By Proxy [A novel.] ... With ... illustrations by A. Hopkins

Front matter

BY PROXY VOL. I, UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT NOVEL. 2 vols. 8vo. cloth .extra, Illustrated, 21a. MISS MISANTHROPE. By Justin McCarthy, Author of 'Dear Lady Disdain' &c. Third Edition. With 12 Illustrations by Arthur Hopkins. 1 A brilliant and thoughtful novel.' — Contemporary Review. 2 vols. 8vo. cloth extra, Illustrated, 21s. THE WORLD WELL LOST. By E. Lynn Linton, Author of ' Patricia Kemball ' &c. Second Edition. With 12 Illustrations by J. Lawson aDd Henry French. ' We are inclined to think that in this novel Mrs. Linton has reached a higher artistic mark than in any former one. " The World Well Lost" is supremely natural.' Nonconformist. CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, AV. '■Fu-chow lay like a log.' Y BY PROXY I; V JAMES PAYN AUTHOR 01'' 'LOST SIR MASSINGBEHD ' 'WALTER'S WORD' 'WHAT HE COST HER' ETC, ' Not in the sky, not in the midst of the sea, Not in the clefts of the mountains, Is there a spot in the whole world Where a man may be freed from an evil deeJ Buihlhisl I'rwrb WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR HOPKINS IN TWO VOLUMES— VOL. I. bonbon CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCAD1L1 1878 [The right oj translation is reserved] LONDON : PRINTED BY SI'OTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET TO MY FRIENDS OF THE LUNCHEON TABLE THIS BOOK IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED ' The pattern handmrtde, homelike, but the plates mostly of China ' Garth's Tea-table CONTENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME.

CHAPTER pAGK I. On the Canal , 1 II. A Breeze in the Boat 14 III. The Joss-house 24 IV. The Shay-le 36 V. The Informer . . ' 48 VI. The Garden at Richmond 60 VII. A Bargain eatified 71 VILT. Mother and Daughter 80 IX. Mrs. Wardlaw 01 X. Chinese Justice 106 XI. The Prisoner's Hope 125 XII. A Chinese Prison 136 XIII. A Sacrifice 148 vol. I. a CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. X CHAPTER PAGE XIV. Conway's Will 159 XV. The Bargain 167 XVI. Last Words ; .... 176 XVII. The Survivor 189 XVIIT. Unconscious 208 XIX. Breaking It 217 XX. Vice Versa ; . . 228 XXI. The Beginnings of Baseness 243 XXII. A Man of Business 257 XXIII. A bitter Trial 270 XXIV. Returned ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. 'Fu-chow lay like a Log' Frontispiece ' He was disarmed and thrown upon the Floor ' . . To face page 56 ' A mere Cell, half underground ' . . . . „ 130 'He is here, Pennicuick' „ 170 ' YOU HAVE NOT BROKEN MY HEART ' . . . . „ 242 Father and Son „

Chapter I. On The Canal

THE time is spring-time — the scene the north of China ; or rather that north-eastern portion of the Celestial Empire which the few Europeans who have visited it call North. At the date of which we write, it was a much rarer matter to explore the plains of Keang-Soo, the district lying to the north-west of Shanghae, than even now ; it was an excursion which, on the part of the ' Pak- Quei-Tye ' or ' Foreign Devils,' required money, courage, an armed guard, and above all a quietness of demeanour and conduct in the presence of much that was irritating, and more that was ludicrous, which all Europeans, and we fear we must add especially our military fellow-countrymen, do not possess. English officers in particular, who have been accustomed to the natives of India, are apt to get into trouble with those of China ; the character of ' Pandy ' being very different from that of John Chinaman, and especially of John Chinaman on his own dunghill — far inland, where ' the Barbarians ' — that is to say, all persons belonging to civilised communities — are held not only cheap but contemptible.

