Five years ago Earl Li was at the head of the "Tsungli Yamen," or Foreign Office in Peking.

"True," said I, "but that is from the Tsungli Yamen.

In the summer of 1885 I was called one day from the Western Hills to the Tsungli-Yamen, or Foreign Office, on business of great urgency.

Except Prince Ching and one Tsungli Yamên Minister, nobody knew, nobody even guessed, that anything unusual was even "on the carpet," as the French say; and in order to deepen the impression that no political anxieties were darkening the horizon, Robert Hart embarked in private theatricalsa thing he had never done before, or sinceand played Pillicoddy.