force. The conflict with the British Empire came to a head in 1856, when Ye seized a Chinese-owned and Chinese-crewed pirate ship, the lorcha Arrow, which was claimed to be registered in Hong Kong and also claimed, notwithstanding witnesses to the contrary, to be flying a British flag at the time the vessel was stopped. Ye was in the midst of putting down the Red Turban Rebellion, and had executed tens of thousands of rebels, with some estimates reaching 1 million, and his concern with renegade shipping was understandable. Yet British Consul Harry Parkes rushed to rescue the crew and sent a note to Ye demanding compensation for the seizure (it later emerged that Parkes was perfectly aware that the ship's registration had expired). Parkes and Sir John Bowring were determined that this incident should provide the British and French with an excuse to declare war on China, starting the Second Opium War. In October, British warships opened fire on Guangzhou, taking aim at Ye's residence, but in December Ye still refused to give in to British and French demands for direct negotiations and compensation for foreign property which had been burned by mobs. In the meantime, Prime Minister Palmerston denounced Ye on the floor of Parliament as an "inhuman monster," and held him responsible for executing 70,000 Chinese. Richard Cobden, however, defended Ye, commending his "mild and conciliatory tone" even after the British bombarded his personal residence. The government was defeated. Events in Hong Kong proceeded quickly. In late December, Allied bombardments set Guangzhou aflame. Ye was in the midst of suppressing rebellion in Guangxi, did not dare to bring troops, and the city quickly fell. Harry Parkes hunted Ye through the streets of Guangzhou, and a British colleague reported that Parkes took special pleasure in humiliating Ye. "Ye was my game," said Parkes, and finally found what a report called "a very fat man contemplating the achievement of getting over the wall at the extreme rear of the yamun." In violation of diplomatic procedure, the British brought him as a prisoner of war to Fort William, Calcutta, in British India where he died a year later of sickness at Tolly Gunge just outside Calcutta. Ye's remains were later returned (13 May 1859) for interment in Guangzhou (Canton) towed by a ship chartered by the American government, the Hong Kong. Legacy The Cantonese community is said to have respected