The fine old quotation, omne ignotum pro magnifico, is in this instance sadly out of place ; VOL. I. B for though the Chinese know nothing whatever of our particular ' tribute-bearing nation,' except that it consists of men without pig-tails ' governed by a lady with large feet,' they do not despise us one whit the less on that account. From the days when the unconscious Lord Macartney went up the Peiho with ' Ambassador bearing tribute from the country of England ' in Chinese upon his flag, until now, the Celestial People have laboured under false im pressions of us which induce the circumstances of what, in domestic scenes at our police courts, is termed ' aggravation ; ' and when young Englishmen of condition are aggravated, it touches a certain spring in their system which is apt to make them hit out straight from the shoulder.

The consequences of this movement, especially in connection with a Mandarin, are exceedingly serious in every part of China except the five treaty ports ; and officers ofthe English army were therefore very seldom given permission to visit the district of Keang-Soo, notwithstanding the abundance of game it was reputed to possess, and the charms of its local scenery. Nevertheless, of the two Englishmen now seated in the covered boat making its slow way up a tributary of the Cha-Ho (other wise Imperial Canal) upon this moonlit night in spring, one is in the army. He is the younger of the two travellers, but not sufficiently so to make him, as usual, the more interesting of the two. There is only a year or so of difference in the ages of Ralph Pennicuick and Captain Arthur Conway. But except as to years they have little or nothing in common.

The Captain is slight though wiry ; his complexion would be fair, if the effects of ten years' broiling under Eastern suns could be removed by the application of some of those cosmetics, the action of which we know (by the advertisements) is so unfailing ; but then he never uses cosmetics. He has not the money to spare for such luxuries, having to support a wife and child in England, and possessing little more than his pay with which to do it. His face would be comely enough but for a look of care — or rather of the weariness that is the result of care — in his blue eyes : his mouth, notwithstanding the long brown beard, flecked here and there with grey, has a mild and pleasant expression, especially when it smiles : but it smiles rarely : his voice, firm, but gentle almost as a woman's, has a certain melancholy in its tone, such as belongs to men who have missed their mark in life and have no desire to take aim again ; who know how it happened quite well, and what has come of it ; and who, if not content, at least do not complain.

He holds a sketch book in his hand, to which, while conversing with his com panion, he transfers, from time to time, some picturesque or curious object on the canal bank. He is a man of considerable accom plishments, as the phrase goes, though they have hitherto been of no practical advantage to him. He can catch a likeness, and place it on paper in a few strokes ; as a young man — that is to say, some twenty years ago, for he is now three-and-forty — he could sing a song with much feeling and expression ; but his singing days have long been over. He has a genuine talent for languages, and, having now resided some three years in the 'crockery shop,' as his com panion calls the ' Flowery Land,' can make himself understood in Chinese. Had Captain Arthur Conway possessed a friend suffi ciently sympathetic (which he does not) to enquire what he had done with his life and opportunities in the world, he would have replied, ' Wasted myself.' The general opinion of his brother-officers ■was correct, when they remarked to one another, as they had occa sionally done, that ' Conway had missed his tip.' B The general opinion of those who knew Ralph Pennicuick was of quite the contrary kind.

He had not ' missed his tip,' if that means any aim whatever to which he had at any time directed his energies. He had always had all he wanted, or almost all ; partly, it is true, because his wants had been of a material sort, with which a large fortune inherited when he came of age had always supplied him ; but also because of his indomitable will. His wish was as much a law to him as that of his Imperial Majesty the Son of Heaven and Vice-Regent of the Universe, in whose dominions he was now travelling for his own pleasure. A disciple of Lavater would have judged as much from Pennicuick's mouth, the firmness of which, set in its massive jaw, reminded you of the Nineveh marbles ; it was not the jaw alone, however, which associated itself with those steadfast faces of the despots of old, but the beard of inky blackness which, flowing broadly down from his dark face, was clubbed towards the ends and curled upwards as hair appears to have done in Nineveh, alike with bulls and men.

