incur a useless expense, as we are not at war? Besides, the northern walls are in a very good state, and, according to all rule, that is the point on which we ought to be attacked."
What was there to reply to such reasons? Nothing!
"I have been told," I resumed, "that the wall of the two cities has sixteen gates. How are these distributed? Is this number of entrances equally divided along the whole extent of the wall?"
"The ramparts, indeed, have sixteen gates," said Pan; "but twelve of these are exterior, and four interior; that is to say, the latter form the means of communication between the Tartar and the Chinese
