Maria often sat with the patients, praying with those who seemed frightened and telling Bible stories to the children. She also had another baby of her own to look after. Little Maria was the baby sister Grace had wanted for so long.
In late summer, the Taylor family took a much-needed break. Maria and the five children, Grace, Herbert, Howard, Samuel, and little Maria, stayed in the mountains outside the city while Hudson divided his time between there and the work in Hang-chow.
The children found new energy to climb and explore away from the heat of the city. They ran and swam all day long, wearing themselves out by nightfall. But one morning, about a week into their stay in the mountains, Grace did not want to get out of bed. Maria brought her food, but Grace was not hungry. As the day wore on, Maria became very concerned, so she sent for Hudson. By the time he arrived, Grace’s temperature was soaring. He examined her carefully. Then he quietly slipped out of the room and motioned for Maria to follow him. He walked silently down to the pond where the children liked to swim. Then he spoke to Maria in a halting voice. “There is no hope of Grace getting better. She has meningitis, and there is no cure.”
Someone stayed with Grace every minute, wiping her brow, singing to her, and praying for her. Five days later, while Hudson and Maria and many of those who had been with them on the Lammermuir gathered around her bed and sang hymns, Grace died peacefully.
Hudson missed her terribly; he cried for days. Everything he did and saw reminded him of Grace. He walked past the lake and saw the swans they liked to feed together. He looked out his surgery window and saw the little swing in the courtyard that she had asked him to make for her. It now hung still.
But the work in Hang-chow went on. And while there was sorrow, there was also joy. William Rudland and Mary Bell were married. Wang Lae-djun, who had accompanied Hudson and Maria to England seven years before, joined them. “Pastor” Wang, as he was now called, started a small church. Soon it had fifty baptized believers. The church was active in reaching out to the rest of the community with the Gospel message. Four other mission stations were also opened in nearby cities, and the China Inland Mission was beginning to grow as new missionaries arrived from England.
There were still so many other challenges in China, though, and Hudson was getting restless. He had been in Hang-chow for nearly two years, and it was time for him to move farther inland. Jennie Faulding and the McCarthys, who had joined the team in Hang-chow from England, agreed to stay and support Wang Lae-djun while the rest of the group packed their belongings once again. In June 1868, they boarded a houseboat headed for Yang-chow, two hundred miles farther inland.
They sailed up the Grand Canal, crossed the Yangtze River, and then sailed another twelve miles up the canal until they arrived in Yang-chow, the city Marco Polo had been governor of in the thirteenth century. Like Tung-chow, which Hudson had visited thirteen years before with John Burdon, Yang-chow was know for the unruly behavior of its inhabitants. Aware of this, the members of the China Inland Mission stayed quietly on their houseboat until late July, when they moved into a large house Hudson had rented.
The house was close to several other houses and had a number of outbuildings for team members to live in. Hudson hired some carpenters, who spent several weeks working to repair and improve the house so that the team would be able to make better use of it for their ministry.
Few foreigners had ventured into Yang-chow, and so the team were very cautious as they made contact with the local inhabitants. A number of the educated people in the city were not happy to see the foreign missionaries. They believed that the foreigners would undermine their Confucianist beliefs. So they began spreading rumors about the group, saying they ate babies and gouged out the eyes of dying people. The locals believed what they heard and what they read on the posters that appeared around the city, listing all the disgusting practices the foreigners engaged in. People began to gather outside the China Inland Mission house and chant and jeer at those inside. At first there had been a hundred protesters, but each night there were more. Finally, on Saturday night, August 22, 1868, there were nearly ten thousand protesters gathered outside the house.
The chanting of the mob filled the house. “The foreign devils have eaten twenty-four children. The foreign devils have eaten twenty-four children,” the mob screamed. Rocks and mud balls exploded against the courtyard walls, and angry people pushed at the gate, which was chained shut.
“There must be at least eight thousand of them,” Hudson said to Maria. “And every one of them thinks we want to eat their children. No wonder they’re angry.”
Maria nodded. Herbert, Howard, Samuel, and little Maria were huddled around their mother, who was holding her newest baby, Charles.
The missionaries quickly began barricading themselves in the house. They nailed the shutters closed and piled tables and other furniture in front of the door. Hudson then gathered them all together. In addition to Maria and himself and their five children, there were three men and five women from the China Inland Mission as well as nineteen Chinese Christians in the house. “The crowd is very angry. I don’t think they’ll stop until they have revenge,” said Hudson.
William Rudland and Henry Reid nodded. Some of the earlier crowds had been ugly, but nothing like this.
“Our best hope,” Hudson went on, “is to get to the mandarin quickly and ask him for help. He is the only one who can stop this.”
“I’ll go,” volunteered George Duncan.
“Me too,” added William Rudland.
“No,” said Hudson. “The mandarin knows me. He knows I am the leader of the mission. I must go. George will come with me. William, you stay here and help Henry to protect the others.”
Hudson kissed Maria and the children goodbye and, with George Duncan, slipped out into the courtyard and disappeared through a neighbor’s house.