Of course Penni cuick was much respected for this attribute — by which I mean his will and not his beard, though that too he used to say had its attractions for the fair sex — but it did not make him beloved of men. He was not a man to get his name abbreviated from familiarity or affection, but it was abbreviated nevertheless. He was called ' Steel Pen,' and ' Hard Pen,' from his decisiveness of character ; and ' Black Beard,' not so much from his beard as from the characteristics he had in common with the famous pirate of that name. But these things were only said behind his back, while Conway was always ' Connie ' even with the youngest ensign, and, despite his poverty and want of animal spirits, one of the most popular men in his regiment. Pennicuick would have been popular too, perhaps, if he would have taken the trouble to be so, and even as it was his company was sought after by both sexes.

For women love a tyrant, and men (who are also cowards in their way) have always a welcome for those who have a sharp tongue, a ready sword, and a large rent-roll. These two men had been at College together, where they had both been their own masters and enjoyed themselves; only the one had lived on his income, and indeed within it, while the other had made a hole in his small capital. They had both married for love (after their several fashions), but Pennicuick with the more discre tion. His wife died in giving birth to her first child— a son — and left her husband with twice the fortune he had possessed before : while Conway's wife had brought him little (or what seemed little to a man of his habits) beyond a daughter, to keep whom and her it had been necessary for him for the last ten years to exile himself from England.

This at least was the view he himself took of it (though always, as I have said, without complaint) ; but, as a matter of fact, he had not been prudent at any time, and had both spent and lost money in pursuit of pleasure and gain. His friends said that he had never been anybody's enemy but his own ; but his wife, who was very plain-spoken, had not always endorsed that senti ment. She had occasionally even expressed a contrary one, a circumstance which had perhaps had its influence in keeping them apart. Pennicuick, who was an idle man, had always kept up his acquaintance with Conway- — indeed, Mrs. Conway had been a second mother to his boy at a time when he sorely needed maternal solici tude — and having exhausted the pleasures of Town, and even of Europe, he had come out to China for a few months in search of his friend and new excitements.

Hong Kong and Shanghae had soon been exhausted in their turn, and hence this expedition into the interior, the expenses of which were solely defrayed out of his own pocket ; Conway had had nothing to procure but leave of absence from his regiment, which was stationed at the latter city. The position of being ' franked ' by another man is always a delicate if not an absolutely disagreeable one, unless that man is indeed one's friend ; his merely calling himself so having little to do with the matter : and perhaps in the present case that complete though tacit understanding — the total absence of the general principle of ' give and take ' — which underlies all genuine friendship was wanting. On the other hand, the sense of obligation on Conway's part was greatly lessened by the fact that Pennicuick could have got no one else to accompany him on such a tour, or, even if he could, would probably not have accepted such companionship.

There was just enough consciousness of dependence to cause the poorer man to assert himself (which under ordinary circumstances he never did), and to offer an opinion, and stick to it, which he would have been otherwise too indolent to express. Pennicuick, who perceived everything that had the smallest reference to himself, understood this thoroughly, and to do him justice liked the other's society all the better for it. He was just now enjoying it particularly, as he leant back in the centre compartment of the boat, with a very large cigar in his mouth, or in his fingers, according to whether he was the listener or the spokesman. In the prow were the few Chinese soldiers who formed their guard, commanded by Fu-chow their captain ; in the stern were the Chinese boatmen, who worked the vessel in the usual fashion by sculls upon a pivot, and from which labour they never ceased.

Except for the movement of the oars, and an occasional snore from the pigtailed warriors who were all asleep, there was no sound to interrupt the talk of the two friends. ' They have been at it now for two whole days and nights,' said Conway, ' and are going on, as fresh as ever. It is perfectly mar vellous.' ' That men should snore so,' put in Pennicuick gravely : ' I quite agree with you.' ' I mean that men should row so. I saw them at dinner-time eating rice with their chopsticks, which even now I find an almost impossible feat, and still rowing.' ' They go deuced slow,' observed the other, in a tone of depreciation. ' Nevertheless, they will make a boat go farther in twenty-four hours than our best English watermen.' ' Possibly : mules and camels will go farther than the horse, and yet the horse is the superior animal.

