以下是本章内容的纲要，以表格形式呈现：

这个表格总结了第二章的主要内容，涵盖了章节中的重要事件和主题，帮助理解本章的整体结构和重点。

II. HOW THE COURT CAME BACK TO PEKING

April 15th.

II. 朝廷如何返回北京

四月十五日

TO arrive in Peking, and hear that the Imperial Court was just removing to the Southern Park, and would detrain at Ma-chio-pu, a station about five miles from Peking, involved, of course, an instant resolution to go there and see the pomp and ceremony. We had travelled almost breathless right across China; in eight days and a half from Chentu to Chungking, a land journey generally done in eleven days, then from Chungking to Ichang in a small boat, rowing day and night, thus getting through the Yangtse Gorges in six days, while it took a party of Europeans comfortably established in the usual sort of boat at the same time fourteen days to accomplish this; then on in a steamer for three days to Hankow, and in another larger steamer from Hankow to Shanghai again another three days; with another week of journey from Shanghai to Peking, including a day at Tsingtao, the new German settlement, and a night at Tientsin. Thence a three hours' railway journey brought us to Peking, and there next day we stepped into rickshas, and proceeded out through the dust to meet the Imperial Court. Even on the way out it was quite a sight to see those who were doing likewise, officials and officials' attendants on inelegant but sturdy Tientsin ponies, and yet more interesting Imperial yellow porcelain in baskets dangling from men's shoulder poles.

The station, when we at last arrived there, was all canopied with Imperial yellow silk save in the centre, where chequers were formed with this and red and black silks; the platform was spread with red cloth; there were some very smart inclined planes with railings, evidently intended to help in the descent out of the train. On one side stood a fine yellow silk tent, where the Emperor had waited for his aunt by adoption on the journey to the Tombs, and on the other side of the station quite an encampment of tents for the various Government Boards—that of the Censors small and plain but central, that of the Board of Foreign Affairs picturesque with its blue and blackness, and roomy. Behind them and on either side more and more tents, all those to the left blue, edged with black, those to the right of but one colour; behind them and gleaming in between them a long procession of gaudy-coloured umbrellas, such as are presented to an official on his giving up office, and a still longer line of Yuan Shih-kai's Shantung soldiery, each carrying a tricoloured banner furled. Dignitary after dignitary arrived, descended from his cart, and saluted in the official style, slipping the right hand down the leg to below the knee, which is at the same time bowed. All were in heavy silks embroidered, with high official boots to the knee, large necklaces falling to the waist, and conical caps covered with red tasselling; each wearing on his breast an embroidered plaque of bird or beast, according as to whether he were a civil or military official. We stood among quite a large company of blue-button Mandarins before the Imperial train was announced. It arrived with all the platforms overcrowded, as if the carriages were bursting with the retinue; baggage trains had been coming all the morning, two trains of luggage had arrived just beforehand. The state carriage drew up exactly in front of where we were standing. Some one got out from it; it was said to be the Viceroy, Yuan Shih-kai. Then Li Lien-ying, the Empress's favourite, to whom every Chinese official wishing for an audience has to pay a sum fully proportionate to his revenue, looked out. He was obliging enough, indeed, to stand for some time at the head of the little flight of steps, looking down; the cares of office had marked tiny lines upon his face, pre-eminently a careful face, that of one with a wonderful capacity for mastering details, but it was decidedly not a bad face, neither vicious, nor brutal, nor cruel, but rather that of a man whom you could not easily stop in the performance of his duty, to whose heart you would never dream of appealing, who would plan and contrive and scheme and succeed whilst most appearing to give way. One wonders what would have happened if he and Tse-hsi had ever met in opposition! But both must intuitively have felt that they together were a match for the world, and so joined forces.

