They tore down and used as 'battering rams' the heavy posts of which the small enclosures in front of each Factory were constructed, yelling and shrieking like so many wild animals. We were rather anxious that some should force their way in, as we had distributed broken bottles in great quantities up and down the main entrance to our own Factory, No. 2 Suy-Hong, our enemy being a barefooted crowd, while against the other great casks of coal had been rolled; we were not gratified by seeing the efficacy of the first protection. The mandarins had brought an 'opium dealer' to the Square about noon, in order to strangle[47] him there. The Cross was already driven in the ground, and in a few minutes it would have been all over, when an unusual hubbub of something extraordinary being about to take place attracted the attention of some foreigners who were on the Square at the time. Instantly the news flew from Factory to Factory, when all we could muster, perhaps seventy to eighty, rushed out to stop the proceeding. I acted as spokesman on behalf of all present, and protested against the Square being turned into an execution ground. The Mandarin in charge said that the orders he had received must be carried out, that the Square was a portion of His Celestial Majesty's Empire. He was told that might be, but it was leased to us as a recreation ground, and that we _would not permit_ its desecration by a public execution! This was a bold thing to say. During this short interval the scene was a most extraordinary one. There was the cross, and close to it the victim with a chain about his neck, held by two gaolers, all looking on with a quiet curiosity. The servants of the mandarin were supplying him with constantly renewed pipes; his attendants, a few soldiers, and his chair-bearers, seemed more amused than anything else. There is no telling what might not have taken place had it not been for a boat's crew who happened to come from Whampoa that morning. They belonged to the old East India Company's ship 'Orwell,' Captain 'Tommy' Larkins, formerly of that Company's service, and a well-known and general favourite in the community. These sailors had been wandering about the Square, but gradually approached the spot and looked on. Seeing the drift things were taking, suddenly they seized the cross, smashed it in pieces, and began to lay them over the heads and shoulders of the executioners and any Chinamen within reach. The gaolers dragged the prisoner away. Jack tore down a tent that had been pitched for the mandarin, capsized the chairs, the table, with the teapot and cups, and would next have attacked the mandarin himself had we not interfered to protect him. We were much relieved when his Excellency and his aids were carried away and no harm done to them, and we found ourselves in possession of the ground. Then cried out one of the sailors to another, 'I say, Bill, we don't get such a lark as this every day!'