The Chinaman is a brute inferior to all the three.' ' That is not the opinion of those who are best acquainted with him.' ' You mean that is not the opinion they express, my dear fellow. Men always praise the people they are compelled to have to do with, to excuse their own necessity. A step farther, and we find them cracking up the country they belong to, no matter how absurd may be the boast. You don't suppose any Scotchman, for example, who sings " Scots wha hae," and all the rest of it, would be a Scotchman if he could help it ? ' ' Upon my life, I think some of them would,' said Conway, smiling ; for it was well known that Pennicuick was himself of Scotch descent. ' No, no ; there are no mad Scotchmen. Now these Chinese are all mad ; and their madness takes the most contemptible form, that of imbecility.

They are like men in their second childhood, when they are like men at all. You will tell me they invented gunpowder — though I believe it was nothing but gunpowder tea — but what use do they make of it, except to fill crackers wherewith to please their gods ? you will also tell me they invented printing, which however nobody, including themselves, has yet been able to read. What has come of all this early in genuity ? They are like precocious children with immense heads, from which sanguine persons augur intelligence, but which turns out to be water on the brain. It is astonishing to me that a man of your intelligence does not see through the shallow motives which induce folks to preach up barbarism all over the world. A man goes to St. Petersburg, and because he finds the nobles and the military talking French — which is a positive necessity of the case — avers that it is a second Paris.' ' You think that Paris, then, is the focus of civilisation, do you ? ' answered Conway, who was busy pencilling in his sketch book a tall bridge, in a mulberry plantation, through which they were about to slide. ' Certainly not: the man who says that'is only not quite such a fool as the other.

The civilisation of Paris is but skin-deep. It is, I grant, the Paradise of the Cheap Tripper; but its very luxuries and pleasures — which are its real attractions — can all be procured in London by one who knows where to look, and can afford to pay for them. Even in vice, of which it flatters itself it has the monopoly, it is by no means without rivals.' ' You speak with authority, no doubt,' said Conway drily. ' Of course ; experto crede. I was about to say that your Chinese, for example, run the Parisians very close in this respect; — in the drawing of iniquity with a cart-rope ; which I remark is tacitly taken, if not absolutely instanced by observers, as a proof of their civilisation.' ' They are certainly most abominably vicious, and, what is worse, inordinately cruel,' assented Conway. ' The two things are not so far apart as is supposed,' observed Pennicuick with the air of a philosopher. ' Do you remember the prison where we saw the Englishman convicted of half-a-dozen brutal murders, and yet pitied him ? ' ' Can I ever forget it ? ' answered Conway with a quick shudder. ' Do you remember the prisoners clenched together by a nail through their hands, because there happened to be a deficiency of handcuffs ; and the wretch that was starved to death in the cangue, with his fellow-countrymen keeping guard over him and enjoying it : how even the best off among them clamoured to us like wild beasts, to give them food ? ' ' Pray desist, Pennicuick,' cried the other, with a movement of disgust. ' Why do you dwell upon such hideous things ? ' ' Because I hate cant, and more especially in the mouth of an honest man.

If these wretches ' — he jerked his left hand to the prow, and then to the stern — ' are to be called human, so much the worse for humanity.' ' Gaolers and prisoners do not make a nation, Pennicuick. Yonder boatmen are good fellows enough, I dare say, and for that matter the soldiers too : they work for their families, love their wives and children, and though, as you say, like babies, they cry when you strike them, are not all cowards. I think Fu-chow yonder, for example, behaved very pluckily — and you must allow me to add very properly— when you chucked his daughter under the chin yesterday.' ' How the deuce was I to know it was his daughter ? ' enquired the other sullenly. ' I don't think that is quite the point ; and though, since you say so, I am bound to believe you meant no offence, the man was bound to resent it.' ' Still, but for you, it would have been unlucky for the man,' answered Pennicuick grimly ; ' for I should certainly have wiped him out.

