Flashman Papers 3-Book Collection 4: Flashman and the Dragon, Flashman on the March, Flashman and the Tiger. George Fraser MacDonald
August he’d have no choice but to submit to Taiping occupation – although whether we’d accept that quite as tamely as Jen-kan supposed, I was by no means sure. One thing was plain: there wasn’t a ghost of a chance of my escaping to warn Bruce ahead of the fair – not that I had the least inclination, you understand, I knew when I was well off, and would be well content to wallow for a few weeks in the luxuries of the revolution.
Of these there was no shortage at the pavilion to which Lee conducted me after Jen-kan had gone, jovial to the last. It was another bijou palace surrounded by dwarf gardens, and belonged to Lee’s brother – a genial nonentity who was learning to write, I remember, labouring away at scrolls with a tutor. The apartments I was given were in exquisite taste; I recall the pink jade writing set and inkwell, the sprig of coral mounted on a silver block with gold pencils thrust through the branches, the tiny crystal paperweights on the gleaming walnut desk. The fact that I remember such things is proof that I was feeling pretty easy at the prospect of my captivity; I should have known better.
Lee hadn’t said a word beyond courtesies after our meeting with Jen-kan, but I sensed an unease in him, and wondered why. It was fairly plain that he disliked the Prime Minister jealously, and I’d no doubt that behind the scenes some very pretty clawing went on among the Wangs, in which I might conceivably be a useful pawn. There was no plumbing that, and since Taiping interest seemed to require my health and happiness, I didn’t care much. But I could see Lee was anxious, and when he took leave of me that night he finally came out with it.
“In our discussion with his excellency, I sensed – correct me if I am mistaken – that you are not wholly convinced of our ultimate success.” We were alone on the verandah, in the warm evening shadows, and as he turned those cold eyes on me I felt a prickle of disquiet. “I do not ask for a political judgment, you understand, but for a military opinion. You have seen the Imps; you have seen us. Do you believe we shall win?”
There was only one politic answer, and since it was what I believed, pretty much, I spoke straight out.
“Barring accidents, you’re bound to. I’d not wager on the Imps, that’s certain.”
He considered this. “But you do not say that victory is assured, beyond all doubt?”
“It never is. But any soldier can see when the odds are in his favour.”
“I can see more.” The yellow-robed figure seemed to grow more erect, and his voice was hard. “I know we shall win.”
“Well, then, it doesn’t matter what I think.”
“But it does,” says he, mighty sharp. “It matters what you tell Mr Bruce.”
So that was the pinch. “I’ll tell Mr Bruce what I’ve just told you,” I assured him. “I believe he’ll have every confidence in your success.” I nearly added “provided you leave Shanghai alone, and don’t provoke the foreign devils”, but decided not to.
“Confidence,” says he slowly, “is not faith. I could wish you had … absolute faith.”
He was a fanatic, of course. “You can put more trust in my confidence,” says I lightly. “Faith ain’t a matter of counting guns and divisions.”
He gave me another keen look, but left it there, and I’d forgotten all about it by the time I turned in. I was pleased to see that Taiping luxury didn’t stop short of the bedroom door; they’d given me a cool, spacious chamber with screens onto the garden, and a great soft bed with red silk mattress and pillows – all that was lacking was the Bearer of Heavenly Decrees. I wondered dreamily as I dropped off if Lee’s brother, being a lesser Wang, would care to rent out one of the new wives he’d just been awarded … or all three, and I could give him confidential reports on endurance, ingenuity, and carnal appetite. Flashy, riding examiner … Gold Medal, Nanking Exhibition, 1860 … a pretty thought, on which I slid into a delightful dream in which the Bearer of Heavenly Decrees appeared as identical triplets who came gliding into the room in green silk dresses and steel-chain collars, bearing scrolls on golden trays, ranging themselves beside my bed and smiling alluringly down at me. I was just debating whether to tackle ’em one at a time, or all three together, when I realised that I couldn’t see their faces any longer, for they were all three wearing black hoods, which seemed deuced odd … and the green dresses were gone, too, under black cloaks …
I came awake an instant too late to scream. The black figures seemed to swoop down on me, steel fingers were on my mouth and wrists, a heavy cloth was whipped over my head, and I was dragged helpless from the bed by invisible hands.
a Cuckoo-City-in-the-Clouds (Aristophanes).
There’s no blind terror to compare with it – being hustled along, lurching and stumbling, by invisible attackers. You’re lost, blind, and half-suffocated, you can feel the cruelty in the clutching hands, horrible pain and dissolution await you, and the only thing worse is the moment when the blanket comes off – which mine did before my assailants had taken twenty strides.
There was a yell and a clash of steel, a buffeting shock as my captors staggered, and I was crashing to earth, dragging the blanket away, to find myself rolling in a flowerbed, with one of my kidnappers clawing at me in the dark. I shrieked as I caught the flash of steel in the half-light, and then the knife-point was beneath my chin, and I was shuddering still, whispering entreaties for my life.
It ain’t the best position to view a fatal mêlée that is going on a few yards away, with dark figures slashing and swearing in the shadows. I heard one horrid gurgle as a blade went home, caught the glittering arc of a curved sword swinging and the grating ring of the parry, but for the most part they fought in silence. Then the blanket was over my head again, and I was being rushed along, barking my shins and trying to yell for help, until they pulled up, a voice hissed: “Walk!” in Chinese, and I felt the prick of the point again, in my spine this time. I walked.
How far we went, I can’t guess, but it must have been a good quarter of a mile before I felt paved stones under my feet, and presently was aware of bright light outside the blanket, and the sound of hushed voices. I was hustled up a few steps, and then there was carpet under my bare soles. We stopped, the knife was removed, and the gripping hands were withdrawn. I didn’t stir, but stood shrouded and quaking for a good five minutes, when I was pushed forward again, over tiles and then on to another carpet. The blanket was whipped away, and I stood blinking in bright light. Facing me, breathing with an agitation to equal my own, although my bosom could never have heaved like hers, stood the Bearer of Heavenly Decrees.
Just for a moment I wondered if I was dreaming, but she was fully-clad, so it seemed unlikely. Deuced fetching, for all that, in a blue silk gown such as the Manchoo ladies wear, in which there are three or four skirts of varying lengths, with huge hanging sleeves, and her hair done up in high buns. She was one of your round-faced Chinese beauties, and none the worse for that, but my attention was distracted by the black-cowled figured at my elbow throwing back his hood, and I found myself gaping at General Lee Hsiu-chen.
“I apologise. It was necessary,” says he, and I wasted no time in babbled questions. He’d tell me what he wanted me to know. He was breathing hard, and I saw a trickle of blood on the back of his hand. He nodded to the girl, and she walked away to a curtained arch at the end of the short, carpeted passage in which we stood. She waited there, head averted, and Lee spoke rapidly, getting his breath back.
“You are to be granted audience of the Heavenly King. It is a highly unusual honour. Few foreigners have seen him for many years. He understands that you are from the London Missionary Society. Say nothing of how you came here. Listen to him.” He smiled, an odd, dreamy smile that sent chills up my back. “Yes. Listen to him. Do not be surprised if he talks all night. He does not tire as mortals do.”
He gestured me towards the archway, and as I approached,