They walked quickly once they reached the street that backed onto their house. If they kept their heads down and did not run, maybe they wouldn’t be recognized. But some of the mob caught sight of them, even in their Chinese dress and queues, as they rounded a corner. As the mob began to call after them, Hudson and George Duncan looked at each other, then began to run for their lives.
Fortunately it was getting dark, and Hudson knew a shortcut through some fields. After a while, the men looked behind them. No one was following.
They ran on, knowing that the crowd would guess they were headed for the mandarin’s house. If the crowd got to his gate first, they would have no hope of getting in to see him.
They rounded a corner and there was the gate to the mandarin’s house about thirty feet in front of them. But racing from the other direction was the mob, knives drawn and yelling at the top of their voices. It was too late for Hudson and George Duncan to turn back. They had to get to the gate first. Faster and faster they ran, getting closer to the gate and to the mob. As the mob was about to grab them, they pushed the gate open and fell into the mandarin’s courtyard. But they had to act quickly. The mandarin had to know they were in his courtyard and under his protection.
“Save life! Save life!” Hudson yelled at the top of his voice, as he regained his balance and rushed towards the house.
“Save life” were the only two words a mandarin had to respond to, and quickly the mandarin’s secretary came running out to see what the commotion was. The mob drew back when they saw him. They had lost the opportunity to get their hands on the foreign devils, who were under the mandarin’s protection now.
The secretary invited the two men inside and asked them to wait. The China Inland Mission house was a mile away, and as they waited, Hudson and George Duncan could hear the thousands of people yelling and chanting outside the house. It was impossible to imagine what might be happening to those inside. They prayed as hard as they could while they waited for the mandarin.
Back at the house, the women and children had been sent upstairs while the men stayed below to keep the barricades in place as long as they could. There was a rhythmic slamming against the front door until finally a hammer smashed through it and the table that was propped against it. The men looked around desperately for something to reinforce the barricade with, but there was nothing.
The barricades would be completely down in a few more seconds, and William Rudland ran for the stairs. He had to warn the women, even though there was no way out from the second floor. Henry Reid fled into the garden.
About this time, the mandarin finally agreed to see Hudson and George Duncan. After greeting each other, Hudson, fluent in the Mandarin dialect, explained that their house was under siege and that many foreign lives were in danger.
The mandarin nodded and frowned. “I wonder why?” he asked.
“Because all sorts of false rumors have been spread over Yang-chow. This morning a new poster said we ate babies,” replied Hudson.
“And what do you really do with the babies you capture? Where are they now? Are you going to take any more?” asked the mandarin politely.
Hudson was shocked by his questions. Did the mandarin believe the lies as well? Hudson tried to stay calm. “We have come here to help the babies, not to hurt them. I’m sure you will not find one baby missing in the whole of Yang-chow. But it would be a pity to find that out after we are all dead.”
“Yes,” agreed the mandarin. “But why would the crowds be rioting if there were no reason to do so?”
Hudson bit his lip in frustration. “They have been told some incorrect things. May I suggest that first you quiet the crowd and then continue the questions.” Hudson spoke as earnestly and as forthrightly as he could.
“Yes. Yes. That is a good solution to the problem. You stay here out of sight, and I will see what can be done,” said the mandarin as he left the room.
Once again Hudson and George Duncan were left alone to wait. They could still hear the shouting and banging in the background.
They prayed and waited, and prayed some more. An hour went by. They began to wonder if the mandarin might not be just drinking tea in the next room waiting for the crowd to kill everyone before coming back to tell them he’d got there too late.
Another hour went by. Now, the noise of the riot had finally died down. Hudson and George Duncan wondered why. More time passed. Finally the mandarin walked back into the room. “Everything is quiet now,” he said. “The city’s military governor and soldiers have been to your home. They have made some arrests, mainly of people looting your property. They will be punished. You may return home now. I will send an escort to see you safely there, and I will post guards at your gate tonight.”
Hudson’s heart sank. If people had been looting the house, that meant the barricades had given way. If the mob had managed to get inside, what had happened to Maria and the children and the other missionaries?
When they finally reached the house, Hudson could see smoke rising from it. The two men kicked their way through the wreckage. Books were ripped apart and scattered across the floor. One wall had been burned, and sacks of rice had been split open and dumped everywhere. The furniture was smashed, but there were no people or bodies in the house. A new convert who’d been in the house came running in.
“Come here, come here,” he said, gesturing for them to follow.
Hudson and George Duncan ran out after him. He led them through the courtyard and into a neighbor’s home. In an inner courtyard of the house they found everyone safe. Hudson cried with relief when he saw them.
They told him their tale of escape. When the barricades had been breached, William Rudland had run upstairs to warn the women, while Henry Reid had fled into the garden. The women and William Rudland were trapped upstairs. Their only escape was to jump fifteen feet down into the courtyard below. They threw down pillows and quilts to break their fall. As each person jumped, Henry Reid hid them in the well house at the back of the garden.