There would have been three hundred and fifty millions of Celestials minus one by this time.' ' Then that would have been unlucky for you, my friend, for there would certainly have been two Englishmen minus one, or perhaps we should both have been wiped out. As it is, you have made the man your enemy, which under the circumstances — especially as he is a nephew of a Mandarin — is, to say the least of it, injudicious.' 'I didn't know he was the nephew of a Mandarin,' said Pennicuick? in a tone of mock penitence. ' I have a very great regard for the Mandarins. Since Humbug must be King, let us revere his High priest. I don't think anything ever tickled me so much as seeing that high functionary at Yang-chin " saving the sun " during the eclipse. His capers, and his incense ; his prostrations, and his knocking his hairless head upon the ground nine times, all to preserve the great source of light from being devoured by a monster, was a waste of energy which really bordered on the sublime.

The ceremony has moreover the immense advantage over the proceedings of nature that it is always completely successful. These " crocks " indeed never own themselves beaten. When they pray for fine weather, and it doesn't come, they put their gods out in the rain to see how they like it : whereas our archbishops and bishops, with a total absence of spirit, go on praying, till (very literally) " all's blue," and adopt no measure of retaliation whatever. I am afraid, however, I am shocking your prejudices. You are a believer in the popular superstition ? ' ' I am not a disbeliever in it,' answered Conway gravely. ' Is it possible ? Then even these " crocks " have the advantage over you. They have no apprehension that after their lives here are ended — with its prisons, and cangues, and tyranny of all kinds — they are doomed to eternal misery.

They have no fear of death whatever : any man who is condemned to die can for a five pound note — and another to " square " the Mandarin — get some one else to die for him. I have seen such a substitute kneel down, with a cigarette in his mouth, for the executioner to strike his head off.' ' I should be no more afraid to die than he, Pennicuick,' answered Conway slowly. ' Physically, of course not : you have given your proofs to the contrary, my good fellow. But psychologically you would imagine you ran a risk.' ' Perhaps : yet, on my word,' answered Conway, ' but for my wife and Nelly, I would almost chance it. They wouldn't miss my company, it's true,' added he bitterly ; ' but, you see, I can't afford to die just yet, for their sakes.' ' Come, come, Conway : you must not talk like that.

You are a young man still : younger than I. There are years of life before you yet : and where there's life there's hope ; the chances of pro motion, a stroke of luck at the races- ■' ' You said you hated cant, just now,' interrupted Conway. ' I entertain a similar dislike. Let us drop this subject.* 'By all means. And let us also drop asleep if we can. It must be nearly morning. Good night, old fellow.' ' Good night,' answered Conway gently. In a few minutes his companion had his wish : the moonlight glinted in upon his massive features, firmer and sterner than ever in their repose. But Conway slept not. He continued to gaze dreamily forth, on bridge and joss-house ; on the distant hills covered with juniper and pine ; on the plantations with their running streams, half natural, half artificial, that fringed the banks.

But though he saw them with his outward eyes he recked not of them. His thoughts were far away, and it was long before slumber visited him. Even then he did not sleep for long. His dreams "were weird and monstrous ; they pictured him, with his present companion, sailing up a river, but not in China : they were in Egypt on the Nile, where indeed he had once been. An immense crocodile had clambered into their boat, and opened its mouth to swaUow Pennicuick ; he would have struck at it to aid his friend, but the creature turned and spoke : ' Beware, rash man ; I am the sacred Dragon of China ; ' and the next instant his jaws had closed upon his victim with a horrid clash. The noise awoke him with a start : it was broad daylight ; his companion was sleeping tranquilly upon the opposite bench, unconscious as it seemed even of dreams; but another face was in the little cabin, projected over the bunk that divided it from the forepart of the vessel, and peering between the curtains above it : a ruddy, hairless face, with twinkling eyes that ordinarily expressed good humour, but which now, fierce and glittering, fixed themselves on Pennicuick's face with a look of fiendish malice.