到達北京时，我们得知皇室正搬迁至南苑，并将在距离北京约五英里的马家堡车站下车。得知这一消息后，我立即决定前往观看那盛大的仪式。

我们几乎是急速穿越中国而来的，从成都到重庆，我们用了八天半完成了通常需要十一天的陆路旅程；然后从重庆到宜昌，我们乘坐一艘小船，日夜不停地划行，仅用六天就穿越了长江三峡，而同期一群安顿在通常类型的船上的欧洲人则花了十四天才完成这段旅程。接着，我们又乘坐蒸汽船用了三天时间到达汉口，再换乘一艘更大的蒸汽船从汉口到上海，再次用了三天。然后又用了一周时间从上海前往北京，其中包括在青岛（新建的德国殖民地）停留一天，在天津过夜。之后，我们乘坐了三小时的火车抵达北京，第二天我们便登上了黄包车，穿过尘土，前去迎接皇室的到来。即便是在路上，也是一番景象，看到那些官员们以及他们的随从骑着笨拙但结实的天津小马，还有那些更为有趣的悬挂在男人们肩杆上、篮子里的皇家黄色瓷器。

当我们最终抵达车站时，发现整个车站都被皇家黄色的丝绸遮盖，除了中央的区域，那里用红色和黑色的丝绸形成了方格图案；站台上铺着红色的地毯，有几处非常别致的带有扶手的斜坡，显然是为了帮助人们从火车上下来。车站一侧矗立着一顶精致的黄色丝绸帐篷，皇帝曾在这里等待过他领养的姑母前往陵寝；车站另一侧则是各个政府部门的帐篷营地——其中，御史台的帐篷虽然小且简朴，但却位于中央，而外交部的帐篷则因为其蓝黑相间的颜色显得格外美观而宽敞。帐篷后方和两侧分布着越来越多的帐篷，左边的帐篷为蓝色，镶有黑边；右边的帐篷则仅有一种颜色。在它们之间闪耀着一长排华丽多彩的伞，那是官员卸任时获赠的礼物，而袁世凯的山东士兵则举着长长的三色旗。

一位位显贵到达，走下马车，并以正式的方式行礼，将右手滑到膝盖以下，同时微微鞠躬。他们都穿着厚重的刺绣丝绸，脚穿官靴，脖子上戴着长长的项链，头戴饰有红色流苏的圆锥形帽子，胸前佩戴着绣有鸟兽图案的徽章，以表明他们是文官还是武官。我们站在一大群蓝顶的文官中，等待皇家列车的到来。当皇家列车终于宣布抵达时，所有站台都挤满了人，好像车厢都要爆满了似的；行李车队从早晨开始陆续到来，直到列车到来前不久还有两列行李车抵达。御用马车准确地停在我们站立的位置前。一位显贵走了出来，据说他是总督袁世凯。随后，慈禧太后的宠臣李莲英出现了，每位希望觐见的中国官员都必须按其收入支付相应的费用才得以觐见，而他此刻则看着四周。他看上去相当平易近人，甚至在台阶顶端站了好一会儿，向下望去；公事的重担在他脸上刻下了细小的纹路，那是一张细心谨慎的脸，展现出卓越的细节掌控能力，但绝不是一张恶毒、残忍或冷酷的脸，倒更像是一个人在履行职责时无法轻易停止的人，你永远不会梦想去打动他内心，他会精心策划并成功，而表面上却似乎是顺从的。人们不禁想象，如果他和慈禧曾在对立面相遇，会发生什么！但他们两人肯定本能地感到他们合力足以应对全世界，于是联手合作。**

When Li Lien-ying came down there was a ripple in the crowd, and we became aware of a bright-looking, slight young man stepping buoyantly out of the carriage, with the happy smile of so many an English young man as he comes to his journey's end. "Who can that bright, happy-looking boy be?" was all but on my lips, when an English engineer behind me spoke out loud, although cautioned beforehand not to do so, and at the same time a Chinese official in front of me turned, and tugged violently at my sleeve, as if I were the culprit. For it was the Emperor of China himself, who, before one had time to realise it was he, had got swiftly into the vast golden-yellow sedan chair waiting for him and been silently carried away, only his curiously projecting chin noticeable in profile as he sat, still looking back at the train he had left. A deep hush always falls upon the crowd in China whenever a Mandarin stirs abroad; how much more when the Son of Heaven moves! and a few years ago surely that foreign engineer would have been beheaded for his outspokenness. But this year no one even knelt, whereas of old it was on both knees and with faces earthward-bent that Chinese subjects would have received their Emperor.

