THE DEGRADED PERSISTENCE OF MING-SHU
"We are convinced" (it ran) "of the justice of your cause. Let six of your lordly nobles appear unarmed before our ill-kept Lantern Gate at the middle gong-stroke of to-morrow and they will be freely admitted into this poverty-stricken hamlet and honourably conducted within our midst. Upon receiving a bound assurance safeguarding the limits of our temples, the persons and possessions of our chiefs, and the undepreciated condition of the first wives and virgin daughters of such as be of mandarin rank or literary degree, the inadequate keys of our broken-down defences will be laid at their sumptuous feet.
"With a fervent hand-clasp as of one brother to another, and a passionate assurance of mutual good-will,
"Ko'en Cheng,
"It is received," replied Ah-tang, when the message had been made known to him. "Six captains will attend."
Alas! it is well written, "There is often a space between the fish and the fish-plate." Mentally inflated at the success of their efforts and the impending surrender of Ti-foo, Tian's band suffered their energies to relax. In the dusk of that same evening one disguised in the skin of a goat browsed from bush to bush until he reached the town. There, throwing off all restraint, he declared his errand to Ko'en Cheng.
"Behold!" he exclaimed, "the period of your illustrious suffering is almost at an end. With an army capable in size and invincible in determination, the ever-victorious Wu Sien is marching to your
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