Presently a hand was thrust noiselessly through the curtains, and touched a bruise upon the ruddy face ; it was but a momentary action, but the pantomime was perfect : what it said was, ' White devil, you shall suffer for this ! ' So menacing was the expression indeed that, fearing an immediate onslaught on his friend, Conway leapt to his feet. In that instant the face had withdrawn like a flash of lightning. When Conway in his turn looked into the next compartment, the half-dozen soldiers who were his servants were all sunk in slumber, while to all appearance Fu-chow, their captain, was as fast asleep as the rest. So perfect indeed was the simulation of repose — if simulation it was- — that Conway doubted whether his senses had not deceived him ; whether the alligator of the Nile and the menacing face of Fu-chow had not been part and parcel of the same vision.

But if so, it was curious that he should have seen the man point to his cheek, where the effects of the blow by which Pennicuick had felled him on the previous day were still plainly visible. Upon the whole, Conway judged it best to make no stir about the matter.

Chapter II

A BREEZE IN THE BOAT. The morning was a superb one even for spring-time in China, which, unlike that of India, (which has been well described as a hot winter,) or the same cheerless season in England, is like the spring of the Poets. Moreover, it is not a liar pretending to be the herald of summer, and suddenly throwing off the mask in a snow-storm. It is bright and fresh and genial ; the air, though cool, being singularly soft ; while the green of the foliage and herbage is be yond measure beautiful. The flower-beds also, from being, as botanists tell us, very prominently developed in autumn, burst into bloom at the first dawn of spring, so that the jessamine (which grows in great abundance in the district of which we speak) puts forth its yellow even above the snow. No snow, however, save upon the distant hill-tops, was visible to Conway's eyes that morning ; the whole earth blushed like a garden, and made the air one per fume.

Lilacs and pink Judas-trees grew luxuriantly upon the banks ; and out-of-doors, in front of the gay little country houses, were rows of striped camellias. Most beautiful of all, perhaps, were the trees like almond-trees, but bearing gorgeous double blossoms as large as roses, which covered the country as plenteously as May hawthorn in England — and would in time become peaches. Although, as we have said, there was no snow in the valleys, immense banks of azaleas supplied its place to the ravished eye, while, lest this prodigal show of blossom should still fail to give an idea of nature's wealth, the exquisite wild rose hung in festoons, as though it were some gala day, from every tree. In Arthur Conway the eye was still alive to natural beauties, but the soul, which had once also been alive to them, was dead.

For however matters may be with us in another world, in this one the soul is, alas ! with most of us, the first of our attributes to die. As we grow old, its sensations become more and more difficult to excite, and if trouble or disap pointment have laid heavy hands upon us, this happens early — sometimes ere middle age. What are sights and smells, nay, all the treasures of nature, to one whose mind is occupied with regrets for the past, or with anxieties for the future ? There was even a sort of sadness for the present spectator in all this splendour, because he felt the loss of that which would have made it glorious. As for Pennicuick, it was certainly not worth while to awaken him, to look at trees and flowers, which after all would be seen later in the day when he had had his sleep out.

But presently the silent highway upon which they were journeying became alive with boats of all shapes and sizes, full of people, wrhile the paved walks upon each side - — or towing-path as it would be called in England, where horses are the only beasts of burden — grew almost as populous as the banks of Thames during the University Race. Then Conway awoke that student of humanity Ralph Pennicuick. ' Good Heavens, what a lot of crocks ! ' was his ejaculation ere he plunged his head and face into the canal — the only means of ablution that offered itself. ' What is it all about, Connie ? ' ' They are pilgrims bound for the shrine up yonder,' explained Conway, pointing to a mountain in the foreground, up which a winding road led to a native temple. ' They are deuced pretty pilgrims, some of them,' observed Pennicuick, scanning approvingly the female occupants of the boats, which their superior speed (for they had several rowers) caused them to overtake one by one.