Tse-hsi, Empress Dowager, was the next to appear, standing for some time on the railway platform, with very voyant embroideries, an eunuch supporting her under either arm. On this occasion she certainly looked her age, sixty-eight, with very broad face and many double chins. Her eyes, the longest probably ever seen, remained cast down, and though there was a great appearance of graciousness, the smile, whose coldness is said to chill even foreign Ministers, was absent. Yet, as she stood still and silent with her eyes cast down, one felt the magnetic power of the woman. There was no appearance of powder or paint about her, no indication of either eyes or eyebrows being artificially lengthened. If done at all, it must have been well done. But the thing that was most striking about her was her stillness. Her attendants seemed trying to bring her down upon the platform. Tse-hsi did not want to come down, and she stood still. She stood still again upon the railway platform, absolutely immovable, till at last, breathless and hatless, a railway official rushed up from somewhere or other and bowed low before her. Then, satisfied, she at once got into her sedan chair, only less vast than that of the Emperor, and was very quickly carried away. But I felt a pricking in my thumbs for long afterwards.

当李莲英走下车时，人群中出现了一阵骚动，我们注意到一位神采奕奕、身形纤细的年轻男子轻快地从车厢中步出，脸上带着像许多英国年轻人在旅程结束时那种幸福的微笑。“那位神采奕奕的少年是谁？”这句话几乎到了我的嘴边，这时我身后的英国工程师大声说了出来，虽然他事先被告诫不要这样做；与此同时，我前面的一位中国官员转过身来，用力拉扯我的袖子，好像我是那个说话的人。原来是中国的皇帝本人，他在我们还来不及意识到他就是皇帝时，已经迅速进入等候他的巨大金黄色轿子里，并被悄无声息地抬走了。只有他那在侧面显得特别突出的下巴在他坐着时依然明显可见，他的目光仍然注视着他刚刚离开的火车。在中国，每当一位官员出行时，人群总是陷入深深的沉默；更何况当天子出行时！而就在几年前，那位外国工程师可能因为他的直言不讳而被斩首。然而，今年却没有人下跪，尽管过去中国的臣民在迎接皇帝时，都是双膝跪地，脸朝下。

接着出现的是慈禧太后，她在月台上站了一会儿，穿着非常醒目的刺绣长袍，由两边的太监搀扶着。这次她确实显得年老，六十八岁，面容宽大，下巴上有多层赘肉。她的眼睛，可能是我们见过最长的，始终低垂着，虽然她表现得很亲切，但那据说能让外国大臣们感到寒意的微笑却不见了。尽管如此，当她静立不动、目光下垂时，你能感受到这个女人的磁性力量。她脸上没有粉黛，也没有明显的眼线或眉毛被人工延长的迹象。如果有这些，那一定是做得非常精致。但她身上最引人注目的却是她的静止不动。她的随从似乎在试图将她扶下月台，但慈禧不愿意下来，她就那样静静地站着。她再次静立在月台上，绝对不动，直到最后，一名气喘吁吁、满头大汗的铁路官员不知从哪里赶来，深深地向她鞠躬。然后，慈禧似乎满意了，随即登上了她的轿子，这次轿子比皇帝的稍小些，并被迅速抬走了。但我感觉我的拇指还在之后很长时间里刺痛不已。

Just as the Empress regnant but not ruling appeared at the carriage door the train began to back away, and I saw nothing but her eyes and brow, above which the locks were wide dispread. So far it seemed a good face. But it was impossible to discern whether the will-power was there, so visible in the Empress Dowager's pleasantly flattering face, with falsity written large over every line of the apparently good-humoured surface. The Dowager is of the type so well known in every land where society exists. Were she an English mother she would, one feels at once, marry all her daughters to eldest sons, irrespective of whether they were lunatics or confirmed disposmaniacs. She would smile and say pleasant things, as she pressed forward over her enemy's dead body, without even a thrill of pleasure in the doing so; it would be so absolutely indifferent to her how she got there provided that she got to the front. People who have seen her eyes raised talk of their marvellous quickness, people who have seen her smile talk of the smile's coldness, ladies who have conversed with her speak of the furious anger of her expression, as she reprimands an attendant, succeeded instantaneously by the utmost urbanity as she addresses a guest. An English man of business, who saw her at the station, said afterwards: "Well, I have quite changed my mind. I always thought as likely as not the Empress had nothing to do with all those Boxer troubles, but that woman never was imposed upon or put upon. I know now she did it all."