Les derniers jours de Pékin

A first-person, day-by-day account of a naval expedition and the ensuing occupation of a Chinese capital after an anti-foreign uprising, blending travel narrative, military detail, and on-the-ground reportage. The narrator notes the sea voyage and life aboard large warships, the ceremonial joining of an international squadron, and the transition ashore into ruined streets and broken houses where makeshift enclosures, dead animals, and laboring locals mark daily reality. Interwoven impressions of climate and landscape accompany observations of fatigue, discipline, delicate encounters between outsiders and residents, and reflective responses to human suffering and the monotony of prolonged deployment.